Colonizing Christianity - (Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought) by George E Demacopoulos (Paperback)

About the Book

Colonizing Christianity employs postcolonial critique to analyze the transformations of Greek and Latin religious identity in the wake of the Fourth Crusade. It argues that the experience colonization splintered the Greek community, which could not agree how best to respond to the Latin other.

Book Synopsis

Colonizing Christianity employs postcolonial critique to analyze the transformations of Greek and Latin religious identity in the wake of the Fourth Crusade. Through close readings of texts from the period of Latin occupation, this book argues that the experience of colonization splintered the Greek community over how best to respond to the Latin other while illuminating the mechanisms by which Western Christians authorized and exploited the Christian East. The experience of colonial subjugation opened permanent fissures within the Orthodox community, which struggled to develop a consistent response to aggressive demands for submission to the Roman Church.

Review Quotes

In drawing attention to the unique colonial circumstances generated by the Fourth Crusade, Demacopoulos succeeds in opening up the discourse for greater interdisciplinary investigation.-- "Comitatus"

George Demacopoulos's Colonizing Christianity is a truly extraordinary reevaluation of historical events in light of new theoretical approaches. It is both ground-breaking and measured, revolutionary and rooted in historical specificity. Demacopoulos knows the sources he works with and presents them eloquently. These sources carry their own historiographical baggage--so much so that one might doubt the possibility of saying anything new about them. The author manages, however, to argue convincingly for a new framework in which to understand these sources, and in so doing brings them to life in fascinating ways.-- "Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies"

Colonizing Christianity's analysis of a number of texts through the lens of colonial and postcolonial theory makes for useful, important, reading. There are significant stakes both for medieval historians and those committed to finding pathways of reconciliation among contemporary Christians.---David Perry, Sacred Plunder: Venice and the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade

About the Author

George E. Demacopoulos is Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University. He is the author of four monographs, most recently The Invention of Peter: Apostolic Discourse and Papal Authority in Late Antiquity and Gregory the Great: Ascetic Pastor and First-Man of Rome. With Aristotle Papanikolaou, he co-founded the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He presently serves as co-editor of the Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies.