Books by Mihai-D. Grigore
Orthodoxy in the Agora: Orthodox Christian Political Theologies Across History, 2024
The radical socio-political changes in the wake of the fall of
communism in many predominantly Or... more The radical socio-political changes in the wake of the fall of
communism in many predominantly Orthodox countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe have triggered an intense interest
in formulating a specifically Orthodox Christian political theology
in various forms. The volume focuses on these developments,
but also offers a panorama of the evolution of Orthodox political
theologies across time, from early Byzantium until today.
Studia Universitatis Babes Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa 68:1, 2023
The objective of this volume is unpretentious. Showing the complexity,
variety, and subtility of ... more The objective of this volume is unpretentious. Showing the complexity,
variety, and subtility of multiple forms of mobility and movements is a genuine
exercise of fascination. We dive into the confessional life of Orthodoxy enlivened
by fears, hopes, and desires. The contributions are individual recordings that
together paint a larger picture of connectivity, communication, and exchange
within and beyond Orthodoxy across a broad temporal spectrum from the
sixteenth to the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the twentieth century.
(Mihai-D. Grigore, ed., Orthodoxy on the Move: Mobility, Networks, and Belonging Between the 16th and 20th Centuries, Special Issue, Studia Universitatis Babes Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa 68:1 [2023], 245 p.)
The field of political theology in the Orthodox traditions of Europe in post-Byzantine times is a... more The field of political theology in the Orthodox traditions of Europe in post-Byzantine times is an almost unknown area. The book offers a comparison of four mirrors for princes from the beginning of the sixteenth century: The Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to His Son Theodosius (1520), Institutio Principis Christiani of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1516), On Secular Authority of Martin Luther (1523) and The Prince of Niccolò Machiavelli (1513). The author thus provides a cross-section of the history of Christian discourse concerning the concept of ‘Princeps Christianus’ in Europe. These works are representative because they show relevant confessional interpretations in Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Lutheranism. The main focus is on Neagoe Basarab, Lord of Wallachia between 1512 and 1521. This important author from Orthodox Europe is here brought into conversation with his three famous contemporaries on such topics as humanity, religion, politics, state, subjects, rulers and freedom.
CONTENTS: Introduction: Beyond Concepts – Neagoe Basarab: A Christian Prince in the Early Sixteenth Century – Erasmus of Rotterdam and His Education of a Christian Prince: On the Ethical Theomimesis of the Christian Prince – On Secular Authority: Martin Luther and the Prince as Servant – Rule and Method: Machiavelli’s Prince and the Dispensable Semantics of Christianitas – Conclusion: Beyond Concepts, in the Thick of Semantics.
Orthodoxa Confessio? Konfessionsbildung, Konfessionalisierung und ihre Folgen in der östlichen Christenheit Europas (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2018) OPEN ACCESS, 2018
This volume investigates an underresearched field in the religious history of Europe, the problem... more This volume investigates an underresearched field in the religious history of Europe, the problem of confessional formation and confessionalisation in non-Western Orthodox traditions of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The studies in this volume enrich the research on European dynamics of Christian denominations after 13th century until now and display new perspectives on mechanisms of religious and confessional identity within European Christianity with the main focus on the Orthodox traditions of the continent.
Collected contributions on the spread of Reformation in German Empire's adjiacent regions and on ... more Collected contributions on the spread of Reformation in German Empire's adjiacent regions and on the situation of Lutheran Churches in today's Europe: Reformation in France, Swiss, England, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Transsylvania, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia,
A comparison of four mirrors of the prince (specula principum) with a focus on the little known w... more A comparison of four mirrors of the prince (specula principum) with a focus on the little known work "The Teachings to His Son Theodosius" of Neagoe Basarab, Prince of Wallachia between 1512 and 1521. The tertium comparationis is the syntagma 'Princeps Christianus' and its narrative in the discourses of the four mentioned authors. The book was twice awarded and it is about to appear in English translation!
A book on the Second Bulgarian Empire under the Asen Dinasty.
