This volume focuses on the ecclesiology of the Russian/American orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann. The author examines it in a contemporary and in an ecumenical context and shows the potential it holds for mediating between hierarchical and congregationalist ecclesiologies. It shows the relation between sacramental transsubstantiation and cultural change through the presence of the Church, thus revealing the foundations for Schmemann’s missionary transformative understanding of the Church. Schmemann’s criticism of the identification of orthodoxy in America with the Russian emigrant subculture thus proves to be highly relevant to today’s societal, ecological and economical issues in the context of increasing globalisation.weiterlesen