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Programs-Activities Current Program Program of the Academic Year 2010-2011 - THEOLOGY, POLITICS & CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES
Programs-Activities Current Program Program of the Academic Year 2010-2011 - THEOLOGY, POLITICS & CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES | Program of the Academic Year 2010-2011 - THEOLOGY, POLITICS & CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES |
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 Orthodoxy as an ecclesial community has from its beginning been conscious of living and moving in the world, but not being a product of this world (in the world but not of the world). Its eschatological and Eucharistic nature has always attributed to its identity a paradoxical character. Likewise today, Orthodoxy seems to be once more at a crossroads, having to confront various challenges that rise sharply before it.
Throughout its history, Eastern Christianity, even though marked by the tension between “the empire and the desert”, often chose to be dragged behind the chariot of the empire or state authority (eg. Byzantium, Tsarist Russia, Ottoman Empire, Balkan national states). In doing so, it drew closely alongside many forms of power, often authoritarian and undemocratic, whose spirit and ethos could hardly be in harmony with the Gospel and its principles. This is why fundamental achievements of modern civilization –such as human rights, political liberalism and the demands of democracy, social justice and respect of otherness– appear still to sit uneasily in traditionally Orthodox environments. In these contexts, the Church and its theology continue to be fascinated by the nostalgic recollection of premodern models of shaping and organizing society.
To see the entire program, click here .
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