Anthology, Southeast Europe, German, History, Political Studies, Literature, Anthropology, Social... more Anthology, Southeast Europe, German, History, Political Studies, Literature, Anthropology, Social Studies, Cultural Studies
Peace of God, German, Early Middle Ages, Honor, Social ordines, Indo-Europeans, Historical Anthro... more Peace of God, German, Early Middle Ages, Honor, Social ordines, Indo-Europeans, Historical Anthropology, Church History
Papers by Mihai-D. Grigore
Medieval Mount Athos between Wealth and Poverty, ed. by Zachary Chitwood, 2024
There is a close connection between the intensity and the theological elaborateness of the endowm... more There is a close connection between the intensity and the theological elaborateness of the endowment deeds of the lords of Wallachia and their legitimacy to occupy the throne. The more legitimate their claim was, the fewer, shorter and more theologically 'sparse' their deeds of donation were for the Athos monasteries. A study on the guilty conscience of the powerful.
(in: Zachary Chitwood, ed., Medieval Mount Athos between Wealth and Poverty (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 197-215
Ostkirchliche Studien, 2023
An extended review I made in "Ostkirchliche Studien" of the book of the Serbian theologian with F... more An extended review I made in "Ostkirchliche Studien" of the book of the Serbian theologian with Fordham University Press
The Defence of the Faith. Crusading on the Frontiers of Latin Christendom in the Late Middle Ages, 2024
At the heart of Leo X's (1513–21) ambitious and very subversive crusade policy was, in Eastern Eu... more At the heart of Leo X's (1513–21) ambitious and very subversive crusade policy was, in Eastern Europe, a most unlikely ruler: Neagoe Basarab, who ruled Wallachia from 1512 through 1521, was not well viewed by the new Ottoman sultan Selim I (1512–20). Basarab responded immediately to Pope Leo X's crusade plans and pushed the Hungarians and Poles to build a new Christian alliance to free the European Southeast from the Ottomans. The article begins by analysing the geopolitical situation of Wallachia at the beginning of the sixteenth century in the context of the Ottoman Civil War (1509–13). After that, it discusses Prince Neagoe Basarab and his diplomatic network, with a special focus on his legations to the Venetians and Pope Leo X, as well as on his contacts with the Hungarian and Polish courts in the matter of crusade, before finally closing with several short theoretical conclusions regarding the dialectics between 'core' and 'periphery'.
Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West, 2023
The Romanian Orthodox Church has revived after the system change, in 1989. The church has launche... more The Romanian Orthodox Church has revived after the system change, in 1989. The church has launched a number of social initiatives, and religious education has been reintroduced in state schools. The Romanian state supports the Orthodox Church, so a close partnership has developed between the two institutions. Within the population, the church enjoys great popularity to this day. (in German)
(in "Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West" 10 [2023], 13-16)
Pathways Through Early Modern Christianities, 2023
This paper represents a historical application of Itamar Even-Zohar's structuralist concept of 'p... more This paper represents a historical application of Itamar Even-Zohar's structuralist concept of 'polysystem'. The case study was on the politicization of the late Byzantine Hesychasm on the way from pure mystical spirituality towards political ideology.
The main theses: The Orthodox Commonwealth rises to an alternative and trans-imperial order functioning as a dynamic polysystem animated by the polycentric synergy between administrative centres (e.g., Constantinople, Pec, Tarnovo), spiritual centres (e.g., Athos, Paroria), and politico-economical centres (Serbia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, Moldavia, Kievan and Muscovite Rus).
(appeared in: Andreea Badea, Bruno Boute, Birgit Emich, eds., Pathways Through Early Modern Christianities, Vienna: Böhlau 2023), 237-260)
Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte/Contemporary Church History, 2022
In this essay, I have dealt with the national project of the Romanian Great Church in the context... more In this essay, I have dealt with the national project of the Romanian Great Church in the context of the fall of empires at the beginning of the 20th century. On the one hand, I have shown the influences of the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms on the Romanian Orthodox Church, and on the other hand, those of the Habsburg laws of tolerance. As sources, I have used church orders and constitutional law. (published in German)
Erfurter Vorträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Orthodoxen Christentums 20, 2021
In this study I was interested to give a historical transregional perspective on "political hesyc... more In this study I was interested to give a historical transregional perspective on "political hesychasm" which I understood as dynamics of interconnectedness in the Orthodox world. I was addressing mobile actors and power agents involved in this interwoven phenomenon, as well as the synergy of interconnected centers, from the spiritual-theological to economic-financial ones. My thesis was that the dynamics of becoming from spiritual-mystical hesychasm to ideological political agency, took shape in the formation of a polycentric order, which welded the Orthodox traditions into a coherent cultural space of the so-called "Orthodox Commonwealth". I described this polycentric order on the basis of the Danubian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia.
