Oikoumene
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Oikoumene, from the Greek οἰκουμένη, which is the present middle participle of the verb οἰκω, meaning "I inhabit".
In Alexander the Great's Hellenistic Age, Oikoumene refers to the part of the earth that is inhabited, by all men or by only a subset of men. Often it referred to the lands inhabited by Greeks, excluding therefore the lands inhabited by barbarians.
In the Koine Greek of the Roman Empire and the New Testament, oikoumene literally means world, however it was generally understood to mean the Roman world.
In Hebrews 2.5 oikoumenen ten mellousan is used to refer to the future kingdom of Christ (the world to come), as: For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
One of the most interesting uses of Oikoumene was by the Byzantines to describe their empire, see also Ecumenical council.
The concept underlies both the title Ecumenical Patriarch (Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον) given to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the process of ecumenism.
[edit] The Oikoumene in fiction
- The author J. R. R. Tolkien described his Middle-earth setting for his fiction as equivalent to what the Greeks called 'oikoumene', the abiding place of men.
- In the Demon Princes series of science fiction novels by Jack Vance, The Oikumene is the term used for the human-inhabited worlds of the galaxy.
- In the science fiction novel Time's Eye co-authored by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter Oikoumene is a grassroots religious unification movement bridging the divide between Catholicism and Islam.
- In The Left Hand of Darkness and other fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin, the Ekumen is a loose conferderation of inhabited worlds, linked by instantaneous communication, but separated by slower-than-light travel.
- In the science fiction trilogy The Golden Age, by John C. Wright, a political unit called the Golden Oecumene spans part of the Solar System.
