ecumene

Updated: May 17, 2025

In the later period of Greek history, which began with the conquests of Alexander the Great, there had emerged the conception of the whole inhabited world as a unity and totality, the idea of the whole human race as one. We may conveniently call it the ecumenical idea the principle of the ecumene or inhabited world, as opposed to the principle of the polis or city. De Alexandri Magni virtute, i.

J. B. (John Bagnell) Bury - The Idea of Progress : An inguiry into its origin and growth