(Original in German, appeared in Erfurter Vorträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Orthodoxen Christentums 20 (2021), Single Issue, 32 p.)
Travaux et Mémoires 25/1, 2021
Every confession is a Church, but not every Church is a confession. The inclusion of the Orthodox... more Every confession is a Church, but not every Church is a confession. The inclusion of the Orthodox world in the integrative confessional history of Europe is long overdue. The following contribution addresses this desideratum. It describes the Orthodoxy as being a confession because
it fulfills the three momenta defining any confession: the universal, the temporal, and the confessional momentum. Using a complex approach combining ecclesiology, theory of history, and historical analysis, it shows that Eastern Orthodoxy is a Christian confession, just as Catholicism,
Lutheranism, the Reformed faith, and Anglicanism are confessions. To this end, I contrast, on the one hand, the dogmatic-traditionalist paradigm of the neopatristic synthesis developed by the Russian theologian Georges Florovsky with a historiographical paradigm of the historical presence of Orthodoxy in the world and history. For this purpose, I comment abundantly on the concepts of confessionality developed by the German hermeneutics of history in the 20th century. On the other hand, I point out how Orthodoxy historically became a confession by possessing in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy its Bekenntnisschrift and thus a confessional identifier. In conclusion, I maintain that only that study of the Eastern Church which is based on historical methodology and on the historical observation of plurality can guarantee the integration of Orthodoxy into the pan-European history of Christianity, into a fair Ecumenism, and thus overcome the East-West polarity.
(in Travaux et Mémoires 25/1 (2021): Le monde byzantin du XIIIe au XVe siècle anciennes ou nouvelles formes d’impérialité, ed. Marie-Hélène Blanchet, Raúl Estangüi-Gómez, 827-868)
Summerschool 'Grenzgänger des Jenseits: Engel, Dämonen und Heilige in der Frühen Neuzeit', 2022
A historical itinerary through the cultural and anthropological phenomenology connected to Vampir... more A historical itinerary through the cultural and anthropological phenomenology connected to Vampirism in Europe, focusing on South-East Europe. We started with the 'Vampire-Plague' in the 18th c. Europe and ended with literary processing of the Vampire mythos by Bram Stoker in 'Dracula', Mircea Eliade in 'Domnisoara Christina' or Dana Grigorcea in 'Die nicht sterben'. Subsequently we worked together on a source of Early Modern Vampirism, Johann Christoph Harenberg, 'Vernuenftige und Schriftliche Gedancken über die Vampirs', Wolffenbuetel 1733.
(Campus Westend, Frankfurt am Main, July 25-28, 2022)
Materialdienst des konfessionskundlichen Instituts Bensheim, 2021
Abstract: The article offers a synthetic overview of the systematic underpinning of human dignity... more Abstract: The article offers a synthetic overview of the systematic underpinning of human dignity and human rights in the dogmatics and ethics of the Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches. The discourse unfolds across important semantic fields such as “image of God in the human”, “assimilation to God”, “human dignity as a moral performance”, “the human as a person” or “Christian community (koinonia)”. The contribution ascertains an inadequate, hesitant, and inconsistent theological-systematic discussion of human rights in the orthodox traditions. (Published in German, in: MdKI 72/3 [2021], 132-135)
Dominanz und Innovation, 2021
In this paper, I show the artificial character and polemical anti-Western potential of historiogr... more In this paper, I show the artificial character and polemical anti-Western potential of historiographic concepts such as "Byzantine Commonwealth" (Dimitri Obolensky) and "Orthodox Commonwealth" (Paschalis Kitromilides). I discuss the space theory of the German Friedrich Ratzel ("geo-politics") and the French Fernand Braudel to show in the light of Reinhard Koselleck's "Begriffsgeschichte" how historiographic conceptual tools serve as discourses of power.
(Appeared in Diana Hitzke, ed., Dominanz und Innovation. Epistemologische und künstlerische Konzepte kleiner europäischer Kulturen, Bielefeld: transcript 2021, pp. 75-94)
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Books by Mihai-D. Grigore
communism in many predominantly Orthodox countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe have triggered an intense interest
in formulating a specifically Orthodox Christian political theology
in various forms. The volume focuses on these developments,
but also offers a panorama of the evolution of Orthodox political
theologies across time, from early Byzantium until today.
variety, and subtility of multiple forms of mobility and movements is a genuine
exercise of fascination. We dive into the confessional life of Orthodoxy enlivened
by fears, hopes, and desires. The contributions are individual recordings that
together paint a larger picture of connectivity, communication, and exchange
within and beyond Orthodoxy across a broad temporal spectrum from the
sixteenth to the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the twentieth century.
(Mihai-D. Grigore, ed., Orthodoxy on the Move: Mobility, Networks, and Belonging Between the 16th and 20th Centuries, Special Issue, Studia Universitatis Babes Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa 68:1 [2023], 245 p.)
CONTENTS: Introduction: Beyond Concepts – Neagoe Basarab: A Christian Prince in the Early Sixteenth Century – Erasmus of Rotterdam and His Education of a Christian Prince: On the Ethical Theomimesis of the Christian Prince – On Secular Authority: Martin Luther and the Prince as Servant – Rule and Method: Machiavelli’s Prince and the Dispensable Semantics of Christianitas – Conclusion: Beyond Concepts, in the Thick of Semantics.
Papers by Mihai-D. Grigore
(in: Zachary Chitwood, ed., Medieval Mount Athos between Wealth and Poverty (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 197-215
(in "Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West" 10 [2023], 13-16)
The main theses: The Orthodox Commonwealth rises to an alternative and trans-imperial order functioning as a dynamic polysystem animated by the polycentric synergy between administrative centres (e.g., Constantinople, Pec, Tarnovo), spiritual centres (e.g., Athos, Paroria), and politico-economical centres (Serbia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, Moldavia, Kievan and Muscovite Rus).
(appeared in: Andreea Badea, Bruno Boute, Birgit Emich, eds., Pathways Through Early Modern Christianities, Vienna: Böhlau 2023), 237-260)
(Original in German, appeared in Erfurter Vorträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Orthodoxen Christentums 20 (2021), Single Issue, 32 p.)
it fulfills the three momenta defining any confession: the universal, the temporal, and the confessional momentum. Using a complex approach combining ecclesiology, theory of history, and historical analysis, it shows that Eastern Orthodoxy is a Christian confession, just as Catholicism,
Lutheranism, the Reformed faith, and Anglicanism are confessions. To this end, I contrast, on the one hand, the dogmatic-traditionalist paradigm of the neopatristic synthesis developed by the Russian theologian Georges Florovsky with a historiographical paradigm of the historical presence of Orthodoxy in the world and history. For this purpose, I comment abundantly on the concepts of confessionality developed by the German hermeneutics of history in the 20th century. On the other hand, I point out how Orthodoxy historically became a confession by possessing in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy its Bekenntnisschrift and thus a confessional identifier. In conclusion, I maintain that only that study of the Eastern Church which is based on historical methodology and on the historical observation of plurality can guarantee the integration of Orthodoxy into the pan-European history of Christianity, into a fair Ecumenism, and thus overcome the East-West polarity.
