In 2019, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center launched a five-year Orthodoxy and Human Rights research initiative, uniting scholars and journalists from around the world to develop a comprehensive understanding of Orthodoxy’s relationship to human rights across various geopolitical contexts.

With major support from the Henry Luce Foundation and additional support from Leadership 100, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center concluded this interdisciplinary research project in 2023.

The project engaged scholars from diverse disciplines, including theology, sociology, anthropology, and political science, each bringing expertise in different time periods, geographic regions, and Orthodox traditions. Notable scholars from Austria, Germany, Greece, Russia, Sweden, the US and UK were among the contributors, producing monographs and journal articles to address gaps in existing scholarship. Each participant conducted research from their respective disciplinary backgrounds and areas of specialization, exploring questions about Orthodoxy and human rights pertinent to their fields.

Journalists also played a crucial role in this initiative. Their work provided on-the-ground perspectives of the real-world implications of the academic findings. Renowned journalists contributed invaluable insights, enriching the project with their investigative reports and narratives.

Annual meetings facilitated a cross-fertilization of ideas among scholars, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of Orthodoxy’s relationship to human rights across different geopolitical contexts: its history, current state, and theological and practical possibilities for the future.

The available and forthcoming publications from this project offer an unprecedented inquiry into the potential for Orthodox compatibility with the doctrine of universal human rights.

1. Politics of (Un)Freedom: Freedom and Democracy in the Age of Instrumental Reason and Information Capitalism (Wipf & Stock, forthcoming 2026)

1. “On Aims, Means and Unintended Consequences: The Case of Molla Sali v. Greece.” Religions, 2021.
2. “Rights Not Working? Grassroots Level Impact of the European Court of Human Rights on Religion.” Social Compass 67.2 (2020).
3. “Religion and Human Rights in Greece,” in Global Eastern Orthodoxy. Politics, Religion and Human Rights, eds. Giuseppe Giordan and Siniša Zrinšak (Springer, 2020).
4. “Messages from the European Court of Human Rights on Tolerance, Secularization and Pluralism,” in Secularization, Desecularization, and Toleration: Towards a Cross-disciplinary Reassessment, eds. Vyacheslav Karpov and Manfred Svensson (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
5. “Nationalism in the Judicialization and Culturalization of Religion: The Case of Religious Education in Greece.” Religions 15.8 (2024).
6. “The Legal Status of Religious Minorities: Exploring the Impact of the European Court of Human Rights,” in Reactions to the Law by Religious Minorities, eds. Eileen Barker and James Richardson (Routledge, 2021).
7. “Stuck in the Middle with Papageoriou: Dashed Hopes and Missed Opportunities” at Strasbourg Observers (2019).

1. “Human Rights: A Sophiological Reenvisioning,” Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 76.3-4 (2025).

1. “Humanism and Its Critics,” in The Oxford Handbook of Humanism, ed. Anthony Pinn (Oxford University Press, 2021).
2. I sloboda i pripadanje: Eseji o religiji, nacionalizmu, i solidarnosti (Both Freedom and Belonging: Essays on Religion, Nationalism, and Solidarity) (TIM Press, 2024).

1. Orthodoxy and Modernity: Introducing a Constructive Encounter (Brill, 2025).

1. “Of Atoms, Fermions and Bosons: Or, What Is Wrong in the History or Rights?” (forthcoming)
2. “Introducing Human Rights in the Theology Faculty in Athens,” at Public Orthodoxy (March 2024).
3. “An Eastern Orthodox Approach to Religious Freedom,” in Legal Thought and Eastern Orthodox Christianity: The Address of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, eds. Norman Doe and Aetios Nikiforos (Routledge, 2024).

1. “Liberal Democracy, Human Rights, and the Eucharistic Community: Contrasting Voices in American Orthodox Ethics.” Studies in Christian Ethics (August 2022).
2. “The Orthodox Church, Just War Theory, and the Invasion of Ukraine,” at Spirit of Abilene (July 2022).

