Reflections of a Russian Statesman

[jgress]

I'm reading this fascinating book by Konstantin Pobedonostsev, tutor of Tsar Alexander III and Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II, and Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod of Russia. I'd like others to read it and then maybe discuss it on this thread. It's very interesting in the way he anticipates issues of our own time, such as ecumenism.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7agDAA ... &q&f=false

[Maria]

Sounds great.

Thanks for thinking of us.

[Maria]

Will you take it one chapter at a time or do you want us to read the entire book and then discuss it?

[jgress]

A chapter at a time, I think. So the first chapter is "Church and State".

[Maria]

Since the Introduction sets the stage for this book and places it in a historical context, it should not be overlooked. In her Introduction, Olga Novikoff mentions the problems in Austria which brought on World War I and then WWII.

In the first paragraph of Chapter 1, an important passage has been underlined by an unknown reader wherein it is stated that the faith or lack of faith of the populace will have an effect on the government. Thus the government must neither weaken the faith of its populace, nor cause discord by encouraging dissent and novel practices.

• For however powerful the State may be, its power is based alone upon identity of religious profession with the people; the faith of the people sustain it; when discord once appears to weaken this identity, its foundations are sapped, its power dissolves away.

Here in the USA, which has the precedent of not interfering in matters of religion, there is a spirit of anarchy not only in the churches but also in the political arena. In the churches, there are novel teachings and much discord. In the Catholic Church, the proponents of Vatican II have introduced a New Order Mass in the mid-1960's taken from the Lutheran Hymnal of 1906. Liturgical revolutions promoted by Cardinal Mahony have caused the sense of the sacred to vanish. The Protestants have introduced horrid biblical translations, New Age practices, novel practices of granting women ordination to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopacy, and most recently sanctifying same sex unions. The Orthodox Church has also not been spared discord. Since 1924, the leaders of the Orthodox Church have introduced the New Calendar, a weakening of the ecclesiastical fast, and other aberrations. Not surprisingly, the New Calendarist OCA is disintegrating as one Metropolitian after another has been banished.

This spirit of innovation and disobedience can bring down this nation and any nation. Since God's laws are written in our hearts, our faith leads us to obey. However, a lack of faith and hence lawlessness will only lead to anarchy as the police will not be able to enforce laws as they cannot be everywhere present.

If Christ is in our hearts, then there will be peace. If we are Christians in name only, then peace and harmony cannot prevail. St. Seraphim of Sarov reminds us that if we acquire the Holy Spirit, then thousands around us would be converted. How can we expect people to be peaceful and law-abiding if Christ is not in us? Likewise, how can we expect a government to be just when we the people have lost all sense of righteousness?

[jgress]

Interesting observation. It follows from P's basic message in that chapter, which is that separating Church and State doesn't accord with human nature. People need an integrated life: it's not natural to be one person on Sunday and another person at work, or one person in the home and another person at the voting booth. Compartmentalization is the game of intellectuals, but makes no sense as a way of life.

So separation of Church and State may well have consequences not only for the State, but also for the Church.

[Matthew]

Yes, of course, one cannot but agree with your statements on separation of state and church. I would only like to add that the "separation of church and state" that is supposedly being referred to does not exist in law or even in principle in American Law, not even in reference to the origin of this phrase. I believe it is taken from a private letter of Thomas Jefferson. It did not speak about an irrational and schizophrenic division between the government and the people (religiously inclined), it meant simply that The State SHALL NOT interfere with the actions and worship and belief (in short in respect to any aspect of the life) of the Christian churches. It really was a one way street. The Church can voice its views on the policies and actions of the State, but the State cannot do so in relation to the Christian churches. This original meaning is entirely lost today, and it is taken, in fact, in precisely the OPPOSITE sense in which it was penned.