"The practice of holding councils and synods is recorded since the early days of the Christian Church and, consequently, the concept of conciliarity has always been at the heart of the Orthodox Church's confessional identity. The proposed companion focuses on the evolution of concept of conciliarity in the Orthodox Church after the 19thcentury, when the Enlightenment and Romantic philosophy challenged the traditional hierarchical structure of the Church, promoting a new theological consciousness where the Church was seen as an organic community rather than a pyramidal body. Featuring almost 50 chapters written by the most prominent scholars in the field from a wide range of geographical, ethnic and confessional backgrounds, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Conciliarity in Modern Orthodox Christianity explores the radical reforms to church life resulted from the Moscow Church Council (1917-1918), the emergence of eucharistic ecclesiology, the evolution of Greek and Slavic theologies and their impact within and beyond the Orthodox world, as well as expressions of conciliarity at the initiative of the laity. Through a well-balanced selection of case studies, the volume aims to show how the rise of new forms of assembly and community has characterized not simply the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches (Egypt, Ethiopia, Armenia and India), but Orthodoxy in contemporary 20th century contexts of migration and mission such as Africa, the US and Western Europe."-- Provided by publisher.