The Impossible Reformation: Protestant Europe and the Greek Orthodox Church.

This article examines the paradox in early modern global Christianity that intensified denominational fractures accompanied growing desires for a uniform Christian reform, focusing on the exchanges between Greek Orthodox Patriarch Cyril Lucaris (1572–1638) and Dutch Reformed Church members. It argues that Lucaris's engagement with Protestant reformers was shaped by the distinct religious and confessional landscape of the Ottoman Middle East, where his goal was to strengthen and educate the Greek Orthodox Church amid pressures from Catholic proselytism, Ottoman rule, and rival Eastern Christian groups, rather than to adopt Calvinist doctrines. The collaborative but ultimately unsuccessful project to produce a vernacular Greek New Testament illustrates the irreconcilable differences in how reform was understood by Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians, highlighting the need to approach early modern Christianity as a pluriform, multi-centered phenomenon rather than through Eurocentric categories. The article thus challenges simplistic interpretations of Lucaris's interactions as either ecumenical or political pawning, emphasizing instead the complex local and global dynamics that shaped these religious encounters.