The Visible Religion: The Russian Orthodox Church and her Relations with State and Society in Post-Soviet Canon Law (1992–2015) (Erfurter Studien zur Kulturgeschichte des orthodoxen Christentums)

«The Visible Religion» is an antithesis to Thomas Luckmann’s concept. The Russian Orthodox Church in post-Soviet canon law suggests a comprehensive cultural program of modernity. Researched through the paradigms of multiple modernities and post-secularity, the ROC appears to be quite modern: she reflects on herself and the secular environment, employs secular language, appeals to public reason, the human rights discourse, and achievements of modern science. The fact that the ROC rejects some liberal Western developments should not be understood in the way that the ROC rejects modernity in general. As a legitimate player in the public sphere, the ROC puts forward her own – Russian Orthodox – model of modernity, which combines transcendence and immanence, theological and social reasoning, an afterlife strategy and cooperation with secular actors, whereby eschatology and the human rights discourse become two sides of the same coin. Cover Table of Contents Selected Abbreviations Figures and Tables Foreword 1. Introduction 1.1. Object 1.2. Definitions and Terminology 1.2.1. Canon Law 1.2.2. The ROC and the Moscow Patriarchate 1.2.3. The ROC and the ROCA 1.2.4. The Orthodox Church 1.2.5. Orthodox Christianity and Christian Orthodoxy 1.3. Objectives 1.4. Canon Law: A Tool of Theopolitics and Geotheology 1.5. Orthodoxy and Religious Fundamentalism 1.6. The Secularization Theory and the Russian Federation 1.7. Multiple Modernities 1.8. Multiple Modernities and Globalization 1.9. Post-Secularity: from “Postsecular Crap” to the “Eternal Religious” 1.10. A Nation Church 1.11. The ROC and the Human Rights Discourse 1.12. Orthodox Canon Law and the Sacralization of Person 1.13. The Hypothesis: Russian Orthodox Modernity 1.14. Methods 1.14.1. Document Study 1.14.2. The Translation Proviso 1.14.3. Theology as a Method of Research 1.14.4. Translingual Bible Criticism 1.14.5. The “Trinitarian” Approach 1.14.6. The Public Canon Discourse Analysis as a Method 1.14.7. Languages, Scripts, Figures, Tables 1.14.8. A Diachronic Approach to the ROC Documents 1.15. The Sources 1.16. The State of Research 1.17. The Structure 2. Orthodox Canon Law 2.1. “Canon” and Types of Canon Law 2.2. The Structure of Canon Law 2.3. The Origin of Canon Law 2.4. The Text, Tradition, and Post-Secularity 2.5. The Text 2.6. The Apostolic Canons and the Church Councils 2.7. The Principles of Application of Canon Law 2.8. The Legal Retroaction 2.9. Subdivisions in ROC Canon Law 2.10. An “Official Position” as Modern Canon Law 3. External Aspects of the Orthodox Church 3.1. The ROC in the Post-Soviet Era 3.2. The Formal Unity 3.3. The Ecclesiology of the Church Models 3.4. “Catholic” and “Universal” 3.5. The Theopolitics of the ROC 3.6. State Forms in the ROC’s Doctrine 3.7. Types of Church-State Relations 3.8. Channels of Interaction and Religious Intelligence 3.9. The ROC in Public Opinion 3.9.1. Public Importance 3.9.2. Secular Society and Religious Values 4. The ROC-State Cooperation from 1917 until 1991 4.1. The Church-State Relations in 1917–1918 4.1.1. The February Revolution of 1917 4.1.2. The Revolution of 1917–1918 4.2. The Declaration of Metropolitan Sergii (1927) 4.3. The Stalinist Revival of the ROC (1943–1948) 4.3.1. The ROC’s Revival in 1943 4.3.2. The Stalinist Climax of 1948 4.4. The 1000 Years Jubilee of the ROC (1988) 