God in literature is probably something one encounters in the act of reading more often than one considers it as an idea apart, so when asked to write on the topic, I catch myself wanting to describe instead what I find: a glimpse into the ineffable. “There is only one name by which the divine nature can be expressed: the wonder which seizes the soul when it thinks of God.”

Russian Orthodox religious subtexts are of a specific nature. Fyodor Dostoevsky uses both liturgical and biblical references, but a Russian speaker often perceives even a scriptural quote or allusion primarily through its liturgical context. Sometimes the same reference has two levels of allusion—as perceived in the biblical context and, separately, as it would be known to Russian speakers in Dostoevsky’s time, even if they were only nominally Orthodox or merely had Orthodox friends.

In post-Soviet Russia, a small circle of Moscow churchgoers read Father Arseny and believed that the book was based on the stories of priests and laity who were prisoners of Stalinist camps. The book did not pretend to be biographical, especially since the narrow circle of its original readers knew the identity of the author, a physicist named Alexander Belyakov, who lived near Moscow. Belyakov was born in the early 1950s.

Unlike Caesar’s Gaul, the current Orthodox Internet is in four parts: church websites (official or semi-official), the larger blogosphere, an audiosphere, and a much smaller videosphere. Yet this online realm also has much in common with Roman Gaul. For just as one modern Latin writer stated about Caesar’s conquest, “all Gaul stinks,” so the Orthodox internet reminds one of Lazarus in the tomb: “He stinketh” (John 11:39, KJV).

On February 21, 2012, the feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot organized a performance, Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Drive Putin Away, at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Participants danced and made the sign of the cross at the ambon and solea for less than a minute before being escorted outside the building by guards. This episode provoked public debate and led to the arrest and prosecution of three group members.

The tradition of Russian spiritual poetry has a living freshness and a ring to it which can be felt and heard across all its historical periods. It has not been well served by English translation, however. Present-day English-language poetry has mostly lost the basic verse techniques that are necessary for translating traditional Russian verse.

It’s been fifteen years since the Maddexes, a plucky Midwestern family who had recently joined the Orthodox Church, launched Ancient Faith Radio with two computers on their back porch. At first it was a streaming station, full of liturgical music they had uploaded from their friends’ CD collections.

The most consequential medium for English-language discourse about Orthodox Christianity today is internet-based audio. Church-themed podcasts, YouTube channels, and even online call-in shows have mushroomed over the past few years. Many hours’ worth of free spoken content is now produced every week, enough to suit virtually every cultural temperament within the Church.

One of the key activities of the Russian Student Christian Movement in France is its summer camp for children, organized annually at La Servagère in the Vercors Mountains. This year’s camp was marked by an unexpected discovery. On one of the last days, a small piece of paper was found in an old gospel book in the camp chapel.

The question of Chekhov’s Christianity and his relationship with the Orthodox Church continues to be debated. Even Father Alexander Schmemann, who lauded Chekhov’s deep insights into the complexities of the human person brought about by his religious and medical backgrounds, could not confidently state that he was a man of the Church.

Nothing dooms literature like dishonesty. Thus, unsurprisingly, it is above all the ability to speak honestly that distinguishes between quality writing and the vast majority of what is produced by contemporary Orthodox Christian women in America. So you might say that what I want to consider here is the kind of courage it takes to tell the truth.

Since the release of the first novel in 1997, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has met with controversy in the Christian world, the Orthodox sphere included. Its critics oppose what they regard as an anti-Christian encouragement of magic. Its defenders stress the moral themes in the books, and highlight various resonances with the gospel.

Historian Timothy Snyder recently posed a question: Which key lessons from twentieth-century resistance to tyranny will be most useful in the near future? To understand the experience of resisting terror and overcoming fear, we should not only read Hannah Arendt, but also Nadezhda Mandelstam