129-138

Orthodox Christianity as an aspect of modern greek culture : some critical observations

Αντιβολές

• Μόσχος, Δημήτριος Ν.

The article constitutes a critical to the argument of Thanos Lipowatz [GPSR 2, (October 1993)], which causally links Orthodox Christianity with the premodem character of political institutions in contemporary Greek.society. According to Lipowatz, the notion of the «passive change» of the world as well as the «totalitarianism» of the medieval community in the East were the intellectual and cultural products of Orthodox Christianity.In contrast to these views, this article argues that Orthodox Christianity served as a counterweight to the totalitarian, Roman-Hellenistic, imperial idea and gradually gained political power through church council structures. Through the labour ethics of monasticism and the social criticism of the Church Fathers, Orthodox Christianity came to conceive of the process of change in the world as «active» rather than «passive».Lipovatz’s contention that Christian love interpreted in a neoplatonic- gnostic manner prevented the development of «legal structures» runs counter to the fact that Eastern Orthodox Christian ontology fought persistently against the neoplatonic notion of the «cosmic bond» between God and nature, on the ground that the relation between God and man is free. This view also made it possible for the Byzantine Church to allow for certain forms of radical criticism against social or political views.Given the view of the world and of the relationship between man and God held by Orthodox Christianity, any attempt to identify its ideas with particular political practices or institutions (whether negative or positive) tends to create a false impression, to set up a straw man, and to ignore the fact that the acceptance of criticism on the part of Orthodox Christianity makes for its adherents to deal with things political.

• Political Science
• Sociology

• Πολιτική επιστήμη
• Κοινωνιολογία

Ορθοδοξία

Ο Δ. Ν. Μόσχος είναι Θεολόγος-βυζαντινολόγος, Η αντιβολή έχει προκληθεί από άρθρο του κ. Θ. Λίποβατς με τίτλο «Ορθόδοξος Χριστιανισμός και Εθνικισμός: Δύο πτυχές της σύγχρονης ελληνικής πολιτικής κουλτούρας», στο Ελληνική Επιθεώρηση Πολιτικής Επιστήμης, τχ. 2 (Οκτώβριος 1993), σ. 31-47.