From the “refledging” to the “illumination of the nation” : Aspects of political ideology in the Greek Church under Ottoman domination
Part of : Balkan studies : biannual publication of the Institute for Balkan Studies ; Vol.40, No.1, 1999, pages 41-55
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41-55
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Three major historical questions are briefly discussed in this study:a) How far may the anti-Westernism of the Greek Orthodox Church conduceto the cultural isolationism of the Orthodox world (at least the Greek sector);b) how far did the initiatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as also ofits individual functionaries, be described as ecumenical, or at least pan-Balkan, at a political level; and c) how far, geographically and ethnologicallyspeaking, did the Great Church influence the processes of ethnogenesis in theOrthodox communities under its jurisdiction. The author arrives to thefollowing conclusions: a) Although chronic aversion to the Occident was afundamental aspect of the Church’s ideology, it did not engender thoroughgoingcultural isolationism in a considerable part of the Orthodox population,even in the early years of Ottoman rule, b) Politically the Oecumenical Patriarchatewas the head of the Greeks (“η κεφαλή του Γένους των Ρωμαίων”).Yet its general religious and ecclesiastical policy remained firmly supranationaland pan-Orthodox, at least until the end of the eighteenth century.c) The Great Church made no deliberate attempt either to accelerate or slowdown the processes of ethnogenesis as regards the “Romaic” and even morethe “non-Romaic” peoples under its jurisdiction. Hellénisation is traceable, but numerically and geographically was not widespread; and in any case was due to historical factors, in which the Church did not play an active, or at least decisive, role.
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Ελληνική εκκλησία