(in Travaux et Mémoires 25/1 (2021): Le monde byzantin du XIIIe au XVe siècle anciennes ou nouvelles formes d’impérialité, ed. Marie-Hélène Blanchet, Raúl Estangüi-Gómez, 827-868)
(Campus Westend, Frankfurt am Main, July 25-28, 2022)
(Appeared in Diana Hitzke, ed., Dominanz und Innovation. Epistemologische und künstlerische Konzepte kleiner europäischer Kulturen, Bielefeld: transcript 2021, pp. 75-94)
communism in many predominantly Orthodox countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe have triggered an intense interest
in formulating a specifically Orthodox Christian political theology
in various forms. The volume focuses on these developments,
but also offers a panorama of the evolution of Orthodox political
theologies across time, from early Byzantium until today.
variety, and subtility of multiple forms of mobility and movements is a genuine
exercise of fascination. We dive into the confessional life of Orthodoxy enlivened
by fears, hopes, and desires. The contributions are individual recordings that
together paint a larger picture of connectivity, communication, and exchange
within and beyond Orthodoxy across a broad temporal spectrum from the
sixteenth to the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the twentieth century.
(Mihai-D. Grigore, ed., Orthodoxy on the Move: Mobility, Networks, and Belonging Between the 16th and 20th Centuries, Special Issue, Studia Universitatis Babes Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa 68:1 [2023], 245 p.)
CONTENTS: Introduction: Beyond Concepts – Neagoe Basarab: A Christian Prince in the Early Sixteenth Century – Erasmus of Rotterdam and His Education of a Christian Prince: On the Ethical Theomimesis of the Christian Prince – On Secular Authority: Martin Luther and the Prince as Servant – Rule and Method: Machiavelli’s Prince and the Dispensable Semantics of Christianitas – Conclusion: Beyond Concepts, in the Thick of Semantics.
(in: Zachary Chitwood, ed., Medieval Mount Athos between Wealth and Poverty (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 197-215
(in "Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West" 10 [2023], 13-16)
The main theses: The Orthodox Commonwealth rises to an alternative and trans-imperial order functioning as a dynamic polysystem animated by the polycentric synergy between administrative centres (e.g., Constantinople, Pec, Tarnovo), spiritual centres (e.g., Athos, Paroria), and politico-economical centres (Serbia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, Moldavia, Kievan and Muscovite Rus).
(appeared in: Andreea Badea, Bruno Boute, Birgit Emich, eds., Pathways Through Early Modern Christianities, Vienna: Böhlau 2023), 237-260)
(Original in German, appeared in Erfurter Vorträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Orthodoxen Christentums 20 (2021), Single Issue, 32 p.)
it fulfills the three momenta defining any confession: the universal, the temporal, and the confessional momentum. Using a complex approach combining ecclesiology, theory of history, and historical analysis, it shows that Eastern Orthodoxy is a Christian confession, just as Catholicism,
Lutheranism, the Reformed faith, and Anglicanism are confessions. To this end, I contrast, on the one hand, the dogmatic-traditionalist paradigm of the neopatristic synthesis developed by the Russian theologian Georges Florovsky with a historiographical paradigm of the historical presence of Orthodoxy in the world and history. For this purpose, I comment abundantly on the concepts of confessionality developed by the German hermeneutics of history in the 20th century. On the other hand, I point out how Orthodoxy historically became a confession by possessing in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy its Bekenntnisschrift and thus a confessional identifier. In conclusion, I maintain that only that study of the Eastern Church which is based on historical methodology and on the historical observation of plurality can guarantee the integration of Orthodoxy into the pan-European history of Christianity, into a fair Ecumenism, and thus overcome the East-West polarity.
(in Travaux et Mémoires 25/1 (2021): Le monde byzantin du XIIIe au XVe siècle anciennes ou nouvelles formes d’impérialité, ed. Marie-Hélène Blanchet, Raúl Estangüi-Gómez, 827-868)
(Campus Westend, Frankfurt am Main, July 25-28, 2022)
(Appeared in Diana Hitzke, ed., Dominanz und Innovation. Epistemologische und künstlerische Konzepte kleiner europäischer Kulturen, Bielefeld: transcript 2021, pp. 75-94)
accelerated after the Fourth Crusade. By focusing attention on the origins and development of the patronage of Athonite monasteries by Wallachian princes, this paper demonstrates how the championing of foundations helped to legitimize a nascent Orthodox principality.
