| Summary: | The debate on Christian East–West relations usually centres on the “usual suspects”: papal primacy, the <i>filioque</i> and core doctrine in general, the interpretation of Scripture, ecclesiology, and so on. This review article of Edward Siecienski’s <i>Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory</i> explores <i>other</i> issues that divide East and West, particularly those that may be approached via material ecologies: Fire, Beards, and Bread. “Bread” as in the debate on the Azymes, following Siecienski’s 2023 book; “Beards” as in the beardfullness or beardlessness of clerics; and “Fire” as in <i>ignis purgatorius</i>, yet at an even wider scale, the very fire of Gehenna: the question of the hereafter and the location of the dividing line between doctrine and <i>theologoumena.</i> Thus, a wider spectrum of the debate emerges, with which the present review article aspires to familiarize its readers.
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