Mission and Violence. Coercion to Faith in the History of Orthodoxy. Volume 2

"Family violence" has become a familiar term, denoting violence from someone who ostensibly loves you and claims to care for you. Church authorities emphasize their paternalism and their "fatherly care" for their "children." This allows them not only to permit violence but also to justify it.

One of the justifications is denial: that there was no inquisition or police violence in the history of Orthodoxy. In reality, there were both theory and practice of coercion to faith. Moreover, both of these originated from Orthodox saints and are enshrined in church law. This book provides abundant evidence. It shows that these are not random "deviations," but something firmly embedded in the matrix of Orthodox culture, ready to reproduce itself.

At the same time, the author Andrei Kuraev, before his forced emigration and a former professor at the Moscow Spiritual Academy, believes that even within Orthodoxy a person can make their personal choice — to become a straight-A student in the "theology of hatred" school or to be an outsider but on the side of the "theology of love."