Edited by A. Aghajanyan, K. Rousselet. Moscow: Vse mir, gon. - 368 p. The collection of articles written by the participants of the Russian-French project "Twenty Years of Transformation: Religious and social practices of Russian Orthodox Parishes" is a completely successful attempt at a balanced and scientific analysis of one of the main components of modern religious life in Russia - Russian Orthodoxy, or rather the forms of its local existence within its primary forms - communities, primarily parochial ones. The task assigned to the authors was "a multidimensional analysis of various forms of modern Orthodox sociality", therefore, according to the authors ' plan, all articles to one degree or another touch on several cross-cutting topics: "the ratio of the parish to the Orthodox community".- page 253congregations (whether or not they coincide with parishes), an attempt to typologize these associations; the composition of parishioners and clergy, their relationships; types of religious authority (including the authority of the parish priest, confessor, and elder); the roles of priests and laity within parishes and communities; the main liturgical practices (during and outside the liturgy); the relationship between the church and the clergy. collective and individual practices in the church subculture; processes of formation of parish (community) identity; interrelations between communities and the surrounding society" (p. 13). The first chapter of the collection is devoted to "Historical Perspective"; the author (Alexander Aghajanyan) introduces the reader to the problems of studying and perceiving the parish and parish life over the past hundred years. The author identifies the key problems that connect the beginning of the XX century with the beginning of the XXI century. These, in his opinion, are the autonomy/dependence of church institutions in relation to the state; the role of the laity in the church; the degree of independence of the parish clergy from the ... Read more