GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MODERN SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31392/cult.alm.2026.3.12Keywords:
modern Orthodox theology, patristic thought, neo-Thomism, social teaching of the Church, dignity of the individual, human rights, Christian ethics, phenomenology of holiness, theological anthropology, deificationAbstract
The article examines the theological foundations of modern Orthodox social teaching, expressed in the declaration of the Patriarchate of Constantinople “For the Life of the World. On the Path to the Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church”, published in 2020. This social doctrine, for the first time in history, completely abandoned the concept of a symphony of the Church with the state, nation, and civil society, radically returns to the foundations of evangelical morality and makes the recognition of the absolute dignity of the individual as called to communion with God the foundation for all reflections. If for patristic thought, communion with God and holiness were the completion of the complex path of a person’s moral and spiritual development, then for modern theology, involvement in God and communication with him are a condition for the possibility of being a person and a Christian. The moral development of the personality as the disclosure of the potential of human nature and the achievement of godlikeness for the social doctrine of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as well as for Orthodox theologians of the early 21st century, is inextricably linked with communion with God, love, holiness, supernatural involvement in the transcendent. It is proved that a more thorough analysis of the unity of the elements of the natural and supernatural in ontology and epistemology reveals additional grounds for returning to the New Testament ideas about the holiness of the life of all Christians, and not only of individual chosen ascetics.
References
За життя світу. На шляху до соціального етосу Православної Церкви (2020). URL: https://www.goarch.org/social-ethos?p_p_id=56_INSTANCE_km0Xa4sy69OV&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_count=1&_56_INSTANCE_km0Xa4sy69OV_languageId=uk_UA. [22 Березня 2026].
Hart D. B. (2014). The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness. Bliss, Yale University Press.
Manoussakis J. P. (2007). God after Metaphysics. A Theological Aesthetic, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 213 p.
Papanikolaou A. (2006). Being with God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine‐Human Communion. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 238 p.
Papanikolaou A. (2012). The Mystical as Political: Democracy and Non-Radical Orthodoxy. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 248 p.
Staniloae D. (2002). Orthodox spirituality. St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press, 397 p.
Yannaras C. (2004). Postmodern metaphysics / transl. by N. Russell. Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press. 200 p.
Zizioulas J. (2006). Communion and otherness. Further studies in personhood and the church / ed. P.Mc. Partlan. N.Y.: T & T Clark. 315 p.
