Orthodox Church and Witchcraft?

So I want to write a urban fantasy story in Constantinople and research accordingly. Unfortunately, I can't find a source for how the Orthodox Church (and the byzantine empire) looked at supernatural things/witchcraft. And I therefore have no idea how the ordinary citizen would react to blatantly supernatural stuff.

Are there sources for this?
 
A good place to start would be to examine how the orthodox church looked at anything and compare it with the way other mainstream Christian denominations looked at them. We know how the Catholics reacted to witchcraft and the like, after all (typically with fear and violence) - would it really be any different for the Greeks? Were they typically more or less superstitious? More or less God-fearing?
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
A good place to start would be to examine how the orthodox church looked at anything and compare it with the way other mainstream Christian denominations looked at them. We know how the Catholics reacted to witchcraft and the like, after all (typically with fear and violence) - would it really be any different for the Greeks? Were they typically more or less superstitious? More or less God-fearing?
By doing nothing? The position of the Church was that witchcraft didn’t exist. Witch burnings were uncommon in Catholic countries and the ones that did happen occurred without the consent of ecclesiastical authorities.
 
So I want to write a urban fantasy story in Constantinople and research accordingly. Unfortunately, I can't find a source for how the Orthodox Church (and the byzantine empire) looked at supernatural things/witchcraft. And I therefore have no idea how the ordinary citizen would react to blatantly supernatural stuff.

Are there sources for this?

You could do some fun stuff with icons.
 
As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, from my experience, there were two different kinds of it:

99.9999999999999999999% of the time it was just some shaman doing something fake and wowing everyone. Nothing really important and just sorta brushed aside. Same thing with curses, divination, you name it.

.000001% of the time (and nearly always in pre-Christian societies) it is seen as angels/demons trying to help out people who have no knowledge of God. Ultimately, it was seen as a kind of precursor to the full Church they would receive once they joined the Orthodox Communion, a kind of mercy to show the people that God still loved them (in the case of, say, Medicine Men in Native American societies) and that he was watching out for them, or an example of the very real evils of Satan.

Also, Icon Worship is a really good way to make everyone hate you at least in those societies, since after the Iconoclast controversy in the 700's and 800's the "veneration not worship" aspect of Icons was extremely pushed. You don't worship the wood, paint, and plaster, you worship Jesus. TBH it's a little bit of a pet peeve to me when people have Icons take the same place as idols do in, say, Babylonian society even though there's no difference.

If you wanna find any kind of info on theories of magic and witchcraft in predominantly Orthodox nations, I'd say research more Greek/Bulgarian/Russian/etc traditions, rather than try to find "Byzantine/Orthodox Witchcraft."
 

Philip

Donor
Unfortunately, I can't find a source for how the Orthodox Church (and the byzantine empire) looked at supernatural things/witchcraft. And I therefore have no idea how the ordinary citizen would react to blatantly supernatural stuff.

You should probably specify what you mean by 'blatantly supernatural stuff' and 'witchcraft'. Orthodoxy is full of supernatural beliefs but wouldn't consider any of them to be witchcraft.
 
It might depend on the context of the magic—is it explicitly in the name of/focused on spirits that cannot be tied to Christ? It would be far, far less agreeable if that was the case.
 
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