The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is one of the oldest churches in the world and one of the largest landowners in Palestine/Israel. The relationship between the Greek hierarchy and the Palestinian laity has long been fraught as the lay population has struggled to achieve a greater degree of influence over church administration for over a century, so far without success. The Orthodox Line examines the relationship between the hierarchy and the laity in relation to an idiom they share. This is the idiom of descent, of Orthodox Christianity as a tradition of carrying the divine presence forward in time, from one generation to the next. 

Individuals and societies around the world employ idioms of descent to express a connection to land, the past, and one another. The Orthodox Line attempts to re-evaluate the significance of these idioms by viewing them not only in biological terms but in relation to a wide array of genealogical forms, from saints to property to ancestral land. In bringing these different forms together, the project provides a much more accurate picture of how descent is experienced, articulated, and politicized. The book focuses on the case of Jerusalem, and how the history and institutions of the Orthodox Church have produced a particular way of imagining descent, while also providing points of comparison with many other religious traditions.