Book Presentation
(NEW EDITION)
Edition Greek-Orthodox books
«UNIA: THE FACE AND THE DISGUISE»
THE BOOK BY FR. GEORGE METALLINOS
NOW CIRCULATING IN ENGLISH
Now in circulation is the English edition of the book “UNIA: The Face and
the Disguise” by Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos, Professor
Emeritus of the Athens University School of Theology. This new edition
is included in the publications of the Christian Orthodox
Philanthropical Society of Friends of the Sacred Retreat of Pantokrator
at Melissohori “Saint Gregory Palamas”.
In
this very notable essay, Father George examines the historical course
and the significance of the religious-political entity named “Unia”,
that is, of the Papist communities in the Orthodox regions of Eastern
Europe and the Middle East – mainly during the past four centuries – who
have deceptively been observing the Orthodox liturgical rubric (sacred
services, language, vestments, etc.), but have acknowledged primacy
and infallibility in the person of the Pope of Rome. The author
analyzes Unia’s early link to the Papist “Holy Inquisition”, but also
to the Jesuits, who had originally organized Unia as a disguised
Latinism. According to Fr. George, Unia was –on the one hand– a factor
that balanced out the damage sustained by Papism on account of the
Protestant Reform from the 16th century onwards, and on the other hand,
it was also a lever that elevated the Pope as a universal Bishop,
whose prestige is supposedly recognized not only in the West but also
in the East, that is by the Uniates, who are a mere semblance of
“Easterners”. Unia exploited various favourable coincidences, such as
the financial adversity that prevailed in various countries as well as
schisms, but, par excellence, it exploited the support of Roman
Catholic Governors, to impose itself en masse or even with force on
Orthodox populations. The strengthening of Unia was nothing short of
the continuance of the Papacy’s medieval struggle for dominance
(Investiture Controversy), for the implementation also of political and
not only ecclesiastic authority by Rome. It was the Pope’s oppression
of the Orthodox through Unia that made the Orthodox of Eastern Europe
turn to Russia during World War II - the same time during which the
Uniates were collaborating with the German Nazis.
The
Professor of Ecclesiastic History especially focuses on the emergence
of Unia in the region of Greece and the reaction of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate and the Church of Greece, as well as -for example- the
successful proselytism to Unia of the destitute Asia Minor refugees,
through Uniate “philanthropy”. The upgraded (with Cardinals) status of
Unia by the Vatican, both in the Ukraine and the broader area during the
last decades, but also the Vatican’s stance on the ethnic and
ecclesiastic subject of Skopje’s pseudo “Macedonia” and the wars of
former Jugoslavia, prove that the problem of Unia is not one of the
past. The Vatican’s persistence in preserving and strengthening Unia
despite the reactions of the Orthodox, but also of many important Papist
personages – and in spite of the damage to the ecumenist “dialogue of
love” – proves that Unia continues to this day to be extremely precious
to the Vatican, for the salvaging of its crumbled moral status and
also for the weakening of Orthodox peoples, States and alliances (the
current events in the Ukraine are most revealing).
Finally,
the author analyzes the soteriological repercussions of Unia’s
activity, given that by maintaining all the heretic dogmas of Papism –
dogmas that were condemned by Ecumenical Councils – Unia is deemed
detrimental to the prerequisites for in-Christ salvation. The matter of
Unia is no longer a hiero-canonical one, as were the instances of
Rome’s encroachments over a thousand years ago in the jurisdictions of
the Eastern Patriarchates; it is primarily an ecclesiological problem
and should be considered as a reason for the revision and redefinition
of the theological dialogue of the Orthodox with an uncompromising and
aggressive Rome. The text is also flanked by significant, related,
pan-Orthodox documents.
book size (in cm): 12,5X20.5
Pages: 124
ISBN: 978-618-81489-1-8
Language: English
1st edition: 2015
Publisher: Greek-Orthodox books
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