Council of Florence: The Unrealized Union

In 1439, by the Decree of the Council of Florence, the Union between "Latin" Roman Catholic West and "Greek" Orthodox East was officially proclaimed. Yet, this Union did not last. Although it was the beginning of what we call today the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches -- which claim more faithful than most Protestant ecclesiastical bodies -- the majority of the Eastern Orthodox Christians rejected the Union. Sergey Dezhnyuk proposes that this rejection reflected the fact that at the Council of Florence the genuine meeting of the Christian East and West did not occur. There was an appearance of the dialogue. Nevertheless, due to the truly abysmal philological and theological gaps between two camps, neither of them truly understood the position of the counterpart. Even when "Latins" and "Greeks" where speaking in the same language, the meaning of the terms they utilized was often incompatible. With the addition of political pressure and realities of the imminent threat of the conquest of Constantinople by the Osman forces, there was no chance for the Christian East and West to present their perspective views, have constructive dialogue, and come to some workable compromise. Although such theme is present in some works on the Council of Florence, the majority of academic research tends to blame the failure of the Union of Florence to one or another side of the great divide. This book points that the Union was achieved only "on the paper." It also examines the variety of the underlying reasons behind such outcome.