Dr. Marko Marina, Post-doctoral fellow at the Department of History, has signed a publishing contract with the renowned academic publisher Palgrave Macmillan, part of the Springer Nature Group, for his forthcoming scholarly monograph Power, Memory, and Institutional Formation of Christian Orthodoxy, 100–500. Palgrave Macmillan is one of the world’s leading academic publishers, best known for its high-quality monographs and handbooks in the humanities and social sciences. As part of the international publishing group Springer Nature (one of the most prestigious global publishers, which also includes the journal Nature) Palgrave ensures exceptional visibility and international dissemination of scholarly works. Having a book published by such an esteemed press represents a significant recognition of both the scholarly relevance and the international reach of Dr. Marina’s research.

The monograph offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the rise and consolidation of the so-called “Great Church” as the dominant form of Christianity between the 2nd and 5th centuries. Moving beyond traditional theological explanations, the book highlights the institutional structures, mechanisms of authority, and cultural strategies of collective memory that secured the long-term stability and success of this form of Christianity. A particular strength of the study is its comparison between the “Great Church” and alternative Christian movements, such as the intellectually sophisticated but institutionally fragile Valentinian Gnostic school. The book will integrate modern theoretical insights from historical sociology and the anthropology of religion, offering innovative tools for understanding the institutional dynamics of early Christianity. It will also provide a detailed case study of Egyptian monasticism in the 4th and 5th centuries as a prime example of institutional adaptation. Through close textual readings of sources such as the Vita Prima and Vita Altera (Lives of St. Pachomius), it will show how Alexandrian ecclesiastical authorities successfully incorporated monastic practices, thereby strengthening their ideological control and institutional cohesion.

As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, Dr. Marina’s research focuses on Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, especially institutional history, monasticism, hagiography, and cultural memory. He has published extensively in international academic journals and regularly presents at international conferences. His collaboration with Palgrave Macmillan, part of Springer Nature, further confirms the international relevance and quality of research conducted at the Department of History, Faculty of Croatian Studies.