Ecumenism as civilisational dialogue: Eastern Orthodox anti-ecumenism and Eastern Orthodox ecumenism. A creative or sterile antinomy?

Abstract

It is argued that those who uphold Ecumenism and Anti-Ecumenism in Eastern Orthodoxy share much more in common than is normally thought to be the case. Both groups see the Orthodox Church as the Una Sancta of the Creed and that Orthodoxy must always witness to itself as the fullness of the Christian faith. They also both see ecumenical encounter (whether in dialogue or in condemnation of the Other) as being a species of civilisational dialogue between two very different realities of Christian East and West. Ultimately, it is contended, both parties have much to learn from one another so that their opposition is not a sterile but a creative antinomy.