The dynamics of Enlightenment in the activity of the Kollyvades Movement

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleἩ δυναμικὴ τοῦ Διαφωτισμοῦ στὴ δράση τῶν Κολλυβάδων
3. Language term English
4. lemma author Koutalis, Vangelis
5. lemma category History and philosophy of science - Conflict - Westernism and anti-westernism - Culture and national identities
6. Publication date 28-11-2018
7. lemma work Metallinos, (Protopresbyter) Georgios [Author]. The dynamics of Enlightenment in the activity of the Kollyvades Movement
8. lemma manifestations Ο Ερανιστής
9. Keywords Western culture - Kollyvades movement - anti-Westernism
10. Citations
    1. <p>Metallinos, (Protopresbyter) G. [Μεταλληνός, (Πρωτοπρεσβύτερος) Γ.] (1997). Ἡ δυναμικὴ τοῦ Διαφωτισμοῦ στὴ δράση τῶν Κολλυβάδων. <em>Ὁ</em><em> Ἐρανιστής</em>, <em>21</em>, 189-200.</p>
11. Lemma body

    1. In this article, the author discusses the stance of the Kollyvades Movement towards the Enlightenment, in the late 18th century, by pointing out, from the outset, that the encounter of the Orthodox East with the West during the 18th century should be seen as a repetition of a similar encounter that took place in the 14th century, when the Hysechast controversy erupted. Both cases are illustrative of an identity crisis in the Greek nation, and in both cases Athonite monasticism played the leading role in the resolution of the crisis.

       The Kollyvades Movement, reasserting the continuity of Athonite monasticism as a guardian of the Patristic tradition, gave voice to the consciousness of a broad plebeian stratum, whereas the Greek proponents of Enlightenment championed a radical resignification of the whole social reality, striving to transplant in the East a new worldview that had been fashioned, through a long historical process, in the West. The conflict between the proponents of Enlightenment and the proponents of tradition was inevitable, in so far as these two parties stood against each other as two opposite worlds, representing two opposite visions.

       The challenge of Enlightenment, however, had also positive consequences, since it contributed to a revitalization of the discussion on the Patristic theology, and a reinforcement of the spiritual and cultural Orthodox self-consciousness. For the leading members of the Kollyvades Movement, Orthodoxy was not a religious ideology, but a way of life, leading to deification, the sole proper human destination, according to the Orthodox theology. Their anti-Europeanism was not so much symptomatic of an adherence to the Ottoman social and political structures, as indicative of their faithfulness to the continuity of the ecclesiastical Greek-Orthodox tradition.