1st Edition

Globalization and Orthodox Christianity The Transformations of a Religious Tradition

By Victor Roudometof Copyright 2014
    246 Pages
    by Routledge

    264 Pages
    by Routledge

    With approximately 200 to 300 million adherents worldwide, Orthodox Christianity is among the largest branches of Christianity, yet it remains relatively understudied. This book examines the rich and complex entanglements between Orthodox Christianity and globalization, offering a substantive contribution to the relationship between religion and globalization, as well as the relationship between Orthodox Christianity and the sociology of religion – and more broadly, the interdisciplinary field of Religious Studies.

    While deeply engaged with history, this book does not simply narrate the history of Orthodox Christianity as a world religion, nor does it address theological issues or cover all the individual trajectories of each subgroup or subdivision of the faith. Orthodox Christianity is the object of the analysis, but author Victor Roudometof speaks to a broader audience interested in culture, religion, and globalization. Roudometof argues in favor of using globalization instead of modernization as the main theoretical vehicle for analyzing religion, displacing secularization in order to argue for multiple hybridizations of religion as a suitable strategy for analyzing religious phenomena. It offers Orthodox Christianity as a test case that illustrates the presence of historically specific but theoretically distinct glocalizations, applicable to all faiths.

    1.Globalization and Orthodox Christianity: Preliminary Considerations  2. The Fragmentation of Christianity  3. From Christian Orthodoxy to Orthodox Christianity  4. Transitions to Modernity  5. Nationalism and the Orthodox Church: The Modern Synthesis  6. Colonialism and Ethnarchy: The Case of Cyprus  7.Orthodox Christianity as a Transnational Religion  8. Territoriality, Globality and Orthodoxy  9. Religion and Globalization: Orthodox Christianity Across the Ages

    Biography

    Victor Roudometof is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus.

    "In this book Roudometof offers a brilliant examination of the manifold entanglements between Orthodox Christianity and globalization processes across history. Broad in scope and rich in material, this book fills a gap concerning a Christian tradition that remained, until recently, mostly untheorized. This is an indispensable book for all those interested not only in the relations between globalization and religion, but also in Eastern Orthodox Christianity and its historical transformations."Vasilios N. Makrides, University of Erfurt, Germany

    "This is an immensely learned book. The notes and bibliography of works in many languages themselves offer a praiseworthy contribution." - J. T. Flynn, emeritus, College of the Holy Cross in CHOICE

    "On the whole, Globalization and Orthodox Christianity is a publication that is bound to attract the interest of a variety of audiences. Although historians and sociologists of religion appear as if they are the main scholarly category this book can appeal to, every social scientist with an interest in religion, globalization, and the intersection between the two will find it theoretically and analytically stimulating." - Eugenia Roussou, International Sociology Reviews