Konstaninopel und Kairo: Die Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine im Kontakt zum Ökumenischen Patriarchat und zur Koptischen Kirche. Interkonfessionelle und interkulturelle Begegnungen im 18. Jahrhundert (review)

Nikolaus von Zinzendorf’s ecumenical vision extended beyond the churches of Western Europe to include the ancient churches of Greece, Egypt, Persia, and Ethiopia. In the 1740s and ’50s he sent representatives to establish relationships with the patriarchs of churches in the Ottoman Empire. These were some of the earliest encounters between European Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches and add to our understanding of East-West relations, but these Moravian efforts have received little attention by scholars in the past. Arthur Manukyan investigated Greek and Egyptian sources as well as Moravian records. In addition to studying the official letters and reports, he examined how Moravians translated Zinzendorf’s writings into Arabic.

Like most Europeans in the eighteenth century, the Moravians knew little about the history of the Middle East or the political situation of Christian minorities under Ottoman rule. Manukyan examines several instances of Moravian misunderstanding, and he shows that Moravian ecumenism did not include appreciation for the rituals of the Eastern churches. They also had a lot to learn about the role of Christian patriarchs within the Ottoman Empire and the relationships between the Coptic Christians and the Greek-speaking Christians. Some of the Egyptian officials naturally assumed the Moravian Brethren were members of a Catholic religious order and that Zinzendorf was a cardinal. The Moravians tried to present their Christocentric theology in terms that would be appealing to the Greeks and Copts while still maintaining their adherence to the Augsburg Confession. The Greek bishops were pleased that the Moravians did not use the controversial filioque clause in the Nicene Creed, and the Copts appreciated the Moravian emphasis on the full incarnation of the Son of God in the Virgin Mary. The Moravians even assured the Coptic patriarch that they thought it was permissible to call Mary the “God-bearer.”

Manukyan navigates with great skill the complexities of Arvid Gradin’s mission to Constantinople and Frederick Hocker’s multiple trips to Cairo. The mission to Constantinople was rooted in the Moravian desire to do missions among the Samoyeds in Siberia. Zinzendorf hoped the Greek patriarch could persuade Russian Orthodox officials to approve Moravian missions. He tried to convince the patriarch that the Herrnhuters were descendants of the old Unitas Fratrum in Moravia. Since the Moravians “were converted by Cyril and Methodius and were thus of the Greek Church” (30) they should not be dismissed as Lutherans. With the help of Henry Cossart, Gradin had prepared a history of the Moravian Church that gave the impression that the Moravian bishops David [Nitschmann] and Nikolaos [Zinzendorf] were in apostolic succession through the Greek Orthodox missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Gradin became friends with prominent Greek bishop Samuel von Derkos, who played the central role in convincing Patriarch Neophytos to write a circular letter to the Greek bishops affirming the orthodoxy of the Moravians. Gradin was upset over the lack of explicit permission to evangelize in Orthodox lands, but he was even more concerned that the letter affirmed too strongly the unity of the Moravian Church and the Greek Church. Neophytos’s letter played a key role in convincing the British Parliament to recognize the Moravians as an episcopal church in 1749, but the Moravians were not able to evangelize freely in the Ottoman Empire or in Russia.

The mission to Egypt was very different from the mission to Constantinople. Inspired by a vision of the coming Kingdom of God, the Moravians wanted to establish contact with Christians in the lands of the Magi, who had come from Persia, Babylon, and Ethiopia, according to tradition. A recent convert named Frederick Hocker was chosen to explore the possibilities of a mission to the Middle East. His skills as a physician proved to be very valuable in his travels. On his first...