AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.

The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine.(Book Review)

Journal of Church and State

| September 22, 2002 | Gvosdev, Nikolas K. | COPYRIGHT 2002 J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

By Serhii Plokhy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. 401 pp. $74.00.

Serhii Plokhy's book has much in common with a study situated at the other end of Europe: Marcus Tanner's Ireland's Holy Wars. In both, the story of how a group with indeterminate religious and ethnic affiliations acquired a well-defined identity within a few generations, both during the early modern period, as confessional and national lines began to be drawn. Just as Catholicism became the defining point for Irish identity, allowing for a fusion between the Gaels and the Old English (in opposition to the Protestantism of the "New English"), the Cossack assumption of the role of "defender of Orthodoxy" in Ukraine was a critical point in forging the national consciousness, not only of the emerging Ukrainian nation, but also of the Poles and Russians.

Plokhy starts with the building blocks--the Cossacks (warbands who were gradually drawn into the military service of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth), the nobility of the old Rus' lands (trying to balance their sense of identity as Orthodox Christians with their role as grandees within a largely Catholic state), and the church--the metropolis of Kyiv (Kiev)--loosely dependent upon the see of Constantinople, which by this time was now under Muslim Ottoman domination. He concludes that two overlapping processes--one of confessionalization beginning with the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and one of state-building--set in motion the forces that would bring the Cossacks to the fore as defenders of Orthodoxy. As the Polish-Lithuanian state sought to clarify the position of the Orthodox metropolis vis-a-vis the Pope in Rome, embarking upon the strategy of encouraging, and then compelling, a union between the Orthodox of Ukraine and the papal see, the Orthodox were forced to more clearly define their position, and in so doing ...

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, and more
Orthodox Church divisions in newly independent Ukraine, 1991-1995.
Magazine article from: East European Quarterly Wasyliw, Zenon V. September 22, 2007 700+ words
The Orthodox Church has played a prominent...the centrality of the Eastern Orthodox Church through the ages. The...centuries within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. (2) The Orthodox Church in Ukraine underwent an...
Preaching politics: anti-Muslim and pro-Muscovite rhetoric in the sermons of...
Magazine article from: The Historian Shiyan, Roman I. June 22, 2009 700+ words
...tsar was encouraged by the Orthodox priesthood in Ukraine west...Rzeczpospolita (the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) in 1672. The Polish king...Polish territory made the Orthodox clergy's call to the Cossacks...involvement of Ukrainian-Orthodox clergy in politics in the...
Orthodox press grievances.(Orthodox churches disputes with the World Council of...
Magazine article from: The Christian Century June 3, 1998 700+ words
...level representatives of the 15 Eastern Orthodox self-governing churches, held in Thessaloniki...29 to May 2, has recommended that the Orthodox churches take part in the assembly but...common prayers. A second high-level Orthodox meeting, in Damascus, Syria, in mid...
Orthodox Christianity, civil society, and Russian democracy.
Magazine article from: Demokratizatsiya Marsh, Christopher June 22, 2005 700+ words
...political, and democratic values of devout Orthodox Christians and more secular-leaning "cultural Orthodox." The findings suggest that whereas...toward democratic governance, devout Orthodox Christians as a group are somewhat more...
Orthodox numbers are increasing.(Orthodox church membership)
Magazine article from: The Christian Century January 24, 1996 700+ words
The world's Orthodox population is growing as a result of...Estimates of the total world membership of Orthodox churches range from more than 200 million...to 250 million. Links between the 15 Orthodox patriarchates and their churches are...
Nonà Orthodox Jews Will Fight Growing Power of Ultras
Transcript from: NPR All Things Considered July 10, 1996 700+ words
...0000 The announcement by the ultra-Orthodox Israeli transportation minister to close...among many Israelis of growing ultra-Orthodox power. LINDA WERTHEIMER, Host: Israel...of violent demonstrations by ultra-Orthodox Jews and is meant to be a compromise...
ORTHODOX CHURCHES TO CONFER
Newspaper article from: Post-Tribune (IN) December 2, 1994 700+ words
...Bass thinks the time is long overdue for Orthodox churches in the United States to unite...pastor of Protection of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church in Gary. "Everywhere else one...ethnic lines," he said. A fragmented Orthodox church evolved in this country as different...
ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS HOLD CHRISTMAS TODAY; GOING BY THE JULIAN CALENDAR, THE...
Newspaper article from: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) January 7, 2002 700+ words
...year-old member of St. Mary's Russian Orthodox Church said Sunday during Orthodox Christmas Eve services at the church in DeWitt...in the Syracuse area Sunday and today marking Orthodox Christmas. "We still follow the Julian calendar...
For more facts and information, see all results
©2009 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
About us | FAQs | Contact us | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions
Other Gale sites: Encyclopedia.com | HighBeam Research | Acquire Content | Books & Authors | Goliath | MovieRetriever | Smart QandA