Orthodox Reformation

During the Reformation, many rulers decided to abandon their affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and instead embraced Protestantism. But what if Reformers decided to call for switching to Orthodoxism rather than Protestantism?

Many of the rulers were attracted to Protestantism because they could break free of Papal influence and confiscate RCC lands. But by going Orthodox, you have the same advantages. Under Orthodoxism, all national churches are autocephalous and its leaders are independent of any higher authority. (Patriarch of Constantinople is first amongst equals to leaders of autocephalous churches and has no authority over them).

It seems to me that many of the goals of Protestantism could be achieved by converting to Orthodox. And as Orthodox Church has roots just as deep as RCC, switching to Orthodox affiliation provides a great deal of "religious legitimacy" as well.
 

Philip

Donor
But what if Reformers decided to call for switching to Orthodoxism rather than Protestantism?

Melanchthon exchanged letters with Patriarch Jeremiah. They did not agree on justification by faith alone. This will be a major problem for protestant reformers.

But by going Orthodox, you have the same advantages. Under Orthodoxism, all national churches are autocephalous and its leaders are independent of any higher authority
Are you suggesting an autocephalous church for each German prince?

It seems to me that many of the goals of Protestantism could be achieved by converting to Orthodox

Theologically it does not work for the Magisterial Reformation. It certainly does not work for the Radical Reformation.
 
During the Reformation, many rulers decided to abandon their affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and instead embraced Protestantism. But what if Reformers decided to call for switching to Orthodoxism rather than Protestantism?

Many of the rulers were attracted to Protestantism because they could break free of Papal influence and confiscate RCC lands. But by going Orthodox, you have the same advantages. Under Orthodoxism, all national churches are autocephalous and its leaders are independent of any higher authority. (Patriarch of Constantinople is first amongst equals to leaders of autocephalous churches and has no authority over them).

It seems to me that many of the goals of Protestantism could be achieved by converting to Orthodox. And as Orthodox Church has roots just as deep as RCC, switching to Orthodox affiliation provides a great deal of "religious legitimacy" as well.

Doctrinal issues aside, the key words are “national churches”. Getting recognition as autocephalous Church was not easy. For example, Tsardom of Russia got its own patriarch only close to the end of the XVI century and before that it took few centuries before the Russian Great Princes got the right to appoint their bishops (still had to be confirmed in Constantinople). Actually, the Ottoman conquest came rather handy because as a result the Greek patriarchs always had been short of money and more accommodating (I wonder how much was paid for establishing Patriarchate of Moscow). But would the German princes, especially the minor ones, possess the needed funds? If not, their situation is worse than under the Pope because their own church ends up being subordinated not to the far away and presumably independent Pope but to a patriarch controlled by a bigger neighbor.

The same goes for the Church property. It took quite a while (all the way to the early XVIII) for the rulers of Russia to start feeling free with the Church properties and its internal organization (massive secularization of the Church lands happened only during the reign of Catherine II) so it would not necessarily be easy for a German prince to start doing so within the Orthodox Church. Protestantism provided a nice clean slate with the convenient mutual dependencies and the new religious institutions not having any historic status (or property).
 
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