[Note: This blog is devoted to the dissemination of the writings and Faith of the Fathers of the Church. Those Fathers include not only those of the historic past of the Church, but the modern century as well, men recognized by most, if not all, as worthy of the designation as a modern Father of the Church. This post, and the next two following it, are from Fr. Michael Azkoul, who himself, would not call himself a Church Father. Fr. Michael has written some controversial essays, and has attacked one of the Church Fathers posted here, Fr. Seraphim Rose, on his doctrine of the tollhouses. Nonetheless, Fr. Michael presents some important touchstones on the Church and state here, and for this reason, I am posting his article.--CDH]
The 20th Century has brought an end to sacred monarchy. To be sure, several nations yet possess a king or queen, but with few exceptions, they reign without ruling. In the West, none of them pretend to hold their position by "the Grace of God," despite the liturgical rhetoric surrounding their coronations. As for the Arab Sheikdoms and the Ayatollah Khomeini, were it not for humanism (and their oil) they would be laughed out of the United Nations, for basing their life, laws and political policies on the Koran. To what extent the idea of "sacred kingship" does in fact influence them, one cannot always determine; nevertheless, nothing is more certain than the disappearance of "sacred kingship" from among so-called Christian nations.
In any case, there has never been a monarch who ruled in the East or in the post-Orthodox West by "the Grace of God," because the existence of true kingship depends upon true faith. Furthermore, we cannot speak of a heretical society as societes christiana. The Holy Russian Empire - the last phase of the Roman Imperium, successor to Byzantine or Christian Rome - was the last Christian society and Nicholas II was the last Christian Emperor. His death brought the extinction of "the age of Constantine," the end to God's Plan concerning holy empires (1).
With the disappearance of Christian Rome, that which restrained world-revolution, world-atheism-anarchy-apostasy, is no more (cf. II Thess. iv, 6). Secularism characterizes the present age and no where is it more obvious than in the principles and policies of the modern democratic state in which power ascends from the electorate to the elected, to officials and bureaucrats whose only concern, if any at all, is the material and earthly happiness of constituents. If there is a place for religion in these "pluralistic societies", it does not inform its attitudes, aspirations and decisions-making process. The self-styled "separation of Church and state" is a political dogma because it is already a spiritual condition.
The secular state is always atheistic. St. Gregory the Theologian observed in the 4th century that there are three fundamental kinds of government: monarchy, the rule of one, is associated with belief in one God or, at least, one supreme God. Polyarchy (aristocracy, the rule of the few or best) is linked with polytheism; and the rule of the many, the Saint called Anarchy (democracy), is bound with atheism. We Orthodox, he said, hold monarchy "in honor," because it imitates the unity of God whereas polyarchy implies a division or dispersion of His Power, a "severance of His Essence," that is, among many gods. Finally, anarchy, the government of the people, implies theologically that the Essence of God is pulverized or, in other words, power is so completely spread out or distributed that He cannot be conceived to exist (Theol. Ora. III, 2). We ought not be confused by St. Gregory's explanation. He did not mean that nations always make conscious, philosophically elaborated choices, but that there is always a direct connection between theology and politics.
We can see this fact even more clearly in the "political theology" or "Christology of Christian Rome" where the monarchy and the empire imitate the Incarnation. Thus, as Jesus Christ was both God and man, so Orthodox monarchical society likewise possessed two dimensions, one earthly and one heavenly, untied as the two natures in Christ. The Basileus or Tsar, the imperium, Emperor, represented the humanity of Christ and the priesthood or sacerdotium was the analogy of His Divinity. They collaborated in the perfection of Christian society even as "the Whole Christ" works for the salvation of the world. In very broad terms, the domain of the Emperor was the body while the priesthood cared for the soul. Of course, the Emperor's subjects were, like himself, members of the Church, for, in a real sense, the Empire was the Church.
Orhtodox peoples have known only monarchy - whether pagan, Christian, Moslem or heretic. For a while, at least, the West was Orthodox and maintained the correct "political theology" and "Christology". Falling away from the true faith, it has evolved those political forms about which St. Gregory spoke. Europe was divided among numerous kings while the Papacy pretentiously sought to replace the Byzantine Emperor whom it had deserted. Eventually Catholic religious unity began to crumble, as the Renaissance writings of Meister Eckhart, Nichlas of Cusa and Dante testify. By the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, bot the political and religious unity of the West was totally disrupted. Transparently, many rulers with many religious creeds, Trinitarian and otherwise, sprouted everywhere to match the individualism and relativism which Protestantism had wrought.
Kingship and the idea of descending political power - that is, political power "descending" from God to the king for the benefit of the people - finally expired with the "republicanism" of the French Revolution. 1789 marks the traditional date for the beginning of the complete and radical secularization of the Western world. From this moment, "democracy" becomes its political ideal and atheism its political consequence. God is forever shut off from human affairs, dying a quiet death in the scientific madness of the 19th century, with no one to grieve him, as Nietzsche moaned. Now the universe was in the hands of man and, as Auguste Comte proclaimed, he was its "god" and the love of humanity his religion.
* * *
Footnotes:
1. The Prophet Daniel declared that 4 great Empires will rule on the earth: the Egyptian, the Persian, the Greek and the Roman after which will come the End time and the Return of Christ. The Roman Empire was both pagan (inaugurated by Augustus Caesar) and Christian (inaugurated by St. Constantine). The Christian Roman Empire had two phases - the Byzantine and the Russian. Nicholas II and his predecessors were successors to Constantine and those Greek or Byzantine Emperors that followed him. The capital of the pagan Empire was Rome, of Byzantium, Constantinople or New Rome ("2nd Rome") and the Capital of Christian Russia was Moscow or Third Rome. See S. F. Platonov, Textbook of Russian History Vol. I Prague, 1924-25, p. 128 f; H. Schraeder, Moskau, Das Dritte Rom. Darmstadt, 1957.
--Sacred Monarchy and the Modern Secular State, Fr. Michael Azkoul
Posted by Clifton at November 29, 2004 06:30 AM | TrackBack