Through the Iron Curtain

The history of a unique transnational network among Christians of a divided Europe

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 The contributions of this volume intend to throw a first light on this story, relying on a completely unpublished documentation and on the testimony of many protagonists involved in the construction of this unique continental and ecumenical network.

Auteur
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.

Texte du rabat

The history of the relationships intertwined 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 irradiation of the community. The encounter with the different faces of a Christian youth beyond the Iron Curtain who in Taizé experienced an European space at once unified, will become in particular one of the main directions of investment of the community from the early 1960s. It is on this story that the contributions of this volume intend to throw a first light, relying on a completely unpublished documentation and on the witnesses of many protagonists involved in the construction of this unique continental and ecumenical network.