The ambivalent orthodox

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 62-75

  Prodromou, Elizabeth ^a  

^a BOSTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 2142708575     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2004.0035     Document Type: Article

References (20)

1. The best-known argument that Orthodoxy sits poorly with democracy may be found in Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72 (Summer 1993): 22-49. For representative, yet diverse, discussions that posit Orthodoxy as hostile to and an impediment to modernity, see Victoria Clark, Why Angels Fall: A Journey Through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo (New York: St. Martin's, 2000); Daniel Clendenin, Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A Western Perspective (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1994); and Adamantia Pollis, "Greece: A Problematic Secular State," in William Safran, ed., The Secular and the Sacred: Nation, Religion, and Politics (London: Frank Cass, 2003).
2. The best-known argument that Orthodoxy sits poorly with democracy may be found in Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72 (Summer 1993): 22-49. For representative, yet diverse, discussions that posit Orthodoxy as hostile to and an impediment to modernity, see Victoria Clark, Why Angels Fall: A Journey Through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo (New York: St. Martin's, 2000); Daniel Clendenin, Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A Western Perspective (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1994); and Adamantia Pollis, "Greece: A Problematic Secular State," in William Safran, ed., The Secular and the Sacred: Nation, Religion, and Politics (London: Frank Cass, 2003).
3. The best-known argument that Orthodoxy sits poorly with democracy may be found in Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72 (Summer 1993): 22-49. For representative, yet diverse, discussions that posit Orthodoxy as hostile to and an impediment to modernity, see Victoria Clark, Why Angels Fall: A Journey Through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo (New York: St. Martin's, 2000); Daniel Clendenin, Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A Western Perspective (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1994); and Adamantia Pollis, "Greece: A Problematic Secular State," in William Safran, ed., The Secular and the Sacred: Nation, Religion, and Politics (London: Frank Cass, 2003).
4. The best-known argument that Orthodoxy sits poorly with democracy may be found in Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72 (Summer 1993): 22-49. For representative, yet diverse, discussions that posit Orthodoxy as hostile to and an impediment to modernity, see Victoria Clark, Why Angels Fall: A Journey Through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo (New York: St. Martin's, 2000); Daniel Clendenin, Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A Western Perspective (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1994); and Adamantia Pollis, "Greece: A Problematic Secular State," in William Safran, ed., The Secular and the Sacred: Nation, Religion, and Politics (London: Frank Cass, 2003).
5. On the Great Schism, see Timothy Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church (Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1983), 51-95.
6. The fragmentation in Christendom had begun well before the eleventh century; theological controversies had led to the formal separation of the Eastern or Nestorian churches by the middle of the fifth century, followed by the formal break with the non-Chalcedonian (Oriental Orthodox) churches a little more than a century later. For a clear and concise account of these divisions, see Mircea Eliade, ed., "Eastern Christianity," Encyclopedia of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1987): 4:558-63.
7. Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
8. The non-Chalcedonian or Oriental Orthodox churches are also sometimes called the Monophysite churches because they never accepted the doctrine - promulgated by the Fourth Ecumenical (General) Council, held at Chalcedon (near Constantinople) in 451 C.E. - that Jesus has two natures (one fully human, one fully divine) in one person, but continued to hold that as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus has one nature (in Greek, monophysis), a divine one. The Eastern Orthodox Church of today, like the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant denominations, affirms the teachings of each of the first seven Ecumenical Councils (held between 325 and 787 C.E.), including Chalcedon.
9. For an argument in favor of a Protestant theological framework to support democratization in global terms, see Mark T. Mitchell, "A Theology of Global Engagement for the 'Newest Internationalists,'" Brandywine Review of Faith and International Affairs 1 (Spring 2003): 11-19.
10. Timothy Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2nd ed. (New York: Penguin, 2003), 206.
11. Gennadios Limouris, "Introduction," in Gennadios Limouris, ed., Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation: Insights from Orthodoxy (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1990), ix-x.
12. Alfred Stepan, "Religion, Democracy, and the 'Twin Tolerations,'" Journal of Democracy 11 (October 2000): 39.
13. Most relevantly, the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines "pluralism" as "a state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain an autonomous participation in and development of their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization," and "a concept, doctrine, or policy advocating this state." See www.m-w.com/cgibin/dictionary.
14. This experience has been especially dominant for non-Chalcedonian (Oriental Orthodox) churches, which have made moves toward full theological communion in the face of the survival challenges that they have had to meet under authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and Africa.
15. For representative treatments of the emerging debate on pluralism versus democracy in Orthodoxy, see Harley Balzer, "Managed Pluralism: Vladimir Putin's Emerging Regime," www.sais-jhu.edu; Emmanuel Clapsis, ed., Orthodoxy and Pluralism: An Ecumenical Conversation (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2004); and Nikolas K. Gvosdev, '"Managed Pluralism' and Civil Religion in Post-Soviet Russia," in Christopher Marsh and Nikolas K. Gvosdev, eds., Civil Society and the Search for Justice in Russia (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002).
16. For representative treatments of the emerging debate on pluralism versus democracy in Orthodoxy, see Harley Balzer, "Managed Pluralism: Vladimir Putin's Emerging Regime," www.sais-jhu.edu; Emmanuel Clapsis, ed., Orthodoxy and Pluralism: An Ecumenical Conversation (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2004); and Nikolas K. Gvosdev, '"Managed Pluralism' and Civil Religion in Post-Soviet Russia," in Christopher Marsh and Nikolas K. Gvosdev, eds., Civil Society and the Search for Justice in Russia (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002).
17. For representative treatments of the emerging debate on pluralism versus democracy in Orthodoxy, see Harley Balzer, "Managed Pluralism: Vladimir Putin's Emerging Regime," www.sais-jhu.edu; Emmanuel Clapsis, ed., Orthodoxy and Pluralism: An Ecumenical Conversation (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2004); and Nikolas K. Gvosdev, '"Managed Pluralism' and Civil Religion in Post-Soviet Russia," in Christopher Marsh and Nikolas K. Gvosdev, eds., Civil Society and the Search for Justice in Russia (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002).
18. Thomas Carothers, "The End of the Transition Paradigm," Journal of Democracy 13 (January 2002): 5-21.
19. Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, From Earth and Water (Athens: Kastaniotis Press, 1999), 15. Author's translation.
20. The twenty countries that can be logically placed under the umbrella of "the Orthodox world" are Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Lebanon, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Syria, and Ukraine. A country can be said to fit into the "Orthodox" grouping if one or more of the following criteria obtain: Orthodox Christians form a majority of the population; Orthodoxy is legally identified as the state religion; Orthodoxy has had a formative impact on the political and cultural development of the country; Orthodox Christians play key roles in social and governmental affairs. For a ranking of countries that situates Orthodox countries according to the index of freedom, see www.freedomhouse.org/research/ freeworld/2003/averages.pdf.