Loyal to the Republic, Pious to the Church

Book excerpt: This volume deals with matters of public religious expression and aspects of interconfessionality in the case of the Greek Orthdox clergyman and scholar Gerasimos Vlachos (1607–1685) from Candia, Crete. The book proceeds to an interpretative approach to Gerasimos Vlachos' ideological, political and religious identity in all the phases of his life. As the principal factor of the work is promoted Vlachos' perception of his contemporary trans- and interconfessional tendencies and cross-cultural relations firstly within the 17th-century Venetian Republic and secondly in the wider European and Ottoman sphere. Dimitris Paradoulakis aims to interpret the scholar's attitude towards his contemporary theological controversies, the Venetian concept of socio-political tolerance and confessional conciliation, and Vlachos' personal perception on matters of multiconfessional coexistence and freedom of worship.