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===Apologetics===
===Legacy===
Apostolos Makrakis was a highly cultured layman and patriotic visionary whose vigorous religious movement became an interesting phenomenon in its time that shook the religious and national establishment. From believing that he had been divinely chosen as the liberator of Byzantium from the Turk, to his preaching tours throughout Greece focusing on [[Soteriology]], advocating his unique and controversial Christological-Philosophical teachings, to his fight against [[w:Simony|Simony]], he effectively became a leader of the awakening religious and national movement in modern Hellas. In the process he also became a symbol for the freedom of religious thought and expression.
While his message found strong support amongst the masses on the one hand, it was not received very well by the religious establishment, as Dr. Cavarnos, [[Philotheos (Zervakos)|Elder Philotheos]], Professor Yannaras, Professor Conybeare and others have explained. His movement can be viewed as a unique example in the history of the Orthodox Church of a type of proselytism from ''within'' the ranks of Orthodoxy (rather than from without by foreign religious forces). Ultimatelty all of this led to an intense conflict between Makrakis and the Church authorities.
Makrakis' ideas and the particular pietistic ethos which he promoted however did survive him in the [[Brotherhoods|Brotherhood]] Movements, which in the 20th century played a significant role in education and catechetical schools. These however unguardedly allied themselves with right-wing dictatorships, pure Greek patriotism being a key element in their ideology).<ref>Simonopetritis, Very Rev. Archiman. Isaias. "[http://www.aegeantimes.gr/pigizois/agglika/inegl_27.htm The Orthodox Church and Proselytism]." ''Orthodox Herald'', Official Publication of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, September–October 2001, No. 120-121.</ref>
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As for the Holy Synod, on December 18th, 1878, the Council of Athens was convened and presided over by Metropolitan Bishop Procopius I of Athens, resulting in formal condemnation of the Makrakists. The Synod succeeded in obtaining from the governement of Koumoundouros a decree dissolving Makakris' ''' ''"School of the Logos"'' ''' on the pretext that it taught doctrines opposed to the tenets of the Church, that is, that man is composed of body, soul, and spirit, and that Christ attained perfection in the Jordan. The Holy Synod likewise addressed an encyclical to the whole body of Christians in Greece that was read in the churches, charging Makrakis with attempting to introduce innovations. On January 8, 1879, his trial was held, and without his presence he was condemned by default to three months' imprisonment. On February 6, 1879, the Holy Synod also issued a decree condemning the clergy of the College to confinement (exile) for five to ten years in various monasteries and refrainment from all sacramental acts. On June 13, 1879 Makrakis' term of imprisonment for resistence and insolence to the authorities expired, but he later insulted the Holy Synod again, and on November 26, 1879 he was again sentenced to imprisonment, this time for eight months. From the jail in Amphissa he wrote letters to all his brethren in Christ urging them to be of good cheers and to feel glad because he was suffering in behalf of truth and justice. In many cities of Greece the citizenry expressed indignation at the persecution of the educator, and submitted a petition to the Chamber of Deputies bearing 4530 signatures. Makrakis himself submitted a memoir to the Minister of Justice Athanasios Potmezas from jail with the hope of obtaining his release. In 1880 he was absolved by decree of the court of appeals in Athens, and beginning on October 6, 1880, he resumed instruction in the ''' ''"School of the Logos"'' ''' after a two year interruption.<ref>Andronis, Constantine (Ed.). ''Apostolos Makrakis: An Evaluation of Half a Century.'' Chicago: Orthodox Christian Educational Society, 1966 pp.16-17.</ref>
