Bøger i Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz Beihefte serien

We live in a present of multiple and conflicting sacralities. How do we account for the persistence and remarkable adaptability of traditional forms of the Christian sacred? How do we explain the ongoing allure of instrumentalizing the sacred for political purposes? And what do we make of the spread of nature spiritualities that have been so pertinent over the last half century? This volume seeks to reflect upon how these multiple sacralizations can be studied and understood in historical and cross-disciplinary perspective.

The radical socio-political changes in the wake of the fall of communism in many predominantly Orthodox countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe have triggered an intense interest in formulating a specifically Orthodox Christian political theology in various forms. The present volume focuses on these developments, but also offers a panorama of the evolution of Orthodox political theologies across time, from early Byzantium until today. The contributions examine their historical background, consider their specific parameters, and critically assess their particular features. Given that political theology has a much more robust history within Western Christianity, some contributions contextualise the topic more broadly by comparing Orthodox with Western Christian political theologies. Considering that the analysis of the Orthodox side has been mostly neglected or ignored in the past, this volume aims at filling a serious gap in the related research.