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Orthodoxy and Economy - an alternative ethics (system) for a new Economics age This is a proposal to develop an Eastern Orthodox-based

Economics in a two-pronged approach: the first approach is to offer a CRITIQUE of the present/mainstream economic systems, a CRITIQUE of the Anglo-Saxons/Protestant ethic and capitalist society. The second approach is to offer an ALTERNATIVE economic system based on Orthodox ethic/theological history; an ALTERNATIVE system based on the concept of trinitarian . SECTION A- A CRITIQUE This section contains the first approach which introduces a critique of the present economics model both from a religious and economic theoretical perspective. Chapter 1 This chapter intends to explore how the present global economics system believes in eternal progress, continuous GDP growth without any foundation, without any ethical/moral obligation to attend to. Chapter 2 This will plan to offer a CRITIQUE of political liberalism as an institutional framework of the modern bureaucratic nation-state and markets in a structurally unjust capitalist society. Chapter 3 We cannot offer only a critique of the capitalism--both the Anglo-Saxon and Continental European economic systems are drawn and based on the Webers Protestant Ethic thesisbut also of Communism, only because we cannot leave out Communism from our arguments; it needs to be dealt with if to take on Protestant Ethic/Economics and dismissed it as inherent bad/faulty alternative both historically and theoretically to Capitalism and the Orthodox Ethics based alternative. SECTION B- THE ALTERNATIVE Second approach is to offer an ALTERNATIVE economic system based on Orthodox ethic/history; an ALTERNATIVE based on the concept of trinitarian . Chapter 1-History and Theory This chapter would deal with context in terms of history and theory, specifically the difference between Orthodox and Western Christianity versus the Secularization process and the abandoning of the concept of oikonomia. It will include the historical experience of Western Europe with Christianity and the result of the secularization process that took place in Western Europe since the 17th century; and

how this secularization process is very much a western European experience and may not be universally applicable, especially concerning the Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The ideology of secularism that underlies much of contemporary science and western society today is more problematic. This ideology, if interpreted to mean that only the here and now is relevant and even real, would not be acceptable to most religions and their adherents. Reference to a life hereafter, to matters that are not strictly observable or comprehensible to pure human reason, are irrelevant for economic decision-making in standard economic reasoning. However, if one believes in the unobservable, it has tremendous implications on what rational decisions mean. This extended time-horizon would certainly affect the choice of individuals and societies in allocating scarce resources. Economy was at the center of the Christian theological traditions up until the end of the 17th century. The oikonomia tou theou as accounted in the Hebrew and Christian scripture (especially in the Torah, the Prophets, and the teachings and actions of the Jesus community) shares many general characteristics of oikonomia as practiced in antiquity and summarized by Plato in The Republic and Aristotle in The Politics. The knowledge of God is given in the accounting of an economy and relationship with God is constituted by the performances of an economy. The critical retrieval of the traditions of oikonomia and its partial practice in religious communities can fund a critical and constructive approach to the market system. Since the times of the Enlightment, science and reason have had the primary responsibility in understanding and analyzing social norms and actions in many Western European countries. Social order in the modern liberal democracy society is based on human rationality and not on religion. Hence, the modern society is secular at its core, where religion is shifted to the strictly private sphere of society and individuals. This modernization, prevalent in Western (Catholic and Protestant societies who've undergone Enlightenment and Reformation) Europe, implies a substantial decline of religion and religious believes both in the political arena as well as in the acts of individuals. This decline in religious believes in Western Europe has led to hopes on the part of many scholars and policymakers alike that at some point this trajectory will utterly relegate religion to the trash bins of history. In this historical scenario though, Eastern Orthodox Christianity has not been identified as a different social actor because in the minds of many Western thinkers, Orthodox Christians are just another obscurant, anarchic subgroup of the Western Christianity and hence nothing can justify understanding that precisely because of the Orthodox isolation and lack of reformation, Eastern Christians have a less rigid relationship with the state and its institutions. Yes, the Eastern Christians are more dogmatic than their Western counterparts and their theology has not substantially changed for almost 2000 years, but this is also their strength and appeal in rejuvenating long-closed and unavailable societies such as the former communist Eastern Europeans countries. With the admission into the European Union of Romania and Bulgaria and with the presence of long-term members such as Cyprus and Greece, these days Eastern Orthodox Christianity has a new important role to play in the affairs of Europe and the European Union.

As much as many scholars and policymakers would otherwise want, Europes future is not progressively moving toward secularization and modernization, but in the opposite direction due to various factors such as the multiple and local adaptation of modernity theory, the increased Islam presence on its shores, the historical differences between Catholic and Protestant Christianity and the Eastern Orthodox Church and last but not the least the current financial and economic crisis ravaging both Europe and the US. Because of all these factors, the current European experience of secularization and atheism or laicitee is an anachronism that is bound to end on a sour note for many individuals and institutions. These days, Europes economic and political future is less clear and predictable these years with the financial and economic crisis ravaging and undermining all the modern liberal state foundations. Europe, and other parts of the Western world, are going through a fundamental change as the financial crisis of the last few years has revealed deep structural problems besetting the political and economic systems of the Continent. Economic growth along with stable and democratic politics have been the norm for the last few generations and have determined the direction of global political movements toward a 'Washington consensus' of democracy and market capitalism to be followed by other countries and continents. What this implies is that the political systems and its associated actors, the political parties and politicians, were able to always promise a materially happier tomorrow and where the main political debates were taking place in an arena that was fully dominated by the idea of the welfare state and perpetually higher incomes as identity markers for the voting populations. The recent crisis has shown the full limitations of such a system and that unfortunately a new debate about the role of state and government regulations in the globalization of markets and social mores has not yet taken place adequately. There are no economic or for that matter intellectual answers to the fundamental and transformational changes affecting the Western societies these days. This lack of a political and secular solution has left wide open the field and has created a political vacuum in which the religion has the potential to take over and lead people and institutions in new and unexpected directions. This development has the potential of huge and unpredictable consequences for policy makers as well as for the population at large. This is a time of reckoning that has not been appreciated as such by our present political structure and institutions. The West's political system cannot take difficult decisions anymore, decisions that are sorely needed to recover from the present crisis. Many of these institutions are perilously close to collapse these days on both sides of the Atlantic as the debates over the rescue of Greece and Euro and the debt ceiling in the US have so vigorously attested in the last few weeks Because the Greek Eastern Orthodox Church is profoundly public and emphasizes tradition, group identity and boundaries, may provide a normative critique of economic and political institutions when they engage the global market capitalism in its time of the present fundamental crisis. The church without a doubt is resurgent and has re-emerged as