===Legacy===Apostolos Makrakis was a highly cultured layman and patriotic visionary whose vigorous religious movement became an interesting phenomenon in its time that shook the religious and national establishment. From believing that he had been divinely chosen as the liberator of Byzantium from the Turk, to his preaching tours throughout Greece focusing on [[Soteriology]], advocating his unique and controversial Christological-Philosophical teachings, to his fight against [[w:Simony|Simony]], he effectively became a leader of the awakening religious and national movement in modern Hellas. In the process he also became a symbol for the freedom of religious thought and expression. While his message found strong support amongst the masses on the one hand, it was not received very well by the religious establishment, as Dr. Cavarnos, [[Philotheos (Zervakos)|Elder Philotheos]], Professor Yannaras, Professor Conybeare and others have explained. His movement can be viewed as a unique example in the history of the Orthodox Church of a type of proselytism from ''within'' the ranks of Orthodoxy (rather than from without by foreign religious forces). Ultimatelty all of this led to an intense conflict between Makrakis and the Church authorities. Makrakis' ideas and the particular pietistic ethos which he promoted however did survive him in the [[Brotherhoods|Brotherhood]] Movements, which in the 20th century played a significant role in education and catechetical schools. These however unguardedly allied themselves with right-wing dictatorships, pure Greek patriotism being a key element in their ideology).<ref>Simonopetritis, Very Rev. Archiman. Isaias. "[http://www.aegeantimes.gr/pigizois/agglika/inegl_27.htm The Orthodox Church and Proselytism]." ''Orthodox Herald'', Official Publication of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, September–October 2001, No. 120-121.</ref> ==Criticisms===
* British Orientalist and Professor of Theology at the University of Oxford [[w:Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare|Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare]], a contemporary of Makrakis writing in 1903, proposed that if we cut through the many mists of spiteful exaggeration often attributed to Makrakis' life story,
::we can discern that his teaching exactly agrees with that ascribed to the [[w:Ebionites|Ebionites]] and to [[w:Theodotus of Byzantium|Theodotus of Rome]] by [[Hippolytus of Rome]] in his ''[[w:Refutation of all Heresies|Philosophumena]] (Refutation of all Heresies)'', Book VII, chap. 34. A not very dissimilar form of [[Adoptionism|Adoptionist doctrine]] still survives among the dissenters of Russia and of Armenia, and I suspect that Makrakis had come into contact with them.<ref>*[[w:Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare|Conybeare, Frederick Cornwallis]]. Reviewed Works: ''The Student's History of the Greek Church'' by Rev. A.H. Hore (M.A.). London and Oxford: James Parker, 1902. 514 pp.; ''Geschichte der Orientalischen Kirchen von 1453-1898'' by Prof. A. Diomedes Kyriakos. Leipzig, 1902. '''American Journal of Theology, Vol.7, No,3 (July 1903). p.562.'''</ref>.
* In 1882 Chrysanthos Makris, later an Archimandrite, wrote a book against the tenet of Makrakis relative to the tricomposite nature of man, entitled ''"The Bicomposite Nature of Man Proved by Reference to the Great Fathers of the Church"''. This was refuted by Makrakis in a series of articles in the ''Logos'', which were reprinted in a separate book 302 pages long under the title ''"The Tricomposite Nature of Man Verified also by Reference to the Great Fathers of the Church"''<ref>Andronis, Constantine (Ed.). ''Apostolos Makrakis: An Evaluation of Half a Century.'' Chicago: Orthodox Christian Educational Society, 1966 pp.18-19.</ref>
* In 1869 Makrakis issued a work entitled ''"Refutation of an Ironclad Refutation"'' in reply to Theocletos Bimpos, professor of Theology at the University of Athens who undertook to criticize Makrakis' doctrine concerning the threefold nature of man.
* Dr. Constantine Cavarnos identifies that there are a number of things in his vigorously written book the ''"Divine and Sacred Catechism"'' that should interest the student of religion, including the lucid and systematic exposition of the doctrines of the Eastern Church by a conservative representative of it; the firm belief in perfect divine justice; the very high conception of man — man, according to Makrakis is the most perfect work of God, higher even than the angels; and the profound conviction in, and the attempt throughout the book to show, the perfect harmony between experience, reason, and religion.<ref name=Cavarnos/>
==Complete List of Works==
