REPORT "BEYOND POLITICS?" - THE BELORUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE CHALLENGE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ALFONS BRÜNING (original) (raw)

"The Church is Always with the People." An Orthodox Paradigm in Political Turmoil

Berkley Forum, 2020

The protests in Belarus are remarkable in several respects. Their duration, social breadth, creativity, female activity, and non-violence arouse international admiration, but also deep concern. Among others, the role of the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) deserves special attention as it reveals characteristic patterns of the social position of Orthodoxy in post-Soviet states.

(with Natalija Zenger): Silenced Dissent in the Russian Orthodox Church

Euxeinos, 2023

The official support of Russia’s war against Ukraine by the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church has silenced most of the voices of existing dissent. However, before February 2022, there were different reactions from the church to various waves of protest. While the church leadership spoke of a “crisis of the young generation”, individual clergy members showed understanding for the outrage over the state repressions and the lack of prospects perceived by the youth. Under the current circumstances, there is little room for anti-war action by Orthodox clergy and laity, but some are seizing the opportunities left to them.

The religio-political strategies of the Russian Orthodox Church as a ‘politics of discourse’∗

Religion, State and Society, 2006

We frequently hear misgivings expressed in the West, and in Russia itself, about the fact that Orthodox Christianity might become a new state religion or state ideology for Russia, if indeed it has not already done so. Liberal circles in Russia talk about the far-reaching influence of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) over public life, and in the western press this is pretty well the universal view. Cited as evidence, for example, is the recent court case against the art exhibition 'Ostorozhno, religiya' in Moscow which resulted in the organisers being fined (Sapper et al., 2004, pp. 48 -51; Voswinckel, 2004). Some even see the 1997 law on religion as showing the influence of the ROC, in that it succeeded in having its own special status written into the law. At the same time, however, other researchers argue just the opposite: the ROC does not exercise influence over political life, but Russian politicians have been instrumentalising the ROC when they have found it useful to do so, while generally paying no attention to it. In the view of Kathrin Behrens (2002, p. 370), for example, 'the real influence of the ROC on political processes and political actors depends on how far its own interests coincide with those of the political classes and in particular with those of the decision-makers in the state'.

From Confrontation to a Dialogue: The Dynamics of Relationship Between the Russian Orthodox Church and the State (1917-1980)

Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews

Purpose of the Study: The aim of the research is to study the tendencies and potential of the church-state relationship at a critical juncture of the great political transformations. An objective need to analyze the past experience of church-state interrelations in Russia and to identify social and cultural role of church as the embodiment of religion served as the incentive for the present study. The article considers church-state relationship under the Soviet regime, the tragedy of their coexistence, reflected in a strong opposition, oppression and almost complete liquidation of the church, and, as a result, its accommodation in relations with the government within that period. Methodology: The authors used philosophical analysis of the church-state interaction, historicism and comparison principles enabling to consider its dynamics and evolution trends within the defined period. The researchers make the presumption that church-state relationship should be maintained on a cultu...

Russian Church-State Relations: Variations on a Theme

An essay written for the Religion & Culture Web Forum of the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion in response to Katja Richters' "Pussy Riot, the Media and Church-State Relations in Russia Today."

“Between Conflict and Coexistence: Russian Orthodox Church Adaptability in Coping with the Soviet Regime,” AFP Working Papers, vol. 1: 2010– 2011 (2012): 44–54.

In this paper I address those actions of the hierarchy and clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ukrainian Republic through the 1940s–1970s that are usually described in terms of prisposoblenchiestvo. Drawing from archival and published sources as well as theoretical premises suggested by Glennys Young, William Fletcher, James C. Scott, and John Henry Newman, I argue that adaptability of the Church became a viable function in its approach to relations with the communist state. This research also allows for some broader inferences regarding relationship between communist ideology and religion: acute conflict between the two at the philosophical level while strange interpenetration at the level of day-to-day coexistence.

Religion and Politics in Contemporary Russia: Beyond the Binary of Power and Authority

Routledge, 2020

Based on extensive original research at the local level, this book explores the relationship between Russian Orthodoxy and politics in contemporary Russia. It reveals close personal links between politicians at the local, regional and national level and their counterparts at the equivalent level in the Russian Orthodox Church - priests and monks, bishops and archbishops - who are extensively consulted about political decisions. It outlines a convergence of conservative ideology between politicians and clerics, and also highlights that, despite the close working together, there are nevertheless many tensions. The book examines in detail particular areas of co-operation and tension: reform to religious education and a growing emphasis on traditional moral values, the restitution of former church property and the introduction of new festive days. Overall, the book concludes that there is much uncertainty, ambiguity and great local variation.