(appeared in J. Körntgen et al., eds., Byzanz und seine europäischen
Nachbarn Politische Interdependenzen und kulturelle Missverständnisse, Mainz: RGZM 2020, pp. 91-102)
hagiography by including texts dealing with holiness and things holy in
general instead of limiting our scope to biographical works alone." (Nikolas Jaspert)
Appeared in German in: Michael Meyer-Blanck (ed.), Christentum und Europa, Leipzig: Ev. Verlagsanstalt 2019, 457-473
(German: Der Beitrag bildet einen Ansatz von Rezeptions- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte anhand interpretativer Debatten um eine der wichtigsten literarischen Produktionen des orthodoxen Europas im 16. Jahrhundert, der Fürstenspiegel des Neagoe Basarab, des Fürsten von der Walachei zwischen 1512 und 1521. Dieses Fallbeispiel zeigt, wie Historiographie von dem Hintergrund politischer Entwicklungen her verstanden werden sollte und wie sie in Südosteuropa politischen Narrativen der nationalen Identität, des nationalen Stolzes und des nationalen Kulturguts dient. Die Analyse bezieht Diskussionen mehrerer wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen wie Byzantinistik, Geschichte, Slavistik, Literaturwissenschaft, Philologie, Theologie, Religionswissenschaft aus mehreren südosteuropäischen Ländern ein, die in diese 'homerische Frage' der rumänischen Kultur bis heute verwickelt sind.)
Keywords: History of Peace, Idea of Peace, Eusebius of Caesarea, Augustinus, Pax Augusta, Pax Carolingia, Pax Dei, Marcilius of Padua, Defesor Pacis
(Published in: Wolfgang Behringer, Wolfgang Kraus, Heinrich Schlange-Schöningen [eds.], Der Friedensauftrag Europas, Münster: Lit 2017, pp. 81-114)
URL: https://cursor.pubpub.org/pub/orthodoxes-christentum
Quotation: Mihai-D. GRIGORE, Zwischen orthodoxer Konformität und politischem Pragmatismus: Die Walachei im 16. Jahrhundert, in: »Religion und Politik. Eine Quellenanthologie zu gesellschaftlichen Konjunkturen in der Neuzeit«. Hg. v. Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG)
It was hoped that the prevailing differences and contradictions of the two churches could be overcome by means of a council, where the fundamental issues would be discussed. But what exactly were the differences and did the parties manage to come to an agreement?
Published on Plattform http://en.ieg-differences.eu/ (German and English)
Contribution on http://en.ieg-differences.eu/ Plattform (German and English)
The Church Union established with the Latin Church at the Council of Ferrara-Florence was rejected in Moscow. In 1448, the city chose its own metropolitan. This meant a de facto schism from the mother church. The independence of the Russian Church was accomplished in 1590, when Moscow erected its own patriarchate. Moscow would become the new center of Eastern Christendom.
confessional option, and the politicization of space in the building of territorial states. My focus lays on the
two Danube Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which implemented their state building owing to three
decisive steps: the jurisdictional option in favour of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople; the
territorial and social implementation of the Byzantine Orthodoxy by institutional infrastructure and monastic
reform; the orthodox enculturation of the two Wallachian principalities. By such dynamics, cultural and
historical phenomena transform the abstract geographical space into political space of the state.
(Lectures on Space and Religion I, Research Group 'Policentricity and Plurality of Pre-Modern Christianities', Frankfurt Main, 8.11.2022)
A paper on the importance of religions and religious infrastructures in crisis situations, whether as pretext for starting conflict, as a mean to weaken the enem, or as mediation stategz in the name of religious values. Military leadership in war zones, especially within NATO and UN presence, must incorporate awareness of religious situation in the deployment area. Religious infrastructure means first and foremost the material: religious buildings, holy places, sacred sites, sacred objects and relics. Material infrastructure concretely visualises invisible features such as religious convictions, transcedental views and beliefs.
