ORTHPOL presents an interconnected view of the Early Modern religious reforms, the fault lines of which are visible in contemporary debates. In the 17th century, following similar developments in Western and Central Europe, the wind of religious change swept throughout Orthodox Christianity with unparalleled intensity. While a consensus has been reached on the pivotal role of the Reforms of Nikon, named after the controversial Patriarch of Moscow (†1681), its causes and far-reaching consequences remain a matter of debate, fueled by the emergence of new sources and, at times, polemical and political reassessments.
Our first aim is to broaden the scope of research by examining unpublished texts held in repositories from Greece (Mount Athos included), Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine – to mention just the most important ones. Based on this data, read against published materials, we will argue that the reformist thrust covered wider areas and aspects than hitherto assumed, affecting even the Orthodox communities of the Ottoman Empire. Focusing on the vital interplay between the religious and political spheres, we will show that Nikon was part of a larger dynamics of religious reforms promoted by such diverse and disputed figures as the “Calvinist” Patriarch of Constantinople Kyrillos Loukaris (d. 1638), the “Westernizer” Metropolitan of Kiev Peter Mohyla (d. 1647) and the “Orthodox” Patriarch of Jerusalem Dositheos (d. 1707).
Given the phenomenon’s multi-layered nature, we propose a model of analysis that highlights the specificities, antagonisms and connections between Muscovite, Ruthenian, Wallachian and Greek reforming currents by combining historical, theological and linguistic research tools. Our research compares, contextualizes and transgresses boundaries artificially imposed by nationalistic historiographies, while it tackles key topics in Early Modern religious, institutional and cultural history: confessionalization, factional (political) shaping of the “Right Faith” (seen as cultural system) and tension between tradition and innovation.
The current state of political and religious affairs in Eastern Europe, unfortunately, underscores the relevance of our focus on Early Modern topics.
The ORTHPOL team is an interdisciplinary one, as it includes historians, philologists and theologians. It is also an international one, as it comprises scholars from Austria (Liliya Berezhnaya, Grigor Boykov, Dimitrios Kousouris, Mariya Kiprovska, Lena Sadovski), France (Vera Tchentsova), Greece (Stauros Grimanis and Yorgos Tzedopoulos – Athens; Nikolas Pissis – Corfu), Hungary (Nagy Levente – Budapest), Romania (Mihai-Cristian Amăriuței – Iași; Ana Dumitran and Mihail Qaramah – Alba Iulia; Lidia Cotovanu, Octavian Negoiță, Iulia Nițescu, Andreea-Isabella Tatoi and Emanuela Timotin – Bucharest), Ukraine (Maksim Yaremenko – Kyiv; Ivan Almes and Dariya Syroyid – L’viv), United States of America (Kevin M. Kain – Green Bay WI; Ionuț-Al. Tudorie – Crestwood, NY) and Türkiye (Elif Bayraktar Tellan – Istanbul).
We benefit from the expertise of Visiting Scholars, such as Radu G. Păun (Paris) and Justin Willson (Clinton, MA), the help of the managerial team (Milorad Kapetanović, Edona Rexhepi, and Norma Schönherr) and the support of the Advisory Board, composed of Nikolaos A. Chrissidis (Southern Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT), Bernard Heyberger (EHESS, Paris), Vassa Kontouma (EPHE, Paris); Tijana Krstić (CEU, Vienna); Vasilios N. Makrides (University of Erfurt), and Konrad Petrovszky (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna).
