Permanent Asymmetry
Church and State, State and Church
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
After a secularist period in the 20th century, religion is again playing an important role in politics. The relationship between politics and religion, state and church is complex and asymmetrical. The tension between the two dimensions and institutions can be disengaged only tentatively. A special case of this tense relationship is expressed in the basic principles of political theology in the Eastern church, such as Caesaropapism and Symphonia. From the Orthodox point of view, these principles are opposites, but they both exclude society as an independent third realm between state and church; therefore, they stand run counter to Western tradition.
(Osteuropa 6/2009, pp. 47–62)