Political Orthodoxies

“In this precisely argued, brilliant work, Cyril Hovorun gives us a discerning look at how the church, state, society, and culture entwine and interact. He peels back many political versions of the church, revealing how they serve Caesar better than the Lord and the gospel. Especially today, when such action continues, we need to hear his powerful expose.” –Michael Plekon, Professor Emeritus, The City University of New York, archpriest, Orthodox Church in America, author of Uncommon Prayer and The World as Sacrament, archpriest

“Whether Orthodoxy develops a gospel-centered social ethics and church-state theory for the third millennium is a question on which much Christian, and world, history will turn. Father Hovorun’s important study should make a significant contribution to that development. Even more importantly, it should help liberate Eastern Christianity from the evangelically deadening embrace of state power.” –George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC

“I am tempted to imagine that if Eusebius of Caesarea (260⁄265-339⁄340) had the benefit of the thesis explored and brilliantly argued in Political Orthodoxies: The Unorthodoxies of the Church Coerced, the history of the church would have taken a healthier trajectory. For all of us who care about and have observed the resurgence of the Orthodox faith and church following the end of the Soviet period and the cunning realignment of political agendas leading politicians to fain faithfulness and hierarchs to cloud–at best–the gospel with the ideologies of nationalism, anti-Semitism, and fundamentalism, this book provides the most astute diagnosis of the diseases infecting Orthodox churches in Russia, Romania, and Greece. It exposes ‘political idolatry’ (Philip Gorski), calls us to discern wolves dressed as shepherds, and invites a recalibration of the church to the incarnation that is itself the antidote to political theologies. It is a must read both inside the church and far beyond its walls.” –David J. Goa, founding director of The Ronning Center for the Study of Religion and Public Life, U

Ashley Moyse (PhD, Newcastle) is the McDonald postdoctoral fellow in Christian ethics and public life at Christ Church, University of Oxford. He is also a research associate at Vancouver School of Theology at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Reading Karl Barth, Interrupting Moral Technique, Transforming Biomedical Ethics (2015) and has coedited several volumes, including Correlating Sobornost: Conversations Between Karl Barth and the Russian Orthodox Tradition (2016), Kenotic Ecclesiology: Select Writings of Donald M. MacKinnon (2016), and Treating the Body in Medicine and Religion: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Perspectives (2019).