New volumes explore Orthodox Christianity in regional and global perspective

Recently published books offer a fresh perspective on Orthodox Christianity, focusing not only on institutional church history but also on lived religion, solidarity, and participation.

Baltic Orthodoxy: People, Places, Practices, edited by James M. White and Irina Paert, offers the first comprehensive English-language exploration of Orthodox Christianity in the Baltic region. Covering the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the volume traces Orthodoxy through empire, independence, war, repression, and revival. Moving beyond institutional history, it focuses on lived religion, microhistory, and grassroots practices among diverse communities, including converts, Old Believers, minorities, clergy, and women. The book highlights how Orthodoxy in the Baltic region has been continually reshaped by language, culture, politics, and geography.

As Simon Dixon (University College London) notes, the volume "opens a window for English-speaking readers onto the world of Baltic Orthodoxy that has for too long remained known only to specialists."

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Conciliarity in Modern Orthodox Christianity provides a groundbreaking analysis of conciliarity as a central principle of Orthodox ecclesiology from the nineteenth century to the present. Combining historical, theological, and sociopolitical perspectives, the volume examines key councils, including the 1917–18 Moscow Council and the 2016 Council of Crete, as well as contemporary challenges such as inter-Orthodox relations, lay participation, and the role of women. With case studies from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and diaspora communities, the Companion offers a truly global perspective on Orthodox conciliar practice.

Together, the two books reflect the broader aims of the research project "Orthodoxy as Solidarity: An Examination of Popular and Conciliar Orthodoxy in the Baltic Provinces and Independent Estonia, 1890s–1930s" (PRG 1599): to rethink Orthodoxy as a lived, relational, and historically dynamic phenomenon shaped by solidarity, participation, and local contexts.