1. Religious Failure, Geopolitics, and Forced Displacement in Russia, Eastern Europe, and the South Caucasus. (Central European University Press, 2026).
2. “Eastern Orthodoxy and Diasporic Communities: The Challenges of Nationalism” in The Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016 – A New Era for the Orthodox Church? Interdisciplinary Perspectives, eds. Vasilios N. Makrides and Sebastian Rimestad, Erfurter Studien zur Kulturgeschichte des Orthodoxen Christentums (Peter Lang, 2021).
3. “Is Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine still a Religious War?” LSE Religion and Global Society (8 February 2023).
4. “Orthodox Churches and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Romania and Bulgaria,” in Tornike Metreveli (ed.), Orthodox Christianity and the Covid-19 Pandemic (Routledge, 2023).
5. “Orthodox Conservatism and the Refugee Crisis in Bulgaria and Moldova.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 54.1-2 (2021).
6. “When States Fail: The Politics of Orthodox Churches, Forced Displacement and Humanitarian Structures in Serbia and Ukraine.” Journal of Refugee Studies 34.2 (2021).
7. “When Will Russia’s War on Ukraine End? Religion And Security Strategies,” at Religion Unplugged (May 2022).
8. (as co-editor with Victoria Hudson), Religion and Forced Displacement in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (Amsterdam University Press, 2022).
9. “Religion, Violence, and Geopolitics in Belarus,” at Berkley Forum (August 2020).
10. “Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: The First Religious War in the 21st Century,” at LSE Religion and Global Society (March 2022).

1. “Beyond Church and State: Contentions of Minority Citizenship in Egypt.” Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies, Volume 5, Issue 2 (2023).
2. “Human Rights and Persecution Economies,” at Public Orthodoxy (October 2020).
3. Martyrs and Migrants: Blood and the Politics of Persecution (NYU Press, 2025).

1. “A Trans-Orthodox Convergence on Human Rights: Evgenios Voulgaris and Platon Levshin—A Model for Future Greek-Russian Exchange and Rapprochement?” at Public Orthodoxy
2. “ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΟΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΟΣΜΟΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΣ:Η ΑΝΑΔΥΣΗ ΕΝΟΣ ΝΕΟΥ ΦΑΙΝΟΜΕΝΟΥΣΤΟΝ ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΟ ΚΟΣΜΟ ΚΑΙ Η ΣΗΜΑΣΙΑ ΤΟΥ” (Orthodox Christian Cosmopolitanism: The Emergence of a New Phenomenon in the Orthodox World and Its Significance), in AXIΛΛΙΟΥ ΠΟΛΙΣ: ΕΞΑΜΗΝΙΑΙΑ ΠΕΡΙΟΔΙΚΗ ΕΚΔΟΣΗ ΙΕΡΑΣ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΕΩΣ ΛΑΡΙΣΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΥΡΝΑΒΟΥ (Axiou Polis: Biannual Periodical of the Holy Metropolis of Larissa and Tyrnavos, 2023).

1. “Orthodox Christianity Under Pressure: Ottoman, Communist, and Post-Communist Contexts,” in Politics, Society and Culture in Orthodox Theology in a Global Age, eds. Hans-Peter Grosshans & Pantelis Kalaitzidis (2022).
2. “The Orthodox Church, Neosecularisation, and the Rise of Anti-Gender Politics in Bulgaria.” Religions 13.4. (2022).
3. (editor), Women and Religiosity in Orthodox Christianity (Fordham University Press, 2021).

1. “Trauma Informed Community Development Pittsburgh,” Substack (September 2024).
2. Contributor to video Abba Moses: Moses the Black, Center for Early African Christianity (2024).

1. “Turkey’s Cultural Heritage Cudgel,” at Religious Freedom Institute (June 2020).

1. “American Conservatives and the Allure of Post-Soviet Russian Orthodoxy.” Religions 12.12 (2021).
2. Between Heaven and Russia: Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia (Fordham University Press, 2022).

