Summary of Online lecture

Rev. Dr. Cyril Hovorun

TOWARDS AN ORTHODOX POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE

The online lecture on the topic “Towards an Orthodox Political Theology of the Future” was held on Monday, May 12, 2025. The speaker was Rev. Dr. Cyril Hovorun, Professor of Ecclesiology, International Relations and Ecumenical Theology at Sankt Ignatios College, University of Stockholm, and a Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The event was part of the “Time for Action” series of events of Volos Academy for Theological Studies, and it was coordinated by Dr Athanasios N. Papathanasiou, Associate Professor of Missiology, Intercultural Christian Witness and Dialogue at the Supreme Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Synaxis.”

Fr. Cyril presented a brief genealogy of political theology from Athanasius of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea and Augustine of Hippo, proceeding to Maximus the Confessor and Photius of Constantinople and reaching our days, and emphasizing that most of these ancient theologians were particularly skeptical about the relationship between the state and the Church. He emphasized that the contemporary understandings of the Church and the development of ecclesiology are essentially a result of the interaction of the Church with the secularized society, which initially took place in Western Europe, and which acted as a mirror for the Church itself; while a similar course was followed by political theology, which has not yet been unconditionally accepted by all Orthodox Theologians. He then outlined the history of the countries with an Orthodox majority in the 20th century, most of which were governed in an authoritarian manner for long periods, while the official Churches collaborated to a large extent with these authoritarian regimes. In conclusion, he proposed a return to the primordial political theology and the critical approach to the relationship between Church and state, a clear confession of the political failings of the past by the various Orthodox Churches, an overcoming of the East-West discord and finally an avoidance of any notion of “cultural wars”, because, as he put it, “unrepented sins are usually repeated”.

The video recording of the event is available on the YouTube channel of Volos Academy, at https://youtu.be/hg9_y0HwUBk, while the next and final event of this year’s cycle will take place on May 28, with Norman Russell as a speaker.