Through the Iron Curtain

The Taizé Ecumenical Experience in Eastern Europe (1960–1989)
SILVIA SCATENA, DIETRICH SAGERT
Fscire Research and Papers 4
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2023
pp: 400 with 37 figures
Paper € 65.00
ISBN: 9783847116

The history of the intertwined relationships woven by the Taizé Community amongst Christians of Eastern European countries in the second half of the last century has not yet been written. Yet it is a fundamental chapter for understanding the unique international influence of the community. The encounter with the different faces of a Christian youth beyond the Iron Curtain, who in Taizé had their first experience of a unified European space, was to become one of the main directions of the community’s effort from the early 1960s. The contributions of this volume intend to throw a first light on this story, relying on a completely unpublished documentation and on the testimony of many protagonists involved in the construction of this unique continental and ecumenical network.

Silvia Scatena is professor of History of Christianity at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and a fellow at Fondazione per le scienze religiose in Bologna. Her researches focus on the history of Vatican II, on history of Latin American Christianity and on the history of ecumenism.

Dietrich Sagert is a cultural scientist and theatre director. He works on rhetorics and experimental liturgies at the Centre of Protestant Cultures of Service and Preaching in Wittenberg.