Encyclopedia of Religion
and Society

William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor

Table of Contents | Cover Page  |  Editors  |  Contributors  |  Introduction  |  Web Version

EASTERN ORTHODOXY
Embodies an aesthetic theology that stresses tradition, ritual, and hierarchy. A resistance to modernization has meant that the Greek or Russian Christian churches, unlike Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, have had little significant impact on Western social science. Differing in style, discipline, and doctrine from Catholicism, the cultural influences of these churches are great. Orthodoxy's concern with icons and symbols makes it a rich resource for reference in current debates on culture and postmodernity. Pitirim Sorokin, the emigré Russian sociologist, drew from an Orthodox background in his writings. Since 1989, the Russian Orthodox Church has had to cope with a religious market of sects and new religious movements where its resistance to modernization has come into question. Orthodoxy has had an important monastic revival since the late 1960s in Russian, Greek and Coptic traditions.

Kieran Flanagan

References

C. Lane, Christian Religion in the Soviet Union (London: Allen & Unwin, 1978)

D. Martindale, Personality and Milieu (Houston, Texas: Cap & Gown, 1982)

P. A. Sorokin, The Long Journey (New Haven, Conn.: College and University Press, 1963).

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