The Eastern European Institute of Theology is the successor of the Resource and Research Centre of the Euro-Asian Accreditation Association of Evangelical Educational Institutions (EAAA). Established in 1997, the EAAA has, from the very beginning of its activity, in addition to developing standards and accreditation procedures, initiated and supported various resource and research projects aimed at ensuring the quality of higher theological education. In particular, within the framework of the translation and publishing project ‘Bible Pulpit’, more than 50 textbooks for theological education and other scientific and educational publications were published. In 2002-2003, conferences ‘Theology and Theological Education in Contemporary Society’ were held and materials of these conferences were published. In 2007, the results of the joint project with OCI (Overseas Council International) "Efficiency of Theological Education in Ukraine" were published. In 2007, work on the project ‘Theology Online’ began, under which the EAAA Online Library has been operating since 2008. The projects ‘Electronic Christian Library on CDs’ (17 discs) and ‘Evangelical Periodicals of the First Half of the 20th Century’ (3 discs) have become a significant resource of information for scholars. Since 2003, the journal ‘Theological Reflections’ has become an important platform for the publication of research results.
Given the growing number of projects and the need for their coordination, in 2008 the EAAA established the Resource and Research Centre (RRC), which was headed by Taras Dyatlik until 2011. The mission of the centre was to promote the development of theological research mainly in Eastern Europe in order to help local churches and theological educational institutions in formulating Eastern European evangelical theology. During this period, new research projects were initiated, in particular, on the history of the evangelical movement and the challenges for Christianity in the postmodern era. Work began on the Slavonic Bible Commentary, which was published in 2016.
In 2011, the RRC was headed by Roman Soloviy. Work continued on developing the centre's operating procedures, and projects were selected on a competitive basis with expert evaluation. In 2011-2017, with the grant support of the centre, a number of new projects were launched and partially implemented, including those on the history and theology of the national evangelical movement, historical and contemporary theology, church-state relations, monitoring the quality of evangelical educational institutions, and biblical studies.
In 2015-2017, a large-scale programme of events called Reformation 500 was held, which included four international conferences and six interdenominational roundtables, three collections of materials in the form of special issues of the journal Theological Reflections, four educational trips to the centres of the European Reformation (over 200 participants), and several books, including Alistair McGrath's The Dangerous Idea of Christianity, were translated and published.
In 2015, the EAAA RRC launched a regular Methodological Seminar, and more than thirty seminars were held with the participation of leading national and foreign theologians and philosophers. Together with the Centre for the Study of Religion of the Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, the RRC was a partner and co-organiser of six methodological seminars on "Actual Problems of Modern Theology." Moreover, since 2015, meetings of the Open Theological Seminars have been held in Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Odesa, for educative purposes.
In 2020, the name of the Centre was changed to the Eastern European Institute of Theology (EEIT). After the dissolution of the EAAA in 2022, the Institute became an independent research centre and continues to maintain a significant part of the projects it launched, including the organisation of theological conferences and methodological seminars, and the publication of the journal Theological Reflections. As the rights to the publication were fully transferred to EEIT in 2021, the journal changed its name to Theological Reflections: Eastern European Journal of Theology.
In addition to the journal, EEIT continues a number of other publishing projects, including the Contemporary Protestant Theology series in cooperation with the Ukrainian publishing house Dukh i Litera. Over the past five years, eight books have been published in the series. Among the most recent is the book by Ukrainian theologian Fedir Stryzhachuk, "Renaissance of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the 20th-Century Theology." In 2025, the ninth book in this series is scheduled to be published, the work of Ukrainian theologian Oleksandr Geychenko "Brotherhood in Christ. Towards a Ukrainian Baptist Perspective on Associations of Churches."
Due to the full-scale war that Russia launched against Ukraine on 24 February 2022, most of EEIT's projects are focused on understanding the role of theology in times of war, as well as on the development and support of Ukrainian Protestant theology. Over the past three years, EEIT has organised two series of methodological seminars: "Theological and Ethical Challenges of Wartime" and "Public Theology in the Context of Overcoming the Totalitarian Past." In total, during this period of full-scale war, six methodological seminars were organised with the participation of well-known Ukrainian and foreign intellectuals.
In response to the challenges of wartime, in cooperation with the British publishing house Langham Publishing, the books "Overcoming Trauma" and "Scattered and Gathered. A Global Compendium of Diaspora Missiology" were translated into Ukrainian.
Moreover, EEIT annually organises a Summer School of Theology, the topics of which are planned around problems and challenges caused by the war, and initiates events that tell the story of the suffering and courage of Ukrainian society in the face of Russian aggression. In particular, EEIT, in partnership with the Odesa Theological Seminary, the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary and other theological educational institutions, initiated a series of testimonies of evangelical Christians: "Russian-Ukrainian War: Evangelical Voices." The Institute, in cooperation with Dukh i Litera and Langham Publishing, also published a collection of testimonies, "Light in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Stories of Ukrainian Christians During the War." This book tells the story of the role of Ukrainian Protestants in resisting Russian aggression. A book entitled "The Beatitudes in the Context of War," authored by eight Ukrainian theologians, is being prepared for publication.
Alongside academic activities, the Institute's team is actively involved in volunteer projects ("People of the Bridge") to help those suffering from the Russian military invasion.
The Eastern European Institute of Theology strongly condemns the acts of aggression by Russia and rejects any form of collaboration with the nation responsible for these hostilities, including those who aid in this aggression in any capacity.
