In: Volume 1 Dawn of Ecumenism | Part II. Prehistory: The Challenges of Modernity previous chapter 1 Introduction: The Orthodox Christian World in the Modern Era One of the most important challenges facing the Orthodox Christian world has been the inevitable encounter with modernity in its many and peculiar facets. In historical terms, modernity initially originated in Western Europe in close connection with the radical transformations, also in the religious sphere, that took place there with the advent of the Reformatio…