The article is devoted to the Narrative on the Sign of the Cross by Maximus the Greek. The text belongs to the first half of the 16th century, a period when Muscovy definitively asserted itself on the European and Mediterranean chessboard as the third and last surviving Christian world power. The construction of the Russian Empire rested on the definition of Russian Christianity. The contribution Maximus made to this process consisted of revised translations and new translations of sacred texts, of religious essays, as well as of his engagement in the interconfessional and intercultural debates of the times. In all these fields, Maximus applied the tools and methods that he had acquired in Italy under the influence of Humanism. The Narrative offers a good example of Maximus’ approach: Therein he defends the most ancient sign of the cross with two fingers by means of the medieval doctrine of the four senses of the Holy Scriptures. In this way, Maximus not only participated in the definition of Russian Orthodoxy, safeguarding the local tradition, but also sought to raise Muscovy to a higher level of cultural and theological competence, creating the condition for its actual ecclesiastical autonomy.
University of Pisa, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-4994-7062
Titolo del capitolo
La «Narrazione sul segno della croce» di Massimo il Greco: esegesi delle Scritture e prassi ortodossa nella Moscovia cinquecentesca
Autori
Francesca Romoli
Lingua
Italian
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0646-4.15
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Cristiani orientali e Repubblica delle Lettere (XVI-XVIII sec.) / Chrétiens orientaux et République des Lettres (16e-18e s.) / Östliche Christen und die Gelehrtenrepublik (16.-18. Jh.)
Curatori
Marcello Garzaniti, Vassa Kontouma, Vasilios N. Makrides
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
510
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0646-4
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0645-7
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0646-4
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0647-1
Collana
Europe in between. Histories, cultures and languages from Central Europe to the Eurasian Steppes
ISSN della collana
2975-0318
e-ISSN della collana
2975-0326