On Church – State Relations (Part Three in a Series)

Recall, that in our last essay, I looked at Church-State relations in Muscovite Russia. In today’s discussion, I will briefly examine the Nikonian and Synodal periods of Russian history. My goal is to demonstrate that, if in the Filaretovite Era, Russian civil authority was usurped by the Church, then in subsequent periods, Russian ecclesiastic authority [...]

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On Church – State Relations (Part Two in a Series)

Last time, I looked at Church – State relations in the Byzantine Empire. Though my analysis was little but perfunctory, I was able to draw some conclusions about “normal” relations given canonical rules and Byzantine jurisprudence. I then discussed the shortcomings of Byzantine government and claimed that where Byzantium failed Muscovy was able [...]

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On Church – State Relations (Part One in a series)

IN what follows, I plan to explore the nature of Church – State relations, as perceived from the Orthodox point of view and as materialized, both historically and currently, in Russian jurisprudence. This series was motivated by the recent “letter of the academicians”, which has caused so much discussion in the Russian media. I hope [...]

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“From Russia with Love” (or, “Aleks debunks 007”)

So contrary to James Bond movies and other popular portrayals of Russia these days, people don’t drive tanks around downtown St Petersburg, they don’t drink vodka 24-7, and they don’t talk to each other in English with a weird accent.
In fact, St Petersburg’s Pulkovo International Airport, with its socialist realist (“socialist baroque”) façade, and the [...]

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