The 2022 Economos Orthodoxy in America Lecture, presented by Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou. The Christ and Anastasia Economos Orthodoxy in America Lecture at Fordham University is the largest annual lecture of its kind and the only one housed within a university setting. In addition, the annual lecture series is the only one to explore the Orthodox tradition as it intersects…
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Inter-Orthodox Relations
MEA CULPA 2007: Untie the knot of the ROCOR-MP Unification Act
by Lena S. Zezulin A 2007 Act of Canonical Communion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) with the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Акт о каноническом общении Русской Православной Церкви Заграницей с Русской Православной Церковью Московского Патриархата) reunited the two branches of the Russian Orthodox Church: the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) and the Moscow Patriarchate. On…
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Religion and Conflict
Does Europe Have a Christian Basis for Actively Supporting Ukraine against the Evil Attack?
by Fr. Bohdan Oghulchanskij | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски I, Bohdan Oghulchanskij, a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, am writing this text on February 27, 2022, the fourth day of the Russian mass invasion. I can’t know what will happen by the time this text gets published. I…
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Religion and PoliticsAn Orthodox Christian Standing with Ukraine
An Orthodox Christian Standing with Ukraine
Personal Reflections on Russia’s War on Ukraine
by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски Few, if any, would go so far as to claim that Patriarch Kirill, as head of the Orthodox Church in Russia (or “the Russias,” as he likes to say), could be charged with crimes against humanity or war crimes…
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Orthodoxy and Modernity
Hitler and Putin: 1938 and 2022
Hitler delivered his speech of September 12, 1938 to the German Reichstag a few weeks before the German tanks rolled over the German-Czech border to invade Czechoslovakia; Putin delivered his speech of February 21, 2022 to the Russian nation as he was giving orders for the Russian tanks to cross the Russian border with Eastern…
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Religion and Conflict
Ukrainian Occupation: Worse Than a Crime, It’s A Mistake
by Nicholas Sooy When Napoleon executed Louis Antoine in 1804, a decision which turned the European aristocracy against Napoleon, an advisor reportedly quipped “It’s worse than a crime, it’s a mistake.” Former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, an architect of the War in Vietnam reportedly quipped the same thing about Vietnam. A full-scale invasion…
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Orthodoxy and Modernity
The Moral Conservative Wayback Machine and the Deeper Sense of the Closure of “Memorial”
by Kristina Stoeckl | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски The identification of moral conservatives in the twenty-first century with historical periods that predate the experience of twentieth century totalitarianism reveals a fundamental blind-spot in contemporary conservatism. Conjuring up political constellations of the 1920s to 40s as analogies for contemporary struggles between conservatives and progressives willfully ignores the ‘lesson’ of…
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Orthodoxy and Modernity, Religion and Politics
The Death of Secularism: Russia, Turkey, and Western Cluelessness
“Secular” is a tricky word. Most associate it with “no religion,” “absence of religion,” or “decline of religion.” At one time, it was pretty much the consensus in the Western world that with increased modernization, which usually meant technological and scientific advancement, religion would no longer really be needed and would simply fade away. This is one of…
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Religion and Politics
ROCOR Commentary on the February Revolution: Blame the West and Link Putin to the Tsars
by Lena Zezulin It is sad, if understandable, that the Russian state and society remained almost mute on the anniversary of the February/March 1917 Revolution. There is no consensus on those events. It should therefore be welcome that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which has existed independently outside the Soviet state, professed anti-communism,…
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Religion and Politics“Beat Her When You Are Alone Together”
“Beat Her When You Are Alone Together”
Domestic Violence in the Russian Tradition, Past and Present
On February 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law decriminalizing domestic violence. Now, the first instance of poboi—“actions which cause physical pain but do not lead to grave injury or loss of ability to work’’—will be treated as a misdemeanor rather than a criminal act. This means that the offender will incur a fine…
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Global Orthodoxy, Religion and Politics
Putin’s Unorthodox Orthodoxy
Yesterday, the New York Times published an essay exposing and critiquing the ways that Vladimir Putin is exploiting Orthodox Christianity in order to project international significance. In the summer of 2014, we raised these issues in an op-ed piece we wrote for a blog hosted by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and examined why both Orthodox and Western…
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Public Orthodoxy is a publication of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University