 Religious nationalism seems to be the most serious problem that the Orthodox Church—and Orthodox ecclesiology especially—have faced since the fall of Byzantium (1453), a decisive historical event which began a period of introversion. Specific but very significant aspects of this problem are the identification between Church and nation, Church and ethno-cultural identity, Church and national ideology, Church and state, and, consequently, the concept —but also the reality— of national Churches, i.e. the inability to conceive of the Orthodox Church and its mission and witness in the world independently from the national vision and particular national idea or story. As a result of this replacement of the ecclesial criterion with the national, the Orthodox Church has been facing for many decades now a profound division between the different national Churches as well as the acceptance of the problematic ecclesiological idea that sees the Orthodox Church as a “confederation of national Churches”.
This identification and this “national” role constitute a novelty for the Orthodox Church, which had been, for many centuries, the Church of the multinational Byzantine Empire. Generally speaking, till the era of the Turkish occupation (15th-19th centuries) during which we can observe the first signs of this national role, the Orthodox Church, despite, or maybe because of its bonds with the imperial power, ignored any kind of “national logic” both in its ecclesiological structure and in its theological self- consciousness. By assuming this innovation, and by being involved in the formation of particular ethno-cultural identities, the Orthodox Church not only seems to face serious difficulties in confirming its sense of catholicity, ecumenicity and Church unity, but also appears to have abandoned the basis and the criterion of its ecclesiology, which was always determined by the principle of a local and not a national Church.
After a long and complex historical process, mainly after the creation of the modern “Orthodox” states and the more recent political developments in Central and Eastern Europe, the Orthodox Church now seems to have forgotten its supranational mission and its fundamental ecclesiological principles. More importantly, at the time and in the context of a multinational pluralistic postmodern society, Orthodoxy exhausts its theological and spiritual resources of the patristic and Eucharistic tradition in the rhetoric of “identities” and in a dated religious tribalism that stands in contrast to Gospel’s call for supraracial and even supranational societies. Many Eastern countries’ insistence on seeing Orthodoxy as a part of their national identity and culture, related to their customs and traditional folklore, undermines every serious attempt to face the challenges that the contemporary world poses to Orthodoxy, and condemns the latter to continue trapped in traditionalism, fundamentalism, social anachronism or even reactionism, pre-modernity and the authoritarian structures of patriarchal society.
It is time for Orthodoxy to close the “parenthesis” opened in 1453 with the fall of Byzantium, and return to its main and crucial mission, which is the evangelization and transfiguration of the world, the preaching of the coming Kingdom of God for the salvation and restoration of the whole creation. A renewed and fresh theological reflection must remember that the Church is a route to the Eschaton and not a return to the glorious and painful story of Byzantium, the Turkish Occupation or a “Christian Empire”. If the Church wants to speak to the modern world and people in order to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom―and not to the bygone world of yesterday―it is urgent for it to go beyond the ethnocentric discourse, to abandon any dream of a return to Byzantine theocracy, or any other anti-modern romantic version of “Christian society”. Theocracy and neo-nationalism, which are presumably nothing other than secularized forms of eschatology, constitute the permanent historical temptation of Orthodoxy and they can not, for any reason, continue to be the Orthodox Church’s political solution. To the thirst of the modern person for life, the Orthodox Church can and ought to respond with its own proposal, with its “words of eternal life” (cf. Jn 6:68), and not with the continuous invocation of the past and its own achievements in the struggles and fights of the nation. For that reason, the adoption of an ecumenical ecclesiastical discourse, free from the continuous references to the nation and to the schemes of the Constantinian era, is not just a demand for genuineness, authenticity and faithfulness to the Orthodox Tradition; it is also for the Church an absolutely indispensable and urgent prerequisite, an inviolate condition, in order to enter the century in which we live and to avoid finding easy and safe shelter in the past. Without this element, there is neither a true nor lasting revelation of God in creation and history, nor does the Church pray, dialogue and struggle “for the life of the world”. Without it, a message of reconciliation, repentance and re-evangelism cannot be formulated.
