Introduction: Political Theologies in Orthodox Christianity

Hovorun, Cyril . 2023. 'Orthodox Political Theology', St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. Edited by Brendan N. Wolfe et al. https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/ OrthodoxPoliticalTheology Accessed: 7 June, 2023

This entry outlines the evolution of various political theologies in the Eastern Christian milieux, from the time of the apostles up until the present. It begins with the definitions of and distinctions between political and public theologies. Then it explores the dialectics of the relationship between the church, the state, and the public square in the Graeco-Roman world, both before and after the latter recognized and merged with Christianity. The article continues exploring the modifications of symphonia (a view of the church and state as complementary) under the conditions of secularization and disestablishmentness. It focuses on the earliest instances of the culture wars in Eastern Christianity and on the Russian religious renaissance. This entry differentiates between two major trends, one conservative, the other liberal, in modern Orthodox political theology. The conservative trend dominated in the interwar period, while liberal currents attained prominence after the Second World War. The most recent theories of civilizational exceptionalism, including the idea of the 'Russian world' that underpins the war in Ukraine, will be explored. There are two positions in current Orthodox political theology: one that accepts and appreciates modern liberal democracy and one that criticizes it. This entry concludes with an analysis of modern Orthodox social doctrines.

Orthodox Churches and Politics in Southeastern Europe, 2019

Studies in Christian Ethics, 2020

This review article examines the recent and welcome addition of Orthodox voices to a politico-theological discourse that has long been dominated by Catholic and Protestant perspectives. The value of Orthodox political theology to wider ecumenical discussion of politics and theology rests in the unique insights it is able to bring to common questions, such as the Orthodox Church’s place and role in liberal democracies, by virtue of its unique political contexts (post-Communism, Byzantine historical legacy) and theological paradigms (theosis, symphonia). The article notes the explicit and implicit influence of Western political theology on the nature and shape of contemporary Orthodox political theology and suggests that, as such, the latter can be regarded as forming a new and integral part of the former.

2021

When religion and politics are discussed, one wonders as to whether these two fields of human active are mutually exclusive. Academically, these concepts are treated as in dependent of one another. In practical terms, the interplay between religion and politics is equally not always self-evident. I have argued, through thematic analysis of literature, that religion and politics are grounded in the integral nature of the human person. Human life is a project or task to be accomplished. On the one hand, politics helps us to organise the conditions within which this task is performed, for good or worse. Religion, on the other hand, gives meaning to human activities in this pursuit, politics inclusively. This is because the human person has a natural end in whose to cause politics proper belongs. However, the human person also possesses a supernatural end to which religion substantially contributes. Religion thus elevates the human earthly strivings to a

Brill Publishing, 2020

Theology and the Political is the fruit of Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant conversations from East and West concerning the retrieval of theological discourse for political praxis, theo-political structural analysis of secularity/post-secularity, and distinct political engagement from varying Christian traditions that not only offer political critique but criticism of its particular tradition. This edited volume is animated by the motif of political action as witness in a missional key and makes a unique interdisciplinary contribution to the field of political theology that invites further reflection on the gospel instantiated in various cultural contexts in light of the boundary-crossing nature of mission and theological discourse. Dr. ALEXEI BODROV is Founder and Rector of St. Andrew's Biblical Theological Institute in Moscow and a researcher at VU Amsterdam. He is editor-in-chief of St. Andrew's Press, a leader in academic theology publishing in Russian. He has published on interreligious dialogue and religion-society-state relations. Prof. Dr. STEPHEN M. GARRETT recently taught at the Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania) and now serves as Curriculum Vice-President for Global Scholars. He has published on Hans Urs von Balthasar and continues to explore the nexus of theology and the political via aesthetics in light of 20th century personalism.

2012

Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2012

Russia in Global Affairs, Vol. 17 (May), 2019

The religious discourse is pushing other debates—national, ethnic, etc.—aside harder than ever literally in front of our eyes. In Europe, and partly in Russia, the problem of Syrian, Turkish, Algerian, Uzbek, and Tajik immigrants has transformed, at least in mass media, into the issue of Islam. Not only has the religious factor not disappeared, but it has overpowered everything else. Interethnic and even interstate confrontations have once again become religious as they were in the 17th century; maybe not in substance but, at a minimum, in the public conscience. Given the crisis of secular ideologies and outlooks, there is no reason to believe that religion, like the genie, can once against be put back into the bottle where it was trapped for the last couple of centuries. So it is not a question of religion or no religion that gains significance, including political, in this context, but what kind of religion: more rational or less rational, more democratic or less democratic, more peaceful or less peaceful, more tolerant or less tolerant? This will immediately increase the importance of theology and theological discussions. The struggle for the soul of religious traditions is underway, and its outcome is becoming increasingly crucial for peace on the planet Earth.