How can Orthodox theology, formed under the norm of a Christian emperor, engage with the reality of liberal democracies in the post-communist era? In their useful summary at the beginning of this volume, the editors lay out the challenges current realities pose to political theology, and their hope of bringing Orthodox thinking into this debate. The overall series title is ‘Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought’, and the collection is impressively timely, but it comes as a surprise that several contributors engage with Orthodoxy superficially or not at all. The essays come from a conference held at Fordham, and US-based contributors predominate; the editors’ reference to the ‘unchristian’ anti-gay laws in Russia is a reminder that American academia is not necessarily representative of current thinking across the Orthodox world.
Contributors approach the figure of Constantine and his legacy variously: as a historical figure; through the concept of ‘constantinianism’; or (most fruitfully) as a general invitation to discuss church and politics. In this collection, the essays by Barnes and Kaufman are largely historical, as is that of Skedros (several hundred years later) which treats the origins of orthodoxy as a political and ethnic identity. These historical essays, though placed later in the collection, help to frame the debate and caution against anachronistic uses of ‘constantinian’ or even ‘church and state’. Stanley Hauerwas’s contribution is given its own category, and his subject is essentially himself – a topic, however, on which he writes engagingly as ever! – but serves to problematize the topic. It is a slight shame, in a collection on contemporary religion and politics, that no mention was made of Islam as a parallel or contrasting example.
There was also no contribution from a distinctively Anglican tradition, a surprise given the wealth of relevant thought from Hooker onwards, although Luke Bretherton’s contribution will perhaps feel most familiar to Anglican readers. His promotion of the ‘intermediate associations’ of civil society is in the tradition of Temple and (unsurprisingly given his recent background) reflects public discourse around the ‘common good’ in the Church of England.
Nevertheless, the resulting collection feels coherent, with a number of key themes emerging. There is consensus on the importance of holding an eschatological tension between engaging with politics and yet not ultimizing or expecting too much, either from the state per se or any one form of government. Several contributors frame the problem in terms of finding justifications for democracy and human rights which do not rely on liberal or individualist philosophies. Concepts of communion, personhood and the social trinity (counterbalanced by Augustine) are drawn on to argue that the true freedom and human fulfilment promised by democracy can be found only in community and in a recognition of God-given human dignity. A less prominent theme is the tension between local and universal, finding the proper expression of local cultural identity whilst avoiding ethno-religious nationalism.
Kristina Stoeckl in the opening essay criticizes the Russian church’s attempt, doing theology on the hoof, simultaneously to affirm and subvert human rights by reference to the Christian concept of human dignity. A more positive assessment is given by Hehir on the Papacy’s engagement with human rights, which has developed over a more considered timeframe but is arguably open to some of the same criticisms identified by Stoeckl. Hämmerli, in one of the essays most directly relevant politically, reports on a fascinating case in the European Court of Human Rights which raises questions for the future of international integration: is it possible for a state to be ‘neutral’ and yet truly democratic in reflecting the cultural particularity of its people?
Luke Bretherton continues the theme of humanity being fully realized in relationship. He draws on communion ecclesiology and personhood to resolve the tension of individual and collective, although the Orthodoxy feels a little tacked on. Doak’s approach is similar. There is too much conventional lamenting of social media and hankering after potluck lunches for this reader’s taste, but she gives a helpfully provocative feminist perspective on the use of power, as well as a recentering (albeit less critically) of theosis as a necessary part of communion theology.
The cohesive core of the book is found in the central four chapters, by Eric Gregory, Emmauel Clapsis, Perry T. Hamalis and Nathaniel Wood. Gregory’s is a rather dense chapter, focusing on debates within Augustine studies (and coming to different conclusions from Kaufman) but its strength is in its engagement with contemporary politics. Clapsis, from the practical perspective of an Orthodox churchman, is quite the opposite: an easy to read, confident, slightly preacherly exposition, rather than an angsty engagement with theory. Its optimism is grounded in theology and practice, though Onora O’Neill, for instance, would take issue with sweeping talk of shared values.
Hamalis’s assured and creative essay is worthy of special mention as easily the most original: ‘Democracy and the Dynamics of Death’. If the problem is how Orthodox thinkers can resource their engagement with democracy, the two most popular approaches are firstly to read actual history against its (imperial) grain, or secondly to rely on abstract theological principles. The latter runs the risk of being detached from reality as well as unconvincing to any but fellow Orthodox. Hamalis instead starts from something we all agree we have in common – not our ‘summum bonum’ or telos, but our ‘summum malum’, the reality of our mortality. He identifies a strand of ‘thanatomorphic’ theology in the Orthodox tradition and brings it into creative dialogue with the political theory of Hobbes.
But Hamalis’s second-identified approach is also well represented in this collection, not least by Nathaniel Wood. The misleadingly named ‘Russian politics’ of his title is actually a particular theory of kenosis in the two natures of Christ. In an essay framed by the key tension between the necessity and limitations of politics, and resonating with Clapsis’s ideal of true humanity found in relationship, he creatively applies a detailed analysis of this specific theological resource.
This is an encouraging collection which points towards the hope that the resources of the Orthodox tradition may contribute to political theology as they have in other areas, not only through greater confidence in restating the now-ubiquitous ideas of personhood, but in challenging and creative ways.