4.5. The Evaluation of the Declaration of 1927 in 1990: a Step to Reunion 5. The Canon Law on Relations with State and Society 5.1. An Outline of the Cultural Program of the ROC (1992) 5.2. An External Religious Challenge and a Reciprocal Mission of the ROC (1994) 5.3. The Principles of Cooperation with State and Society (1994) 5.4. Religious Fundamentalism and Post-Religious Sanity (1998) 5.5. Technology and “Digital Antichrist” (2000) 5.6. The Canon Law of The Bases of the Social Concept (2000) 5.6.1. Transfiguration as a General Task (2000) 5.6.2. The “Civil Disobedience” Strategy (2000) 5.6.3. Political Election Revisited (2000) 5.6.4. The Inter-Christian Interaction (2000) 5.6.5. The Inter-Christian Marriage (2000) 5.6.6. Labor, Economy, and Reason (2000) 5.6.7. Abortion and Contraception (2000) 5.6.8. Modern Medical Technology (2000) 5.6.9. Homo- and Transsexuality (2000) 5.7. Demography and an Earthly Homeland (2004) 5.8. AIDS: Immanent Challenge → Transcendent Solution (2005) 5.9. The Concept of the ROC’s Missionary Activities (2007) 5.10. Human Dignity, Freedom, and Nature (2008) 5.11. Blasphemy in Public (2011) 5.12. Public Orthodoxy and Elections (2011) 5.13. Russian Orthodox “Colonialism” and Small Peoples (2011) 5.14. Drugs in Russia: A Tragedy of “Apocalyptic” Scale (2012) 5.15. Circular Letters as Canon Law (2012) 5.16. The ROC’s Statute as Canon Law (2013) 5.17. Renewed Concerns over Digital Security (2013) 5.18. An “Effective Presence” in the Media (2013 et al) 5.19. Ecology and Nature (2013) 5.20. The Church-State Relations in 2013: An Interim Report 5.21. Family and Juvenile Justice (2013) 5.22. Crime and Punishment (2013) 5.23. The External Public Mission (2013) 5.24. Surrogacy: A Red Line (2013) 5.25. The Inter-Christian Primacy (2013) 5.26. Alcoholism: A Grave Threat to Society (2014) 5.27. Migrants: Christian Mission → Social Harmony → Orthodox Leitkultur (2014) 5.28. The Ecology Doctrine Revisited (2015) 5.29. Summary 6. Metareflection: Tradition, Modernity, Orthodoxy 6.1. Theology of Church Power 6.1.1. Symphony of Powers as a Metonymy 6.1.2. “Universal” 6.1.3. “Conciliar” 6.1.4. “Catholic” 6.2. Orthodox “Colonialism,” Church Power, and Oral Law 6.3. A Modern Application of Canon Law 6.4. Orthodox Tradition and Modernity 6.4.1. History and the Canon Myth: Decrypting the “Christian Attitude” to State Power 6.4.2. “God Hates Divorce” (Mal 2: 16): a Future Norm of Canon Law? 6.4.3. The ROC’s Ecology Doctrine as a Metonymy 6.4.4. Thoughts on Freedom, “Image,” and “Likeness” 6.4.5. “Orthodox Patriotism” and Nation Church 6.4.6. Early Russian Modernity 7. Church, State, and Society in Post-Secular Settings 7.1. State ↔ Religion 7.2. State → the ROC: A Legislative Approximation 7.3. The ROC in the International Relations 7.3.1. Between Russia, China, and America 7.3.2. The ROC in the European Union 7.4. Nation State → Nation Church → “Orthodox Nation” 7.5. “The Visible Religion” Bibliography The Russian Orthodox Church In Her Post-soviet Canon Law Suggests A Comprehensive Cultural Program Of Modernity That Combines Transcendence And Immanence, Theological And Social Reasoning, An Afterlife Strategy And Cooperation With Secular Actors, Whereby Eschatology And The Human Rights Discourse Become Two Sides Of The Same Coin. Russian Orthodox Church – Post-Soviet canon law – Relations with state and society – "Reloaded" symphony of powers – Multiple modernities and post-secularity – Theopolitics and geotheology – Russian Orthodox modernity – Visible religion – Post-religious