 | This is the first authoritative and comprehensive statement by the
Orthodox Church on just about every possible contemporary social ethics issue, supported
and carefully reasoned and explained by quotations from the Bible and Church Fathers
throughout the centuries. It includes: Church and state and secular law; labor and
property; crime and punishment; family ethics; health; bio-ethics; ecology; science,
culture and education; mass-media; international relations. It includes issues such as
birth control, abortion, fertility, homosexuality, assisted suicide, war, nationalism.
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| |
| This magnificent document is what so many people have wished for for so
long --- authoritative guidance by the Orthodox Church in Council about all of today's
ethical and social issues. The Popes of Rome have issued various documents
(encyclicals) from time to time, that they claim to be authoritative. But this Orthodox
document doesn't present the ethical views of just one bishop, or just one individual
theologian. Not at all. This document is an historic achievement for guiding the Orthodox
faithful in the modern world. It is a definitive, authoritative document, issued by a
Jubilee Council of all the bishops of the largest Orthodox Church in the world, with over
a thousand years of historical experience of being an Orthodox country. This background
experience as an Orthodox nation is obvious, and it could never have been written in
America, or by the bishops of a country that had been subjugated by the Turks for 500
years. It is also clear, by the detailed research and documentation, and the careful
reasoning, why it took so many years to prepare. |
| A statement by the Bishops of the All-Russia Council directs that this
document is intended to be carefully studied by Orthodox clergy and laity, and used as a
basis for making ethical decisions and for dealing with the media. The large format and
comb-binding facilitates study. It is ideal for adult study groups and college/seminary
classrooms. Although the original document is copyrighted by the Department of External
Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, this printed book version was formatted and
significantly edited by ST. INNOCENT/ FIREBIRD.
The translation was very carefully edited for correct English word-use, comprehension,
grammar, spelling, syntax, and native-English "flow," plus for typographical,
translation and factual errors. An exhaustive Index and a Table of
Contents were added. |
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| Here is the Table of Contents, with the page numbers
indicated: |
| [Remember that these are large, 8½ x 11 size pages.) |
| |
| I. Basic Theological Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 3 |
| II. Church and Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 5 |
| III. Church and State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 8 |
| IV. Christian Ethics and Secular Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 17 |
| V. Church and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 22 |
| VI. Labor and Its Fruits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 26 |
| VII. Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 28 |
| VIII. War and Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 30 |
| IX. Crime, Punishment, Reformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 34 |
| X. Personal, Family and Public Morality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 37 |
| XI. Personal and National Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 44 |
| XII. Problems of Bio-Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 48 |
| XIII. The Church and Ecological Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 55 |
| XIV. Secular Science, Culture and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 57 |
| XV. The Church and the Mass Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 61 |
| XVI. International Relations; Problems of Globalization and Secularism
. 62 |
| Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 |
ST. INNOCENT/
B-1. THE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND SOCIETY: