Читать книгу The Russian Orthodox Church and Modernity - Regina Elsner - Страница 5

Within the ongoing discourses about the role of Orthodoxy in 21st century Russia, theological analyses are rare, while the social and cultural sciences lead the debates mostly in the frames of political religion and identity discourses. The work on this book was an amazing experience of bringing theological study in a dialogue with the questions and challenges from political and social scientists interested in the guiding question: Why Russian Orthodoxy seems so incompatible with everything “we” value as modernity? I am therefore particularly grateful to all my non-theologian colleagues for their interest, support and empowerment to put a piece of religious literacy into the field of Russian studies, first while doing research in the interdisciplinary network “Institutions and institutional change in postsocialism” (KomPost), and later during my work at the Centre for East European and international Studies (ZOiS).

I am thankful for guidance, inspiration and friendship during my research to Thomas Bremer, Alexander Agadjanian, Kristina Stoeckl, Nadezhda Beljakova, Vladimir Khoulap, Alena Kharko, Maria Wernsmann, Nadezhda Kizenko, Scott Kenworthy, Alfons Brüning, Vladimir Fedorov, Mariele Wischer and many others. Mikhail Suslov deserves a special thanks for kindly giving this work a foreword.

Emily Hall I would like to thank for the professional and sensitive edition of the English translation, Andreas Umland for the encouragement to publish the book in this distinguished series, and Valerie Lange and Jana Dävers for the kind and patient accompaniment through the editing process.

Finally, I am deeply indepted to my family—without their support, no single word would have been written.