Creedal Controversies among Armenians in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Empire

Anna Ohanjanyan

doi:10.1163/26670038-12342708

Abstract

Abstract In the late seventeenth century along the lines of European confession-building and Ottoman sunnitization, the Armenian Apostolic Church initiated the reshaping of its orthodoxy in the face of growing Tridentine Catholicism. Through the contextualization of the polemical writing attributed to the famed Constantinopolitan Armenian erudite Eremia Čʻēlēpi Kʻēōmiwrčean, this article discusses the ways of detecting “bad innovations” in the doctrine and practice of Armenian communities in the Ottoman realms, and the doctrinal instruments used for enforcing “pure faith” towards social disciplining of the Apostolic Armenians.

Highlights

Eremia Čēlēpi Kēōmiwrčean – anathema – Armenian Church – Armenian Theology – Roman Catholic and Armenian Church relations – Tridentine Catholicism – bad innovation – confessionalization – catechism – ʻilm-i hāl – Nicene Creed – orthopraxy – polemics – sunnitization via free access
In the late seventeenth century along the lines of European confession-building and Ottoman sunnitization, the Armenian Apostolic Church initiated the reshaping of its orthodoxy in the face of growing Tridentine Catholicism
Through the contextualization of the polemical writing attributed to the famed Constantinopolitan Armenian erudite Eremia Čēlēpi Kēōmiwrčean, this article discusses the ways of detecting “bad innovations” in the doctrine and practice of Armenian communities in the Ottoman realms, and the doctrinal instruments used for enforcing “pure faith” towards social disciplining of the Apostolic Armenians

Summary

Introduction

Eremia Čēlēpi Kēōmiwrčean – anathema – Armenian Church – Armenian Theology – Roman Catholic and Armenian Church relations – Tridentine Catholicism – bad innovation – confessionalization – catechism – ʻilm-i hāl – Nicene Creed – orthopraxy – polemics – sunnitization via free access.

Results

Conclusion