All these substantial questions and topics could be addressed and honestly discussed in the framework of an Inter-Orthodox Consultation on “Ecclesiology and Nationalism in a Postmodern Era”, which will be held in May 24-27, 2012 in Volos (Greece). This consultation will be organized by the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, in cooperation with: the Chair of Orthodox Theology, University of Münster (Germany); the Orthodox Christian Studies Program, Fordham University (New York, USA); the Romanian Institute for Inter-Orthodox, Inter-Confessional and Inter-Religious Studies (INTER, Cluj-Napoca, Romania); the Christian Cultural Center of Belgrade (Serbia); the St. Andrew's Biblical Theological Institute (Moscow, Russia); the Valamo Lay Academy (Finland), and the European Forum of Orthodox Schools of Theology (EFOST, Brussels).
Program
24-27 May 2012, Volos, Greece
Speakers:
-Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia, Ecumenical Patriachate,
“Neither Jew nor Greek”: Ethnicity and Catholicity
-Dr Lucian Leustean, Aston University, U.K.,
The Byzantine concept of Symphonia, the Church-state relationship and the nation-building process
-Dr Paschalis M. Kitromilides, Professor at Athens University, Director of the Hellenic National Research Foundation,
Enlightenment, Nationalism and National State, and their impact on the Orthodox World
-Dr Vasilios N. Makrides, Professor at Erfurt University, Germany,
Why are Orthodox Churches Prone to Nationalization?
Examples and Hypotheses from the Greek-Speaking World
-Dr Bosco Bojovic, Professor, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris,
Orthodoxy and Nationalism in Southeastern Europe
-Dr Dimitris Stamatopoulos, Assistant Professor, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki,
Orthodox Ecumenism: pre-modern survival, modern instrumentality, or post-modern invention? Some reflections on the issue of condemnation of “ethnophyletism” in 1872
-Dr Daniella Kalkandjieva, Researcher at the Scientific Department of Sofia University,
Orthodoxy and Nationalism in Russian Orthodoxy
-Dr Tarek Mitri, Senor Fellow on Public Policy, American University of Beirut, Former Minister of the Government of Lebanon
Communitarianism and Nationalism: the case of the Church of Antioch and of its Diaspora
-Dr Christos Karakolis, Assistant Professor at Athens University,
Church and Nation in the New Testament: the Formation of the primitive Christian Communities
-Rev Dr Nikolaos Loudovikos, Associate Professor at the Higher Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki and Lecturer at the Orthodox Institute in Cambridge,
Church, Race and Ethnic Reasoning according to some Patristic example
-Dr Paul Meyendorff, Professor at St Vladimir’s Theological Seminary, New York,
Ethnophyletism, Autocephaly and National Churches – Theological approach and Ecclesiological Implications
-Dragica Tadić-Papanikolaou, MA in Theology, Associate of Christian Cultural Center, Belgrade-Athens,
The Construction of National Idea and Identity through Church Narratives
-Rev Dr Cyril Hovorun, Chair of the Theological department at Cyril & Methodius Post-Graduate School of the Russian Orthodox Church,
Local and National Churches in Ecclesiological and Eschatological Perspective
-Rev Dr Gregorios Papathomas, Professor at Athens University and at St Sergius Institute of Theology, Paris, President of the European Forum of Orthodox Sschools of Theology,
Nationalism and the so-called “Diaspora”: National or Territorial Principle?
-Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon, Ecumenical Patriarchate,
Primacy and Nationalism
-Dr Pantelis Kalaitzidis, Director, Volos Academy for Theological Studies,
Ecclesiology and Globalization: In Search of Ecclesiological Models Relevant to the time of Globalization (after the previous contextual models: Local, Imperial, National)
-Dr Davor Džalto, Professor at Niss University, Vice-President of Christian Cultural Center, Belgrade,
Nationalism, Statism and Orthodoxy
-Dr Alexander Verkhovsky, SOVA Center, Moscow,
“Political Orthodoxy”: Religion’s Involvement in Identity Formation Process
-Dr Athanassios N. Papathanassiou, Editor-in-Chief of Synaxis,
Signs of National Socialism in the Orthodox Church today?
-Dr Radu Preda, Professor at Babes-Bolyai University, Director of the Romanian Institute for Inter-Orthodox, Inter-Confessional, Inter-Religious Studies-INTER, Cluj-Napoca,
Religious Nationalism, Fundamentalism and Social Anachronism
Beginning on Thursday, May 24, 2012, 6:30 pm
Concluding on Sunday, May 27, 2012, 2:00 pm
“Thessalia” Conference Center, Melissatika, Volos
For additional information and to register, please contact the Secretariat of
the Volos Academy: Tel: +30-24210.93553, 93572, 93573 or by e-mail:
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To download the application form, click here . |
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