phyletism

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Greek φυλετισμός (fyletismós), from φυλέτης (fylétis, “tribesman”) + -ισμός (-ismós, “-ism”).

Noun

phyletism (uncountable)

1. (Eastern Orthodoxy) The doctrine and practice of organising churches along exclusive, nationalist lines, condemned as heretical by the 1872 Council of Constantinople.

   Synonym: ethnophyletism

   • 1977 May, John Meyendorff, “Blind Phyletism”, in The Vision of Unity, published 1987, →ISBN, page 77:

     Its progress in the past years shows that the heresy of phyletism is bound to rescind and that all those who really desire Orthodox unity—without losing anything which is precious and positive in their ethnic traditions—will join us in our common Orthodox witness to the world of today.

   • 2017, A. Edward Siecienski, The Papacy and the Orthodox: Sources and History of a Debate, →ISBN, page 375:

     [Soloviev] lamented that phyletism, the division of the church along ethnic, national, or linguistic lines, had become Orthodoxy’s governing ecclesiology despite its official condemnation in 1872.

Related terms

• phyle, phyletic