Barbara SKINNER. The Western Front of the Eastern Church

The use of a military metaphor in the title of this book is quite apt for a study of a region whose cultural identity was shaped by its borderland position between the realms of Eastern and Western Christianity, whose rivalry led to the emergence of the Uniate Church, which is Eastern in rite and Catholic in doctrine. Barbara Skinner fills a gap in the literature by focusing on the eighteenth century, the period when the Uniate Church emerged as a confessional identity shared by some four million Ruthenians. Skinner describes the emergence of the Uniate faith following the Union of Brest in 1595–1596 as a result of the Reformation, which created new divisions not only within Western Christendom but also within the Eastern Church. The upheavals between 1648 and 1721 and the Russian presence in Right-bank Ukraine destabilized religious identities, as parishes changed their affiliation from Uniate to Orthodox and back several times. Despite their original intention to keep the Eastern rite, the Uniates eventually parted with the iconostasis, worshiped the new saints, started to use confessional booths, organs, and altar bells, and edited liturgical books to conform with the practice and doctrine of Rome. The Uniate clergy that received Catholic training promoted moral teaching that conformed with Western social values and differed from Orthodox theology. By the Synod of Zamość in 1720, the Uniate Church had managed to forge a distinct confessional identity.

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