Patrin V.G. Non-Church Religious Majority As a Problem of the Modern Orthodox Church: Socio-Philosophical Aspect
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2021.3.3
Vyacheslav G. Patrin
Candidate of Theology, PhD (Études grecques, Sorbonne), Director, Center for Training Church Specialists of the Volgograd Eparchy
Chapaeva St., 26, 400012 Volgograd, Russian Federation
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6376-5076
Abstract. The article is devoted to the actual problem for the Russian Orthodox Church related to the new phenomenon in the history of the Church – the non-church religious majority consisting of people baptized in the Orthodox Church but practically not identifying themselves with the Church and even opposing themselves to it. This phenomenon characterizes our society as post-secular which religiosity was separated from the main religious institutions and became an individual project that everyone realizes independently, using what traditional religious institutions give, for example Baptism, but maintaining from them independence and distance. The actual strategy of the Russian Orthodox Church in the interaction with the state and society is traditionally focused on the idea of a symphony of powers of the state and the church but this strategy is ineffective in interaction with society. The reason is the non-church nature of the religious majority and also the absence of the expected socially significant activity of the Church that people would be ready to identify with. The internal mission of Church for the baptized people is oriented towards the knowledge-based approach and fits as such into the post-secular model of religiosity. The activity-oriented approach can change the situation. It requires socially significant activity from the Church and involving people into it. This will be a return to the ancient practice of the Church, when the life of a Christian was associated with serving his neighbor. Such activities will make it possible to actualize the Christian teaching in the modern anthropological and social situation, will reveal the essence of the Christian idea of ontological transcending, which consists not in avoiding people, but in communication, and will allow the Church to carry out its mission in the post-secular space as a socially significant institution.
Key words: Orthodox Church, post-secularism, desecularization, religious majority, Church and state, Church and society, internal mission of the Church, problem of church affiliation.
Citation. Patrin V.G. Non-Church Religious Majority As a Problem of the Modern Orthodox Church: Socio-Philosophical Aspect. Logos et Praxis, 2021, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 27-31. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2021.3.3
Non-Church Religious Majority As a Problem of the Modern Orthodox Church: Socio-Philosophical Aspect by Patrin V.G. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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