Mission and Violence. Coercion to Faith in the History of Orthodoxy. Volume 1

«Domestic violence» has become a familiar term, denoting violence from someone who supposedly loves you and declares care for you. Church authorities emphasize their paternalism and their «fatherly care» for their «children». And this allows them not only to tolerate violence but also to justify it.

One of the techniques for this justification is denial: that there was no inquisition or police violence in the history of Orthodoxy. In reality, there were both the theory and practice of coercion to faith. What's more, both stemmed from Orthodox saints and are enshrined in church law. This book provides abundant facts. And it shows that these are not incidental «deviations», but something deeply embedded in the matrix of Orthodox culture, ready to reproduce itself.

At the same time, the author, who was a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy before his forced emigration, believes that even within Orthodoxy, a person can make their personal choice – to become an excellent student in the «theology of hatred» school, or to be an outsider, but on the side of «theology of love».