Section 12: Church and World
Orthodox engagement with contemporary questions: women in the Church and the deaconess debate, social ethics and its two landmark modern documents, environmental theology, and bioethics. Live questions are presented with positions attributed, per METHODOLOGY §4.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (questions under active discussion — positions attributed)
Contents
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| women-in-orthodoxy.md | Theological anthropology, women saints, the ordination question with all positions attributed |
| deaconess-history.md | The ancient order, its decline, and the modern revival debate through the 2024 Zimbabwe ordination |
| social-ethics.md | From Basil’s famine homilies to the Basis of the Social Concept (2000) and For the Life of the World (2020) |
| environmental-ethics.md | Creation as sacrament, the “Green Patriarch,” and the ascetic ethos as ecological practice |
| bioethics-and-contemporary-questions.md | Personhood, beginning- and end-of-life questions, named Orthodox bioethicists, and where genuine debate exists |
See Also
- Section 01: Foundations — the theological anthropology these files presuppose
- Section 08: Canon Law — pastoral economy, the framework for applying principle to person
- Section 10: Orthodoxy in America — the contexts where many of these debates are liveliest
References
- The Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church. Moscow, 2000.
- For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church. Ecumenical Patriarchate, 2020.
- Behr-Sigel, Elisabeth. The Ministry of Women in the Church. Crestwood, NY: Oakwood/SVS, 1991.
- FitzGerald, Kyriaki Karidoyanes. Women Deacons in the Orthodox Church. Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1998.
- Chryssavgis, John, ed. On Earth as in Heaven: Ecological Vision and Initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012.
- Each content file carries its own full reference list.