Christianity, Democracy, and the Shadow of Constantine

by George E. Demacopoulos (Editor), Aristotle Papanikolaou (Editor)

Overview

Winner of the 2017 Alpha Sigma Nu Award

The collapse of communism in eastern Europe has forced traditionally Eastern Orthodox countries to consider the relationship between Christianity and liberal democracy. Contributors examine the influence of Constantinianism in both the post-communist Orthodox world and in Western political theology. Constructive theological essays feature Catholic and Protestant theologians reflecting on the relationship between Christianity and democracy, as well as Orthodox theologians reflecting on their tradition’s relationship to liberal democracy. The essays explore prospects of a distinctively Christian politics in a post-communist, post-Constantinian age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823274208
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Series:	Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

George E. Demacopoulos is Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies and Professor of Theology at Fordham University. He is the author of Colonizing Christianity: Greek and Latin Religious Identity in the Era of the Fourth Crusade, and Gregory the Great: Ascetic, Pastor, and First Man of Rome.

Aristotle Papanikolaou is Professor of Theology, the Archbishop Demetrios Chair of Orthodox Theology and Culture, and the Co-Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He is also Senior Fellow at the Emory UniversityCenter for the Study of Law and Religion. He is the author of Being with God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine-Human Communion, and The Mystical as Political: Democracy and Non-Radical Orthodoxy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Outrunning Constantine's Shadow
Aristotle Papanikolaou and George E. Demacopoulos

The Post-Communist Situation
Moral Argument in the Human Rights Debate of the Russian Orthodox Church
Kristina Stoeckl
Post-Communist Orthodox Countries and Secularization: The Lausti Case and the Fracture of Europe
Pascal Hämmerli

Political Theologies: Protestant-Catholic-Orthodox Conversations
Power to the People: Orthodoxy, Consociational Democracy, and the Move beyond Phyletism
Luke Bretherton
Power, Protest, and Perichoresis: On Being Church in a Troubled World
Mary Doak
Strange Fruit: Augustine, Liberalism, and the Good Samaritan
Eric Gregory
An Orthodox Encounter with Liberal Democracy
Emmanuel Clapsis
Democracy and the Dynamics of Death: Orthodox Reflections on the Origin, Purpose, and Limits of Politics
Perry T. Hamalis
"I Have Overcome the World": The Church, the Liberal State, and Christ's Two Natures in the Russian Politics of Theosis
Nathaniel Wood

Constantine's Shadow: Historical Perspectives
Emperors and Bishops of Constantinople (324-431)
Timothy D. Barnes
Disowning Constantinian Christianity
Peter Iver Kaufman
"You Cannot have a Church without an Empire": Political Orthodoxy in Byzantium
James Skedros
Roman Catholicism and Democracy: The Post-conciliar Era
Brian Hehir

An Apophatic Approach
How (Not) to be a Political Theologian
Stanley Hauerwas

List of Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

Christianity, Democracy, and the Shadow of Constantine... boasts contributions from prominent Western figures in political theology, such as Stanley Hauerwas, Eric Gregory and Luke Bretherton. The pieces from this Protestant cast, along with Catholics Mary Doak and J. Bryan Hehir, are all worthy contributions to political theology in their own right.

Studies in Christian Ethics

…by bringing together powerful thinkers from Eastern and Western Christian traditions, [this volume] greatly enriches the growing literature on political theology and shows the promise of such encounters.

Reading Religion

...deserve[s] wide attention from all theologians and scholars of religion who wish to understand how Orthodoxy is speaking to issues of politics today.

Journal of Church and State

Many of us in the field of political theology are poorer for the lack of conversation most of us experience between Eastern and Western political theologies. Even if we are open and sympathetic to one another—and historically that is a big ‘if’—the traditions are so distinct from one another that few can claim expertise in both, and so we continue to focus narrowly on our own traditions. This volume represents a welcome change to this pattern, opening a conversation between theologians across Eastern and Western traditions on the timely topics of church and state, democracy, and liberalism.——Elizabeth Phillips, Tutor in Theology and Ethics, Westcott House, Cambridge

From the Publisher

The essays in this volume make good on the editors' hopes: they have demonstrated that Orthodoxy has fundamental contributions to make to contemporary political discourse.

Modern Theology

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.

Journal of Anglican Studies

Drawing together political theologians, ethicists, and historical theologians, [this] volume creates an encounter between "East" and "West" that addresses some critical questions facing the whole of Christianity.

Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics

Many of us in the field of political theology are poorer for the lack of conversation most of us experience between Eastern and Western political theologies. Even if we are open and sympathetic to one another—and historically that is a big ‘if’—the traditions are so distinct from one another that few can claim expertise in both, and so we continue to focus narrowly on our own traditions. This volume represents a welcome change to this pattern, opening a conversation between theologians across Eastern and Western traditions on the timely topics of church and state, democracy, and liberalism.

Tutor in Theology and Ethics, Westcott House, Cambridge - Elizabeth Phillips