"Victoria Clark paints a startling portrait of Eastern Orthodoxy in Europe by uncovering deep traces of the past in the turmoil of the region's present. A 1054 schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople created Europe's oldest and most durable fault line, represented today by the Catholic/Protestant West and the Orthodox East.".

"In casual, but consciously revealing encounters with monks, nuns, priests, bishops and arch-bishops, in monasteries ancient and modern from Kosovo to Siberia to Cyprus, Victoria Clark measures the depth and width of the tragically growing gulf between the twin Christian civilizations of Europe.

A Bosnian Serb bishop's enthusiasm for "ethnic cleansing," Romania's current boom in monastery building, Greece's neo-Byzantine climate, Russian anti-Semitism and the power of the Greek Cypriot Church are all manifestations of a civilization scarred by centuries-old, unforgotten traumas."--BOOK JACKET.