Published | Parrésia - Ročenka pro východní křesťanství

Zajetí velké církve

Dějiny Konstantinopolského patriarchátu od pádu Cařihradu do roku 1821

Author: Steven Runciman
Translated by Jakub Lev Houdek from the original publication “The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence”, Cambridge 1968.

How did the Greek Church fare after the fall of Constantinople into the hands of the Ottomans in the year 1453? How did she come to terms with the new conditions and challenges brought by muslim rule? How did she succeed in preserving the Byzantine heritage for four centuries, as well as contributing to the Greek national revival? This book by the Nestor of world medieval studies, Steven Runciman (1903–2000), seeks to find answers to these and other questions. However, the author does not confine himself to a  historical narrative of the vicissitudes of the Byzantine Church; his interest is centred above all on the process whereby a supra-national, universal Church was transformed into a society of national and local character. The author devotes particular attention to the internal organization of the Great Church, to her teachings, and to the leading personalities of the time. His panoramatic synthesis incorporates an analysis of the relations between the Constantinople Patriarchate and the other Christian denominations – Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist, as well as the Orthodox churches of the Balkans and Russia, as well as the other Patriarchates of the Near East (namely those of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem).