On Recent Developments in Scholarly Engagement with (the Possibility of an) Orthodox Political Theology

Exotic as the very notion of an Eastern Orthodox political theology at times seems to be, a fair share of attention has been recently directed to the possibility of it through a number of conferences, workshops and publications. In this Review Essay, I am discussing three recent edited volumes on Orthodox political theology, broadly conceived. These exhibit a certain continuity between them and, as edited volumes should, are characterized by a hermeneutic framework, in the context of which particular contributions/chapters appear. Apart from presenting the books and their content, I will be discussing their framework and rationale. Focusing on the books’ treatment of contemporary Greek political theology, I argue that an observable trend in these recent attempts consists in forcing valuable individual contributions into a grand, yet narrow, narrative that is limiting the project’s scope rather than the other way around – and this, in spite of the important contribution that these volumes without question constitute. Liberated from such objectives and frameworks, as well as of certain by now obsolete schematizations of intellectual currents in mainly Orthodox countries by taking into account more recent research, the quest for exploring the possibilities of an Orthodox political theology could prove to be considerably more fecund.