Book Reviews

Marie-Hélène Blanchet et Frédéric Gabriel (éds.), Réduire le schisme? Ecclésiologies et politiques de l’Union entre Orient et Occident (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècle). Association des amis du Centre d’Histoire de Civilisation de Byzance (ACHCByz 2013), Monogra- phies, 39. Paris, 2013. 377 pages. 28,50 EURO. ISBN 978-2-916716-40-4.

This collection, the result of a fruitful collaboration between scholars from several Euro- pean countries (mostly France, Italy, Greece and Russia), includes seventeen articles intro- duced by a comprehensive preface. The work is divided into three chapters and contains a useful index as well as a brief abstract of each article, both in French and English. Fourteen articles are in French, two in English, one in German and one in Italian. It might have made sense to translate the four non-French articles into French, to confer linguistic unity on the volume. Although aimed primarily at scholars and postgraduate students, the book still remains quite accessible to the larger readership. It can be safely recommended as assigned reading for advanced university history courses dedicated to the Great Schism. As the title suggests, the work is dedicated to the consequenses of the Great Schism. Therefore, the separation of the churches is viewed here first and foremost as a schism, not as a heresy. The latter attitude has become increasingly present in the contacts between the Catholic and Orthodox churches starting from the nineteenth century. It is not by chance that the current contribution deals exclusively with the 13th-18th centuries. Maybe a word could have been said about current inter-confessional contacts, but that was clearly not the interest of the participants. The quality of the contributions is in general quite impressive, but not all are equally easy to follow. The articles by M. Stavrou, S. Koldritz, L. Silvano, L. Tatarenko, M.-H. Blan- chet, K. Vetochnikov, V. Tchensova and A. Girard make a particularly good impression, but some of the other articles, despite their substantial length, are less evident to follow. It is a pity that the volume includes not one essay on the councils of Lyon (1274), Ferrara- Florence (1437-42), or Brest (1596). The collection is scrupulously edited. There remain some insignificant errors, which are hard to avoid in such a large project (p. 44 Union mistakenly spelled as U/nion; a curious blunder appears on p. 66 ‘Le De Trinitaté de Saint Augustin avait été traduit en latin par Maxime Planude…’, for “du”). As it is not possible to present all the essays in some detail, I have chosen four that are of particular interest. Marie-Hélène Blanchet (La réaction byzantine à l’Union de Florence (1439): le dis- cours antiromain de la Synaxe des Orthodoxes pp. 181-197) offers a useful response to the legend, spread throughout the Orthodox church(es), about the reasons for the rejection of the union of Florence, which was signed by almost all the representatives of both churches, and the growing schismatic tendencies. Blanchet convincingly argues against the version that the full weight of the Orthodox church was solely represented by Mark Eugenikos, bishop of Ephesus, who refused to sign the treaty. The author demonstrates that Mark’s activity after the council was reduced to a minimum and that he could hardly have had an impact on the mindset of his day. Blanchet offers an alternative explanation, according to which it was not one person who was responsible for spreading around the

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anti-unionist ideas, but a group which she identifies as the “Orthodox Fraternity” (Synaxis Orthodoxoon), whose head was Georges Scholarios, a monk who previously had occupied the post of protasecretis at the court of John VIII. Although quite convincing, the suggestion remains a hypothesis because certain questions remain unanswered. Blan- chet provides numerous examples from the writings of Georges Scholarios, but none by other members of the Synaxis. We are still ignorant as to what happened to the organisation and who were its members. One important indication of its activities can be found n their correspidence with the Hussites (pp. 187-191), but this may not be enough to draw firm conclusions about its real importance.

Michel Stavrou (Les tentative Gréco-Latines de rapprochement ecclésial au XIIIe siècle, pp. 41-56) contributes a nuanced article on the historical development of the unionist negotiations between the Byzantines and the West. As the author convincingly shows, this history is full of paradoxes. Stavrou discusses a large amount of little known mate- rial that leads the reader through the various stages in the negotiations. The references to Nicephore Blemmydès, who favoured unification, are revealing, because ofhis subtle use of the filioque cause, which gives the impression of being similar with Augustine’s interpretation. Unfortunately, Stavrou pays little or no attention to the council of Lyon, because he does not regard it as a sincere attempt at unfication based on a presumption of equality. He may be right, but the council nevertheless wished to make an attempt at furthering the discussion, even if the results were disappointing. Marie-Hélène Congourdeau (Nil Cabasilas et les projets de concile oecuménique pour l’Union des Églises, pp. 75-83) studies the influence of Nilus Cabasilas on partisans and opponents of the Florence union on the basis of two of his smaller treatises, De causis dissensionum in Eсclesia and De primatu papae. Congourdeau lists a dozen standard argu- ments in favor of Rome’s primacy, to which Cabasilas provided a reply, but fails to offer the details of this reply. The section concerning the dates of the treatises is of some interest, although perhaps not entirely convincing, because incomplete. For instance, the conclusion (p. 77) that they were written before Nilus’ main polemic treatise on the filioque is exclusively based on the fact that this issue is not discussed in the treatises; but this in itself requires a further explanation. It was probably not just a matter of maturity on the side of Cabasilas. Konstantin Vetochnikov (La politique religieuse des autorités génoises vis-à-vis de l’église grecque de Caffa (Crimee, XVe siecle), p. 261-277) studies the importance of the union of Florence for the Orthodox communities in the Venetian and Genoan colonies, in particular in the city of Caffa (nowadays Theodosia) on the Crimea. The author cites evidence for a possible unionist period among the Greek population of the city. The article presents the relationships of symbiosis and mutual understanding between the Orthodox and Catholic communities in Genoa’s colonies during this period. Still, one wonders what is the main idea of the article – the importance of the unionist cause in Caffa in the imme- diate aftermath of the council of Florence, or rather issues of religious tolerance of the Latin authorities in Caffa towards the Greeks. While the two are closely related, they are not identical. It is a pity that the author did not discuss the transition of the Greek diocese of Caffa from a pre-unionist position to a unionist position. The article could have been structured more clearly and the author could have given some more details on dates and names (e.g., the location of Amasea). The organisation of Caffa’s secular government could also have been presented somewhat more systematically. To a non-expert on Genoa’s history, the repeated references to certain protettori lack a context (p. 270).

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All in all, this is a valuable contribution to a topic that has stirred the minds of many in the East and in the West, up to this day. Victor Yudin

Alexander Agadjanian (ed.), Armenian Christianity Today; Identity Politics and Popu- lar Practice (London, Ashgate, 2014). ISBN 978-1-4724-1271-3

Armenian Christianity is a highly specific case in the contemporary global landscape, due to a peculiar combination of national and ethnic, historical, and “denominational” factors. First of all, present-day Armenia is one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in the world (97.9%) and its national identity is very closely connected to both its ethnic and its religious identity (as well as to its unique language and alphabet). At the same time, Armenia has the largest diaspora in the world (over 2/3 of all 10 million Armenians live outside Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Javakh enclave in neighbouring Georgia; by contrast, some 43% of the global Jewish population lives in Israel), and the larger part of its historic heartland, including its holy mountain Ararat, lies outside its current political borders (Few places in the world display stronger symbolism than the Genocide monument in Yerevan, from which Ararat is usually clearly visible.). Secondly, Armenia occupies a singular place among the post-Soviet states in that its independence was preceded by the uprising in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave – the de facto inclusion of the region (the self-declared republic Artsagh) and the occupation of the territories between the enclave and Armenia proper have produced a frozen conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan for over twenty years. This conflict, moreover, also blocks effective reconciliation with Turkey over the recognition of the genocide character of the displacement and extermination of around 1 million (estimates differ) Armenians in 1915, which adds to Armenia’s geographic isolation and vulnerability, and partly explains its alliance with the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation maintains a military base at Gyumri; Armenia is a CSTO founding member (since 1992), and in 1997 Armenia and Russia entered in a friendship treaty that allows Russian border guards to patrol Armenia’s borders with Turkey (closed) and Iran (open). Thirdly, the early adoption of Christianity, well preceding – even if its exact date can be disputed (p. 15f) – the estab- lishment of Christianity as a state religion in the Roman Empire, singles out Armenian Christianity and its main organization, the Armenian Apostolic Church [AAC in what follows] as a separate branch of Christianity that belongs, since the 451 Chalcedon Coun- cil (recognized as the fourth out of seven councils for the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches), to so-called Oriental Christianity. At the same time, while 94.7% of the population belongs to the AAC, Armenia is, in many respects, a very modern and highly “secular” society with, as editor Alexander Agadjanian puts it, ‘predominantly relatively “cool” forms of religiosity and a “consumerist” massive interest to only life-cycle rituals’ such as marriage and funeral (p. 2). For the above reasons, a book of high academic level on Armenian Christianity is bound to be extremely interesting. A landlocked enclave in some respects, Armenia at the same time is a cosmopolitan country in comparison to its neighbours, with an elevated academic culture, as this volume shows (seven out of twelve contributions are written by authors with Armenian family names). What makes this book particularly interesting, to the present reviewer’s mind, is the combination of taking seriously the history and legacy of the Armenian Christian tradition, dominated by but not limited to the AAC, and a

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series of “realistic” sociological and anthropological approaches. Together, they put Armenian Christianity, as it exists today institutionally, politically, and in everyday life, into perspective, or rather into two perspectives: that of the present-day republic which will celebrate 25 years of independence in 2016, and that of a number of diasporas. Within the first perspective, the discussion of the “grassroots Christianity” of the “Brotherhood” lay movement by Agadjanian himself and of Evangelical, Baptist, and Pentecostal/Charismatic churches and movements in Armenia by Anna Ohanjanyan make clear that apparent homogeneity can hide substantial diversity. Within the second perspective, the discussion of the Armenian diasporas in Istanbul, Lebanon, Romania, St Peters- burg, Southern California, and elsewhere in the USA (sizeable Armenian communities exist in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit), makes clear that there is not a single diaspora, but a widely variegated one. Broad as it may be geographically, this part is not “complete” as it leaves out the Southern part of Russia (Krasnodar, Stavropol, Rostov regions), the large Armenian community in Moscow, those in Ukraine and Iran, and also, perhaps most significantly, the Armenian diaspora in France (Paris, Marseille, Lyon). Even so, the editor’s disclaimer that the second part discusses ‘a few examples’ (p. 4) is too modest: selective as it may be, it brings out clearly diaspora variety and explains why the reference to a single Armenian ‘ethno-religious chain of memory’ (p. 10), highlighted by Konrad Siekierski who distinguishes ‘six elements of the Armenian ethno-religious genealogy’ (pp. 12-20), is so central to Armenian identity even if, or perhaps because, it is ‘postulated’ as Siekierski, following Danièle Hervieu-Léger, puts it. The present reviewer of this book is neither an Armenia-specialist, nor a scholar in the field of religious studies, but a political philosopher who takes great interest in the interaction of religion and politics, including, but not limited to the interaction between church and state. I have come to regard the South Caucasus as a very interesting area in this respect, and Armenia as a particularly interesting case. To a reader of this, or a comparable profile, the book is a rich source of information. We can agree, too easily perhaps, that all nations are imagined communities, all tradi- tions invented, all identities constructed, and all genealogies stipulated. But we should not overlook, maybe, that some are more imagined, invented, constructed, and stipulated than others. Arguably, Armenian ethno-religious national identity has been, across centuries and diasporas, both stronger and less defensive because it is less “artificial” and can more easily refer to “realities” than other. This should not lead us to “naturalize” or “essential- ize” this identity: is simply means that this it is more easily and more organically generated and maintained. Also, it does not make it necessarily less hostile or exclusionary: as the contributions to this volume show, there is a lot of tension and contestation involved, both between and around different dimensions of Armenian Christian reality. A clear example is offered by Hovhannes Hovhannisyan’s contribution on the evolv- ing relations, over the past century, between two major spiritual centres of the AAC, the Catholicosate in Etchmiadzin near Yerevan and the Cilician Catholicosate which was moved from Sis (today’s Kozan in Turkey) where it had existed since 1293 as part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, to Antelias in Lebanon after the 1915 genocide. Neither the Soviet and post-Soviet South Caucasus, nor post-Ottoman and post-colonial Lebanon belong to the peaceful and quiet parts of the world. During the past century, moreover, both spiritual centres were rather directly involved politically. Their history is one of oscillation between cooperation, competition, and accusations of collaboration: the anti-Soviet Dashnaktsutyun party, active in the diaspora, long regarded the Mother

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See of Holy Etchmiadzin ‘as a Soviet agent’ (p. 128); a period of post-Soviet reconciliation ended when the See of Cilicia opened a diocese in Canada in 2004 (p. 138), and new hostilities arose after the cautious rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey in 2009 (the Zürich protocols): the realism of the Armenian government clashed with the Dashnaktsutyun Party that wants Turkey to first fully recognize the genocide as such (p. 140): Etchmiadzin, under the influence of the Armenian government, and Cilicia, influenced by Dashnaktsutyun (p. 126), ended up facing each other. Taking this discussion across the Atlantic Ocean, Hovhannisyan shows how the conflict is present in the Armenian diaspora in the USA which was made up of subsequent waves of migration, loyal to either of the two spiritual centres. Additionally, the contribution by Irina Papkova makes clear how Lebanon has not only been a safe haven for the political opposition in Soviet times, but also for all three major Armenian denominations, Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical (p. 171), due no doubt to the absence of a link between ecclesiastical authority and political power, a link which did exist in Soviet Armenia in spite of the overall anti-religious policies of the USSR. The extent to which, for better or for worse, Armenian Christianity and the AAC are part of Armenia’s political and socio-economic reality is further illustrated by two articles. One is by Yulia Antonyan about the way in which nouveaux riches and oligarchs try to secure salvation and to generate social capital through the construction of ever bigger churches, which the AAC gladly accepts in its attempt to ‘fight the multiple Protestant movements that have become rooted in Armenia since the early 1990s’ (p. 43). The other is by Satenik Mkrtchyan, and discusses the “culture war” going on in the Armenian edu- cational system, where teaching the history of the AAC becomes intertwined with the –in itself global- struggle between evolutionism (part of the Soviet framework with its highly “scientistic” official dialectical materialism!) and creationism. This is leading to a situation where ‘creationism is connected to the Christian identity, which is regarded as a pillar of national identity,’ where ‘creationist ideas are taught in earlier grades than biology,’ and, as a result, ‘the evolutionist idea must “struggle” with already fixed knowledge’ (p. 67). As we see from these examples, Armenia, including its diasporas, is not only an interesting case in its own right, but also a microcosmic mirror of broader, both global and global trends and developments concerning the interaction of religion, society, and politics which, although it always has historical roots, can never be reduced to them. Evert van der Zweerde (Nijmegen)

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