Book Reviews

Il concilio di Ferrara – Firenze (1438-1439) – Storia ed ecclesiologia delle Unioni, V. A. Barbolovici, EDB, Bologna, 2018.

Fr. Ionuţ Blidar*

The Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1439) – The History and the Ecclesiol- ogy of Unions written by Father Vasile Alexandru Barbolovici and printed in 2018 in Bologna, Italy by EDB is a new book about the “Unions” with Rome, a book written by a Greek-Catholic priest who really knows, from the inside, the story of the churches born from these “Unions”. This work is the fruit o passionate research done during the years of Doctoral work in Sacred Theology in the Ecumenical InstituteSan Bernardino (Verona and Venice) and in the Pontifical University Antonianum (Rome). From the beginning we need to say that the book is far more complex than its title. Most prob- ably the title reflects the initial focus of the research but what it has become is something much more interesting and worth reading. There is already plenty of material about the Council of Ferrara-Florence, but this book can put a new light on the fruits of this Council, especially about the Romanian Church and its connections with Papal Rome. The book is limited by both the academic specificity of a doctoral -re search project (a lot of already well-known information about the Councils of Ferrara-Florence and Vatican II) and by the typical Romanian and Greek- Catholic “agenda” (the author reiterates classical ideas like the superficiality of the Slavic superstratum of the Romanian language; Romanian Christian- ity was initially fundamentally Latin in its language and tradition and was in full communion with Rome). This research passes beyond the limits of the doctoral research and offers a fresh and provocative ecumenical perspective on the interactions between Rome and the “Greek” Church in important regions of the Byzantine Commonwealth. Using a vast bibliography, and having access to the archives, the author presents many details of the his- tory of the relations between the majority population of “Greek” Romanian Christians, from the Hungarian Kingdom and from “Cumania” (Moldavia and Wallachia), with the powerful “Latin” Church with its Hungarian and

* Fr. Ionuț Blidar (S.T.D.), Episcopia Română Unită cu Roma de Lugoj, str. Episcop Dr. Ioan Bălan, nr. 6, Lugoj, TM, (0040) 727539930, [email protected]

RES 12 (3/2018), p. 465-466 DOI: 10.2478/ress-2018-0035 Book Reviews / Buchrezensionen

Austrian rulers, popes, cardinals and missionaries. Covering almost 2000 years of history, this book is one of the first in its genre. We suggest that for the content a better title would be The unity be- tween the Romanian Church and Rome: historical, theological and ecumenical perspectives, in light of the Councils of Ferrara-Florence and Vatican II. The book is centered on the importance of the Council of Ferrara- Florence in the regions where “Latins” and “Greeks” resided together. South Italy, Venetian possessions, the Hungarian Kingdom, Transilvania, “Cuma- nia”, Ruthenia were places where the Latin Church had to deal with an im- portant number of “Byzantine” faithful who did not share the same liturgical, theological and spiritual patrimony as those faithful who were under the See of Rome. Normal daily convivence as well as numerous practical dis- putes were everyday characteristics of the interactions between “Latins” and “Greeks”. The Council of Ferrara-Florence for the first time brought together the Pope of Rome and the Byzantine Emperor with his Patriarch and Bishops, endeavoring after the Great Schism to arrive at a common understanding of the issues that seemed to divide Christians. Albeit at the time the Council did not fully succeed, we can see from the book how fruitful it was and how it offered a model for the future Unions of the “Greek” Churches with Rome. The book is a milestone in the research of the so-called Uniatism. It is important to understand the complex context of the regions where Uniate Churches were born and how this ecclesiological and canonical solution was part of the real life of these regions. The termdouble belonging, often used by Father Barbolovici is very important in order to understand the meaning of the Unions with Rome of the Romanian and Ruthenian Churches. Rome, both in the Council of Ferrara-Florence and in the process of the Unions had certain “prepotency”, and often could not fully understand the ecclesiologi- cal and theological implications of double belonging. The “Greek” Churches in full communion with Rome remained in the same time in a theological, spiritual, liturgical and canonical “commonwealth” with the other Churches of Byzantine Tradition, which initially signed the Council of Ferrara-Flor- ence, but decided to not completely follow the consequences of its decisions. The book is not only rich in historical information but it also has two chapters in which the author tries to deal with the theology of the Unions in the light of the Councils of Ferrara-Florence and Vatican II. Father Barbo- lovici reads both history and theology from an ecumenical perspective due to his formation in the Ecumenical Institute of Venice. This offers to the reader a useful tool for the understanding of the contributions that the Unions with Rome have for the present and future of Christian unity. The Greek-Cath- olic Churches, seen in a more honest way with their histories and complex identities, are not an obstacle to unity but rather they are a seed of hope.

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The Authors

Pekka Metso, Associate Professor in Practical Theology, University of East- ern Finland Hans Bruno Fröhlich, Rev., Phd. Candidate, Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, Sighișoara Evanghelic Church A. B. Răzvan Perșa, Rev. PhD, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, Babeș Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Alexandru-Marius Crișan, Research Fellow, Institute for Ecumenical Re- search of Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Ciprian Ioan Streza, Liturgics Professor, Andrei Șaguna Faculty of Ortho- dox Theology, Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, Romania Gianandrea Di Donna, Rev. Prof., Theological Faculty of Triveneto, Italy Dorin Zosim Oancea, Rev. Prof. Dr. i.R. Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, Rumänien Mihailo Smiljanic, Mag., Rev, Serbian Orthodox Church, Diocese for Austria and Swizerland, Vienna, Austria Coriolan Mureșan, Doctor in Oriental Canon Law, Greek-Catholic Church, Dublin Ionuţ Blidar, STD, Lugoj Romanian Bishopric United with Rome

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