Staatsbevoegdheid in Kerkelijke Aangelegenheden Volgens de Orthodoxie

Abstract

State authority in the Church according to Orthodox Tradition. Recent events in Russia and Greece suggest that the Orthodox concede to the State more readily than do Catholics. fundamental office in the Church. There have indeed never lacked Orthodox theologians who vigorously defend the autonomy of the Church. However they have generally been. minority. The apparent readiness of the majority to collaborate even with. regime hostile to religion has. basis in the Stoic doctrine of Providence which deeply influenced Hellenistic political thought. According to this doctrine the Emperor was. Providential figure and the deputy of Jupiter. Christians attributed. Providential rôle to the Empire even before the conversion of Constantine. Eusebius and the court theologians easily adapted this Providential rôle to the Christian emperor. Constantine was the friend of Christ with. special vocation. Each of his successors was. New Constantine. Although the preoccupations of Christian emperors were not always those of the bishops,. harmony between the two offices of successor to the Apostles and successor to Constantine was achieved in the seven ecumenical councils. The doctrine of ʽsymphonyʼ was developed by Photius in the Epanagoge. Later Emperors, however, attempted to exert. more autocratic office in the Church. They attributed supremacy in Church affairs to their predecessors, and one canonist explicitly derived the Emperorʼs authority in religion from the office of Pontifex Maximus exercised by pre-Christian emperors.