Mihai-D. Grigore/ Vasilios N. Makrides (eds.)
Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz, volume 143, 1st edition 2024, 431 pages, hardcover, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, ISBN: 978-3-666-30256-5, Open Access: https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666302565
Eastern Orthodoxy is in the headlines, not least because of the war in Ukraine. On the one hand, it supports neo-imperialism through nationalism, anti-Westernism, and the defense of traditional values. However, on the other hand, it also articulates an open-minded new social ethos and constructively addresses current global challenges.
The present volume focuses on the historical evolution of Orthodox Christian political theologies across time. Thereby, it follows a chronological thread from early Byzantium until today. The contributions examine the historical background, consider the specific parameters, and critically assess the particular features. Given that political theology has a much more robust history within Western Christianity, some contributions contextualise the topic more broadly by comparing Orthodox with Western Christian political theologies (e.g., the contribution of Regula M. Zwahlen »Towards a Negative Orthodox Political Theology? The Russian Orthodox Diaspora in Western Contexts«).
In doing so, many analyses in this volume anticipate the potential for conflict latent in the problematic connection between state, politics, nation, and church in Orthodox Europe. History rushes ahead in its most violent form and irrupts into the metahistory of the Christian ideal of peacefulness and the divine commandment of love. In such troubled times, the need for the Orthodox Christian mind to make sense of death, bloodshed, and fratricide, but also to cope with the current multiple global challenges elevates political theology as a beacon of sense-making. The question of legitimation is of more existential importance than ever, while in the context of the Ukrainian conflict political Orthodoxy almost assumes the character of a critical infrastructure of war.
Herausgeber:
Mihai-D. Grigore is Associate Researcher in the research group »Religion« at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz.
Vasilios N. Makrides is Professor of Religious Studies (specializing in Orthodox Christianity) at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Erfurt.
Kontakt:
Friederike Lierheimer, MA, +49 (0)6131 3930076, lierheimer@ieg-mainz.de
Dr. Juliane Schwoch, +49 (0)6131 3939343, schwoch@ieg-mainz.de