Ein Überblick über die systematischen (dogmatisch, ethisch) Diskursen zu Menschenrechten in den orthodoxen Traditionen, insbesondere des Ökumenischen Patriarchats, des Russisch-Orthodoxen Patriarchats, des Rumänisch-Orthodoxen Patriarchats, der American Orthodox Church, der Griechisch-Orthodoxen Erzdiözese von Athen
I speak of the incredibly successful career of this concept for several reasons. Not only is »Byzantine Commonwealth« used in all encyclopaedias, companions and introductions to Byzantium and post-Byzantine successor states, it also serves to underpin the theory of a coherent cultural and historical area »South-eastern and Eastern Europe« and thus finds its way into the university policies and funding. In scientific studies one speaks analogously also of an »Orthodox Commonwealth« (P. Kitromilides), in an integrative approach, which tries to overcome spatial-geographical and historiographical heuristics of a Southeast and Eastern European common history with a new focus on culture and religion. After few considerations on »Commonwealth« and geography in the concept »Byzantine Commonwealth«, I approached »Commonwealth« from the religious, cultural, and polemical point of view. The conclusions I resumed under the title The immortal Byzantium in order to affirm that the historical Byzantium lives fort in the historiographically constructed and academically, politically, and medially maintained concept of »Byzantine Commonwealth«.
(Talk given at the conference 'Konzeptualisierung kleiner europäischer und nicht-europäischer Kulturen', Dresda, 10 to 11 October 2019)
(Keynote at the International Workshop "Religious Diversity and Confessionalization in Ottoman Europe", 4-6 July 2019, Munich University)
Held on the conference: "Orthodoxe Theologie im europäischen Kontext
Der Beitrag der rumänischen Orthodoxie zur christlichen Identität Europas und zum innerchristlichen Dialog", Munich, 22 to 23 November 2018
Talk given at the Leibniz-Institute of European History at the conference "Orthodox Christian Political Theolgies: History, Development, Specificities, Contextualisation" (Mainz, 26-28 April 2018)
Talk given in Marburg on the Conference of the Herder-Institute "Crusading and the Crusader M ovement in the Peripheries of the Christian West 1100-1500" (5th to 7th October 2017)
The sources of my paper are Erasmus of Rotterdam’s political writings, Institutio Principis Christiani and Querela Pacis. I will try to analyse his central concept of the humanitas legum and to embed it in a broader theoretical context: I will show how the Erasmian ethical discourse on humanitas (humaneness) – with its patterns of natural philosophy and natural law – determine and frame the concrete concept of the ‘Humaneness of Law(s)’ in the mentioned works. I will firstly speak in my paper about the historical phenomenon of humanism and its (etymological) connection to ‘Humaneness’. The next step is the analysis of Erasmus’ understanding of humaneness as cross point of nature, education, and ethical conduct. In the conclusion I will show that the concept of ‘humanitas legum’ represents the concretization of this philosophical and ethical system around ‘humaneness’ and describe the two applications, Erasmus proposes for his concept: the Pan-European peace and the ‘Humane’ (Christian) State.
Lateinischen Christen und den schismatici des östlichen Ritus unterschieden, ist festzustellen, dass die jeweiligen
Glaubensbekenntnisse bei den hier lebenden Christen wenig bekannt waren, wenig angewendet wurden und nur
eine kleine Rolle gespielt haben. Wichtig war dagegen die Jurisdiktion. Im Zeichen der konfessionellen Ambiguität
war es den Herrschern der Walachei und der Moldau möglich, die Einflüsse Roms und Konstantinopels
gegeneinander auszuspielen. Mit der letztendlichen Entscheidung für Konstantinopel im 14. Jahrhundert öffnete
sich der Weg erst im späten 15. und frühen 16. Jahrhundert für Etablierung bekenntnis‐artiger Unterschiede, die
man dann auch politisch konsequent durchzusetzen versuchte. Der Beitrag zeigt, wie sich dieser Prozess in der
Walachei entfaltete: von der Zeit der Gründung des Metropolitansitzes 1359 bis zum Glaubensgutachten des
Manuel von Korinth (gest. 1530) an Neagoe Basarab, den Fürsten der Walachei zwischen 1512—1521.
Koexistenz lateinischer und orthodoxer Christen in dieser Region beeinflussten und prägten. Die Arbeitshypothese war, dass sich das Nationalbewusstsein der rumänischen Bevölkerungsgruppe, die im 19. Jahrhundert so stark in Erscheinung treten sollte, bereits in der besagten Zeitspanne artikulierte: Es war vor allem ein Ergebnis der ausgeprägten konfessionellen Dynamik und Interaktion, die in den unterschiedlichen ‚konfessionellen Projekten‘ dieser Region Niederschlag fanden.
life and society. Under the influence of a traditional Machiavellian train of thought, modern politics has turned into an
instrument of power and order. As a result, it tends to be blind when it comes to the political importance of morality and
spirituality.
