Heta Hurskainen and Teuvo Laitila (eds.), Churches in Contact and Collision. Multiple Ways of Ukrainian and Russian Churches , East West Ecumenism – Ost West Ökumene, Vol. 2, Paderborn: Brill 2024, 190 p., ISBN: 978–3–506–79385–0

Churches in Contact and Collision is a timely and interesting work that opens up the multidimensional !eld of historical, political, and religious narratives in Ukraine to readers.e war between Russia and Ukraine, which began in 2014 and escalated in February 2022, makes research on the history of the countries and the history of the church highly topical.e war in Ukraine should not be interpreted as a religious war, as its primary motives lie elsewhere.On the other hand, knowledge of historical and religious narratives is essential for understanding the war and its background.However, the signi!cance of books dealing with Ukraine is not limited to the war.Ukraine is a large country with a long and colorful history and a diverse religious landscape.Knowledge of this should be part of European general education, especially if Ukraine joins the European Union in the future.Churches in Contact and Collision originated from a scienti!c conference held in the fall of 2021, but according to the editors of the book, it should not be considered a conference publication, as the original presentations have been supplemented and expanded into articles.is is undoubtedly true.However, the book has the same strengths and weaknesses that are typical of conference publications.Collections of articles rarely o#er a coherent reading experience, let alone provide a clear and analytical overview of the phenomenon they address.is is, of course, possible if the book as a whole and its individual parts have been planned in advance and constructed in a coordinated manner.is is not usually the case with conference publications.Conference presentations tend to arise from researchers' di#erent backgrounds and interests, which means that the connections between them are more or less tenuous.Books based on conference papers are usually fragmented, even though individual articles may be scienti!callyvaluable.is is also the case with this book.