This presentation is based on the results of the project on Symbolic Mediation of Wholeness in Western Orthodoxy (GAČR P401/11/1688), and in particular on two monographs that came out of it and were also translated into Russian and published by St. Andrew's Biblical Theological Institute in Moscow, namely Puti pravoslavnogo bogoslovija na Zapad v ChCh veke (The Ways of Orthodox Theology in the West in 20th Century), 2016 and Golosa pravoslavnogo bogoslovija na Zapade v ChCh veke (The Voices of Orthodox Theology in West in 20th Century),2019.
The presentation first sketches the differences between the Greek, the Russian and the Balkan perspectives on the roots of Orthodoxy and on how tradition can be re-interpreted in a new key in order to recover its liberating and truly grounding potential in modern democratic societies.Then it offers some specific examples of figures who experienced the loss of the imperial structures of Orthodoxy and the necessity to go forward to the roots.