Fault Lines in the Orthodox World Geopolitics, Theology, and Diplomacy in Light of the War in Ukraine

Throughout the past years, the Orthodox world has seen numerous political and theological confrontations. New borders have been shaped by churches and states. This only increased in light of the Russian-backed conflict in Ukraine from 2014 and onwards, which has led to new theological lines of thinking, geopolitical confrontations, and an acute need for diplomatic handling of crisis. At the centre is the Russian Orthodox Church’s global role and its effects in Ukraine. The confrontations are born out of a complex entanglement of church politics, theological differences, legal tensions, national allegiances, and the very concrete political and military clashes between nation states. In light of the war in Ukraine, Global Orthodoxy has seen new fault lines in the making. This volume gathers chapters that shed light on these entanglements and their political, theological, and geopolitical consequences. The book is not limited to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but also includes papers focusing on other nations, churches, and aspects (theological, theoretical, geopolitical, empirical etc.).

Geopolitical Fault Lines in Global Orthodoxy: An Introduction.- Part I. Ecumenical Aspects.- Christian Unity and Orthodox Cultural Agendas.- Returning Geopolitics as an Ecumenical Challenge: The War in Ukraine and the End of Traditional Church Diplomacy.- Part II. Ideological Aspects.- Russian Orthodoxy and the West: A Conflict of Historiographies.- “Katechon”, “Third Rome”, and “Holy War”: “Russian” and “Serbian World(s)” as Eschatological Geopolitical Exceptionalisms.- “Orthodox Survival Courses” and Anti-Ecumenism in U.S. Eastern Orthodoxy.- Part III. Russia and Ukraine.- The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Facing The Challenge Of War: The Relations with The Moscow Patriarchate and The Problem of A New Canonical Status.- “Thou Shalt Not Kill”: Opposition To The War In Ukraine Among Russian Orthodox Believers.- The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church?: Russian and Ukrainian Parishes in Germany.- Part IV. The Other Churches.- Checkmate – Orthodox diplomacy in Montenegro and Macedonia in the Shadows of the Ukrainian War.- A Schism in the Making? Orthodox Diplomacy, Jurisdictional Conflict, and Geopolitical Negotiations between Romanian and Russian Orthodoxy in the Post-Communist Era.- The Orthodox Church of Finland’s arguments concerning Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Sebastian Rimestad is Senior Researcher at the Institute for the Study of Religion, University of Leipzig, Germany. His research focuses on religion in modern conditions, religious conversion, and Orthodox Christianity.

Emil Hilton Saggau is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, Sweden. His research focuses on Orthodox theology and history in Southeastern Europe. Since 2024, he is the General Secretary of the Danish National Council of Churches.