Oikumena is an ancient Greek word that means "populated", from οἰκέω - "I inhabit, dwell." The ancient Greek geographer Hekateus of Miletus called this word the part of the planet known to the Greeks with a center in Hellas. Gradually, Hekateus of Miletus changed the meaning of the term - at first he called so only the Greek lands, later - all the territories inhabited by people as a whole.
Oikumena in literature and culture
In addition to the geographical meaning, there are others. In history, there is such a thing as the “Old World” - a cultural ecumenical community, a populated part of the earth, which included territories known to Europeans before they discovered America. After the discovery of America , the concept of "New World" appeared. The Old World is not just a combination of lands, it is a certain culture, the worldview of people. Historically, the lands that were part of the Old World concept have been divided into Europe, Asia and Africa.
Ivan Efremov "On the edge of the Oikumeny"
Oikumena is not only an ancient Greek term and historical territory: it is also the name of the novel of the Soviet writer Ivan Efremov. Efremov's work “On the Edge of Oikumena” tells about the world of the times of Ancient Greece of the Aegean period.
The young sculptor Pandion had to travel through the then-known inhabited territories, to be enslaved by the Egyptians, cross Africa from east to west, passing the lands of present-day Sudan, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and complete his travels by traveling through the Strait of Gibraltar on a ship of the Phoenicians. He traveled to lands very far from Greece, literally on the edge of the ecumene - then inhabited land known to the Greeks.
"The Ocean" by Henry Lyon Oldie
Efremov is not the only one who turned to this not very common name in his work. Henry Lyon Oldie also used the sonorous word in his science fiction “The World of the Oecumene”, which includes a total of 9 books, divided into three semantic parts.
The first ("Oikumena") and the third ("Savage Oikumeny") are connected according to the plot. The second - "Urbi et orbi, or City and the world" - occurs in the universe "Oikumeny", but is not connected with the rest of the parts.
In this cycle, “ecumene” refers to undeveloped land. Here this word is used in the meaning of "Universe", we mean all the places known and visited by people - both on planet Earth, and in space, and on other planets of the Universe.
The evolution of the concept of "ecumenical"
In Russian, ecumene is the "Universe", the "inhabited Universe". With the passage of time that has elapsed from the appearance of this term to the present day, its meaning has not only expanded, but also acquired new shades.
Around the second half of the nineteenth century, the original term came to the Russian language - in two different ways, with different pronunciation and different meanings. Since then, ecumenicalism has been a geographical, environmental, cultural and historical concept. The second option relates to relations between different religions and churches, and sounds like “ecumenism”.
Ecumenism as a phenomenon began to emerge in the Middle Ages. The term itself was proposed in 1937 - the origin of the word is the same as the term "ecumenical".
At the very core of ecumenism is the theory of the branches of the church. In other words, all Christian movements and faiths (Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox and others) are different branches of the same Christian church. They have a lot in common - faith in Christ, the institution of community. The main motive of this movement is rapprochement, the desire for unification and mutual enrichment in the spiritual plane.
Both meanings are completely independent in the Russian language, each has its own place. It is possible that over time the meaning will expand even more, enriching the language with new semantic nuances and concepts.