Why Angels Fall : a Journey Through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo

To bring us this vivid and sensitive portrait of Eastern Europe's Orthodox church, journalist Clark (London Observer) traveled widely within its key geographical regions (the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania, Russia, Cyprus, and Turkey) and conducted extensive interviews with various levels of the church hierarchy. The author, who has reported on the Croatian, Bosnian, and Chechen wars, focuses upon the historical events that have greatly influenced the development of the Orthodox Church, from its origins in the 1054 schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople, through centuries of Ottoman Muslim rule, to the more recent decades of modern communism leading up to the present. While Clark does admit to offering only a sketchy treatment of Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, and Moldavia owing to a lack of space, this unevenness does not detract from the importance of the work. Recommended for academic and theological libraries. Compelling, powerful, magnificent' THE TIMES In revealing encounters with monks, nuns, bishops and archbishops, in monasteries ancient and modern Victoria Clark measures the depth and width of the gulf now separating Europe's Orthodox East from the Catholic and Protestant West. Many of the differences in outlook, priorities and even values can be traced back to the 1054 schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople which created Europe's most durable fault-line. Travelling from Mount Athos to Istanbul and unravelling the tangled history, Victoria Clark demonstrates a rare sympathy with Eastern Orthodox Europe. 'I finished the book wanting to meet this intelligent, warm-hearted writer, and to follow her to some of the places she visited' LITERARY REVIEW 'A masterful synthesis of vivid and often humorous travel writing, a series of probing interviews and a pertinent historical context' THE TIMES 'Exhilarating . . . her book will be immensely helpful to anyone occasionally puzzled by events, especially politics, in Eastern Europe' FINANCIAL TIMES Delving into Europe's Orthodox East, this engaging and accessible narrative history is essential for an understanding of Eastern Europe.