Towards a Better Understanding of the Orthodox Communion in the Early Modern Age : On the Book An Orthodox Commonwealth by Paschalis Kitromilides

Abstract

The author analyses the contribution of Paschalis Kitromilides to the understanding of the supra-identity of Orthodox peoples that had existed for many centuries until the revolutionary 19th century. He particularly focuses on the importance of a common Orthodox culture and of Greek culture in the Balkans, and considers several examples from Serbian cultural history in that context, particularly the cases of Partenije Pavlović and Dositej Obradović. He also agrees with Kitromilides’s interpretation of the problem of the abolishment of the Pariarchate of Peć and criticises the ethnic way of interpreting this issue in Serbian historiography, which he sees as another anachronism.