Both in national and international scope and application, it has transformed the morality of the state into the standard
perspective of morality in politics: a political realism or ‘power politics’ in international life that puts morality and spirituality
at the service of political goals. Modern politics and public policy on the one hand, and Westphalian international politics,
including international law and organizations, on the other, all became means of enhancing materialist aspirations.
Against this modern tendency, however, there have also been important counter- movements. In modern times, it was not
only Kant who reacted against this narrow view of politics. The Romantic tradition and its spiritualist/mystical aftermath
have also been challenging the one-sidedness of modern politics. The New Age Movement, voluntary simplicity and
spiritualist approaches, liberation theology and ethics, Maximalist views, and alternative perspectives on politics are among
the reviving voices all favoring in different ways the undeniable link between spirituality/mysticism and a proper, ‘humane’,
form of politics. In addition, delimiting geographical, cultural and disciplinary boundaries, the phenomenology of globality
promises new spiritual outlooks and possibilities in respect to culture, identity and politics.
Once they bear political responsibility, domestic political parties that claim to stand for ideals generally tend to resort to sole
utilitarian decision-making procedures. Often enough, they also tend to become victim of the Machiavellian temptation to
sanctify all means irrespectively.
However, true leadership and authority exercised at the service of global justice might require more from those responsible for
human communities’ proper order. Ever since Plato, the Jewish prophets, the Christian hesychasts, the Indian Mahabharata
and Arthashastra, or Sufism, a kind of inner, ‘mystical’ orientation of the political leaders has been advocated. Power
corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the more power turns out to be enslaving of the powerful, the more a
reflective and spiritual relationship to one’s own power seems requisite. A traditional - exclusively rational and intellectual -
approach to this problem of power has turned out to be superficial and ineffective.
In many traditions of the world there are examples of this spiritual and mystical awareness. Practical contemporary examples
continuing the historical phenomena mentioned above are also very interesting: the India in Gandhi’s dream as a model for
global development, Latin American liberation ethics, the revival of African mysticism reaching beyond the narrowness of
the post-colonial view, Asian miracles mediated by traditional/spiritual mode of life and practice, and the emergence of
spiritualist perspectives within the West (such as Charles Taylor) are evidence of such an awareness.
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cultural and religious bridge between Orient and Occident. Therefore, we would like to discuss in which way scientific, ecclesiastical and political elites dealt with (pseudo-)Byzantine items, narratives, and paradigms in various contexts in order to strengthen their own identity, to stage or
legitimize their power as well as to justify certain political strategies.
Der interdisziplinäre und auf eine Sicht der longue durée (13.—20. Jahrhundert) ausgerichtete Zugriff ermöglicht es, einen maßgeblichen theoriebildenden Beitrag zu einer Neubewertung der europäischen Konfessionsgeschichte unter Einbeziehung des ostkirchlichen Kulturraums zu leisten. Darauf können dann weitere Forschungsvorhaben zur interkonfessionellen Dynamik in Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa plausibel und produktiv aufbauen. Insofern die ‚Orthodoxie‘ als Konfession auftritt, kann sie zusammen mit anderen christlichen Konfessionen als integrativen Teil einer Dynamik betrachtet werden, die sich durch die europäische Geschichte hindurch zieht.
Organisatoren: PD Dr. Mihai-D. Grigore (IEG) und Dr. Florian Kührer-Wielach (Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südeuropas, München)
Kooperation zwischen Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte Mainz (IEG) und Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas München (IKGS) mit Unterstützung des Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Mainz: Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident
In 'Journal of Eastern Christian Studies' 70/1-2 (2018), pp. 139-142
basic differences especially between Northern, Western and Eastern Europe exist which are being shown by the contributors.
basic differences especially between Northern, Western and Eastern Europe exist which are being shown by the contributors.