Missionary activity of Orthodox brotherhoods in Greece and Serbia in 1918‒1941

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the response of Greek and Serbian societies to the challenges of modernity faced by the Orthodox Church in the Balkans. Despite the fact that the reasons for the response in the form of the formation of non–church religious movements in the first half of the twentieth century had the same basis, both organizations – the Greek brotherhood of theologians “Zoi” and the Serbian worshipper movement – chose different methods of missionary activity. Their activities were aimed at reviving the Christian norms of morality in society. The purpose of this article is to conduct a comparative analysis between these methods, identify differences in relations with the official Church and characterize the consequences of the chosen course from a historical perspective. The missionary activity of both Orthodox organizations (“brotherhoods”) gradually faded away after World War II for similar reasons but left behind an important positive trace in the church history of the two Balkan states – Greece and Serbia. In Russian historiography these themes have not been studied sufficiently. This article is intended to shed light on the main milestones in the development of the movements the World Wars.