The ecumene or oecumene is a Greek term for the known, the inhabited, or the habitable world dating from antiquity. Under the Roman Empire, it came to refer tocivilization as well as the secular and religious imperial administration. In present usage, it is most often used in the context of "ecumenical" and describes the Christian Church as a unified whole, or the unified modern world civilization. It is also used in cartography to describe a type of world map used in late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
of Cyrene deduced the circumference of the Earth with remarkable accuracy. The Greek cartographer Crates created a globe about 150 BC. Claudius Ptolemy calculated the Earth's surface in his Geography and described the inhabited portion as spanning 180 degrees of longitude and about 80 degrees of latitude. Ptolemy was well aware that the Romans knew only about a quarter of the globe and his erroneous belief that the Indian Ocean was landlocked led to expectation of a terra incognita. In fact, symmetry led him to expect that there should be three other continents to balance the ecumene: Perioeci, Antoeci and the Antipodes.
Rome
The cameo Gemma Augustea includes a Roman artistic personification of Oikoumene as she crowns an emperor, probably Augustus, perhaps for bringing peace to the world. in 325. The word was adopted within Christianity after Constantine the Great's assembly of a synod of bishops from all over the world at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. By that time, the Greek term had come to refer more specifically to the civilized world and then simply the Roman Empire. This usage continued after the Diocletian Reforms and the Byzantine emperors used it to refer to their imperial administration. Constantinople was the "Ecumenical City" and, after 586, the Patriarch of Constantinople was known as the "Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople". Pope Gregory I objected to the adoption of this style by John IV of Constantinople, as it implied a universal jurisdiction he believed illegal to anyone. His Fifth Epistle berates John for having "attempted to seize upon a new name, whereby the hearts of all your brethren might have come to take offence", despite the title having been granted at the emperor Maurice's behest. The name continues to be borne by the Greek Orthodox patriarchs, although with the more restricted sense that they are the bishops of the former imperial capital.
Modernity
Religion
Especially in the 20th century, the term has been employed to refer to unified Christian Church which is the ultimate goal of Ecumenism, a movement to promote cooperation among the various Christian denominations. The movement is not accepted by many Christian groups. The work of ecumenism takes place in the form of negotiations conducted between committees of various denominations and also through the deliberations of inter-denominational organizations such as the World Council of Churches. Relevant issues include Baptism, the Eucharist and Ministry.
Culture
In the context of cultural history, Lewis Mumford used the term "ecumene" in an academic sense in his work, Technics and Civilization. William H. McNeill later popularized it in his Rise of the West, suggesting that a single global ecumene emerged through the dominance of European political institutions, science, technology, and economic forms from the late 18th century onwards. One could argue that prior to the great voyages of discovery carried out by Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan, there were originally two separate ecumenes—one covering the Old World and one the New. The Spanish conquistadores fused these two ecumenes to form a single integrated "world system". Peter Sloterdijk uses the terms "First Ecumene" and "Second Ecumene" in his book . Sloterdijk takes these terms directly from the work of Eric Voegelin, specifically from Order and History vol. 4, The Ecumenic Age, which he quotes. Note that the term "ecumene" can differ depending on the viewpoint from which it is perceived: for example, the Ancient Babylonians and the Ancient Greeks would each have known a different area of the world. Compare image to the right.
Cartography
The term is used in cartography and the historical cartography to describe a type of symbolic, schematic world map made in late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