1. “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast”*: Early Modern Christian German-speakers, and the Rights of Other Creatures,” at Canopy Forum (July 2023)
2. Orthodox Christians and the Rights Revolution in America (Fordham University Press, 2024).

1. “Communion in Quarantine: How Liturgical Churches Celebrated Easter,” Society for Cultural anthropology
2. “Liberty and the Limits of Minority Rights: The Opening of the Tashoran Church and Cultural Center in Malatya, Turkey,” Public Orthodoxy, November 19, 2021.
3. Liturgical Rights: Armenian Presence in Turkey (Fordham University Press, forthcoming 2027)
4. “Stational Liturgy and Minority Right to the City.” City & Society (2024).

1. “Between Law and Theology: Russia’s Modern Orthodox Canonists,” in Law and the Christian Tradition in Modern Russia, ed. Paul Valliere and Randall Poole (Routledge, 2023).
2. “Human Emancipation via Cultural Genocide: Religion and Visual Violence in Soviet Russia, 1918-1925” (forthcoming)

1. “The Navalny Protests and Orthodoxy’s A-Political Theology: The Mumblings of the Sacred,” at Public Orthodoxy (2021).

1. “The Moral Conservative Wayback Machine and the Deeper Sense of the Closure of Memorial,” at Public Orthodoxy (2022).
2. (w/ Dmitry Uzlaner), The Moralist International: The Russian Orthodox Church in the Global Culture Wars (Fordham University Press, 2022).
3. “Traditional Values, Family, Homeschooling: The Role of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church in Transnational Moral Conservative Networks and Their Efforts at Reshaping Human Rights.” International Journal of Constitutional Law 21.1 (January 2023).

1. “Greek Identity and Education in the 17^th Century: Theophilus Korydalleus’ Political Movement in the Orthodox East.” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 47.2 (2023).

1. “Domestic Violence and Accountable Actions in the Orthodox Church,” at Public Orthodoxy (2019).
2. “Not a Cross to Bear: Domestic Violence, Coptic Christianity, and the Need for Accountable Theology,” at Public Orthodoxy (2019).

1. Deifying Democracy: Liberalism and the Politics of Theosis (Fordham University Press, 2026)
2. “Sobornost’ and Christian Order: On Dignity, Rights, and Responsibility in Milbank and Frank.” Northwestern University Studies in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought, vol. 2 (2025).
3. “Orthodoxy, Capitalism, and ‘the West,’” at Public Orthodoxy, April 2018
4. “Orthodoxe Theologie und demokratischer Pluralismus” (English: “Orthodox Theology and Democratic Pluralism”). Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West (October 2023).
5. “Христианское понимание человеческого достоинства и спор о правах человека,” (English: “Christian Understandings of Human Dignity and the Contest over Human Rights”) in ДОСТОИНСТВО ЧЕЛОВЕКА: ВЫЗОВ И ПУТЬ. Kyiv, ДУХ I ЛIТЕРА, 2021. Also in Ukrainian: “Християнське розуміння людської гідності та суперечка про права людини,” in ЛЮДСЬКА ГІДНІСТЬ: ВИКЛИК І ШЛЯХ, 2021.
6. “Theosis and Rights: Two Orthodox Approaches,” in Eastern Christian Approaches to Philosophy, ed. Joshua Brown (Palgrave Macmillan), 2022.
7. “Sergii Bulgakov’s Chalcedonian Politics of Personhood,” in Building the House of Wisdom: Sergii Bulgakov and Contemporary Theology: New Approaches and Interpretations, ed. Barbara Hallensleben, Regula M. Zwahlen, Aristotle Papanikolaou, and Pantelis Kalaitzidis (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2024).

1. Русское Православие на пути оправдания насилия. (English: Russian Orthodoxy: On the Path to Justifying Violence) Palladium, № 8, December 2023.

Orthodoxy and Human Rights Seminar – 2019