Binnen de context van het denken over de botsing tussen Rusland en het Westen, schrijft de kenner van de Orthodoxe kerk, John McGuckin:

Fissures of the extremes of ‘having’ and ‘not-having’, as well as chasms of understanding between the twin ignorances of consumerist secularism and chauvinistic religiosity, threaten the peace of the world more deeply than ever before.

(John McGuckin, The Orthodox Church, p. 182)