It would be naïve to lament that God’s things and Caesar’s things used to stand separately in the past, but now everything has got messed up. Politics and religion, power and faith have always existed in symbiosis. And yet there is a sense of danger which seems greater now than ever before. There are specific reasons for that. This is a special issue of Russia in Global Affairs, dedicated to this big topic. Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, euphoria over the triumph of liberal ideology, which is “omnipotent because it is true,” has given way to dark pessimism about the future and led to the loss of ideational and moral guidelines. Politics increasingly needs religious values as a support and a source of moral legitimacy. However, the interweaving of religion with modern virtual politics, which is based mainly on manipulations and void of constant principles, is deleterious for religion. In fact, religion does not refine political practices; it is the latter that impacts religious institutions. This special issue is an attempt to outline the topics of needed discussion and suggest ideas that would be consonant with the spirit of the coming times.
Contents:
Fyodor A. Lukyanov The Church at a Historical Crossroads
About God and Caesar
Dmitry Uzlaner Religion and Politics: An Unbreakable Symbiosis?
Andrei Shishkov Old Dog, New Tricks
Richard Potz State and Religion
Tomos and Its Implications
Sergei Kravets Anamnesis of the Schism
Vladislav Petrushko A Thorny Path of Ukrainian Orthodoxy
Svyatoslav Kaspe Ukrainian Church Schism: Political Ramifications
Alexander Konkov Hybrid Faith
Pyotr Petrovsky A Schism in Universal Orthodoxy?
Archpriest Igor Prekup, Sergei Leonidov Baltic Rehearsal
The Orthodox Vision
Father Alexander Webster: “We need a ‘prophecy option’”
Momchil Metodiev Not So Great Schism
Chrysostomos Stamoulis, Stylianos Tsompanidis, Nikolaos Maggioros,
Elias Evangelou Autocephaly and Orthodox Unity
Beyond Faith
Andrei Vidishenko Alternative Orthodoxy. Unlearned Lessons
James Jatras Not for Church
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos Imperialism, Geopolitics and Religion
Pavel Shlykov In the Shadow of the Crescent