a resource for the engagement of citizens in democratic politics, especially in the SouthEastern Europe countries. Without ignoring the negative and disruptive aspects of religion in the history of humanity, an emphasis must also be placed on the positive role of religion in society. If we transcend the secular and modern tendency to minimize and wish-think away religion from political arenas, we can imagine a place and a time where faith and its social trappings do play a progressive role and where religion and modernity can happily co-exist and use each other for social progressive goals. Although political science researchers and scholars have extensively analysed the historical and political paradigms where religion influences foreign policy, especially regarding Judaism, Islam, and Western Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Christianity has been neglected and subordinated to the general Christianity category. We believe the apparent exclusion of Eastern Orthodox religion from the analysis of international relations is unfortunate as Eastern Orthodox religion has its own distinctive history and understanding of the proper role of church and state in the general society. The divide between Eastern and Western Christianity has deep historical undercurrents that have lately spotlighted the close relations between church and state in Orthodox countries. The Eastern Orthodox Church, unlike predominantly Protestant and to some extent Roman Catholic countries, does not have a particularly deep tradition of secular relations with states where it is the majority religion. This proposal intends to provide and suggest a way to include Eastern Orthodox religion in the analysis of European international relations by making use of social constructivism as a theoretical approach that has the potential of a comprehensive understanding of religion, specifically the Eastern Orthodox Christinaity, in the analysis of foreign policy and to makeup for the lack of analysis of its role in explaining specific developments regarding the dynamic of European foreign policy. We also plan to use the concept of symphonia where the relationship between church and state is characterised by the system of coreciprocity, a doctrine which developed in Byzantium. As John Meyendorff states, the great dream of Byzantine civilisation was a universal Christian society, administered by the emperor and spiritually guided by the Church. According to this vision, the empire was considered the kingdom which would last forever, whose political and religious domination would be without competitor on earth, as it was the reflection of Christs kingdom. Both the church and the state should collaborate towards achieving a sublime destiny of the people under their jurisdiction and there is no conflict between the means employed by the church or the state in promoting the welfare of their subjects. While there is a separation between the completely laic character of the state and the religious status of the church, symphonia promotes equality and an intimate relationship between these institutions, however, with different priorities and methods of operating. The inclusion of Eastern Orthodox religion in analyzing international relations developments is meant as an explanatory factor that can illuminate some of the European policies and decisions that otherwise can seem a bit baffling and illogical in the sense of not conforming to the standard of rational national interest paradigm. Certainly, religion and specifically the Eastern Orthodox one, is not and can never be the only or most important factor when explaining international events, but we believe the lack of analysis

of its role has short-sighted and limited our understanding of significant past and ongoing developments. The role of religion in the general society as well as in the international relations field has diminished dramatically since the Enlightenment times when rationality was introduced in science. Since then, science and reason have become the primary tools in understanding and analyzing social norms and actions. These days the main theories of international relations have been problem-solving theories based on specific forms of rationality and reasoning. The omission of religion as an analytical tool by scholars of international relations can also be traced back to the application of the Westphalian world order and the introduction of the nation-state as the main object of analysis. The nation-state international system emerged as a an attempt to put an end to the Wars of Religion and to the devastating influence of religion on politics. The transfer of power from the church to the secular state and the prohibition of states to interfere in each others religious affairs was a way to break the political power of the Christian church and to secure a power structure that would clearly separate the domains of authority between the state and the church. Nowadays, social order based on human rationality and not religion is the general consensus. Hence, the modern society is secular at its core, where religion is shifted to the strictly private sphere of society and individuals. This modernization, prevalent in Western (Catholic and Protestant societies that have undergone Enlightenment and Reformation) Europe, implies a substantial decline of religion and religious believes both in the political arena as well as in the acts of individuals. This decline in religious believes in Western Europe has led to hopes on the part of many scholars and policymakers alike that at some point this trajectory will utterly relegate religion to the trash bins of history. Nevertheless, the absolute rationalization of international politics does not provide sufficient analysis or explanation of many foreign policy decisions. The international community and the relationships between its actors are far more complicated to be solely explained by a onedimension approach. Eastern orthodox religion is important for understanding international relations developments in its focus on the importance of identity as a guide to interests and action. The constitutive rules of Orthodox religion make up its norms, norms that define expectations for behavior of actors/states within a given identity. That means that having an Orthodox Christian identity implies behavior from the actor according to the norms that constitutes the Eastern Orthodox religion. In this way, the norms both determine the Eastern Orthodox identity and regulate the behavior of the actor/state that possesses this religious identity. Religion in general and the Eastern Orthodox one in particular is well positioned in giving a complete narrative of why things are the way they are. Acting in accordance with this religious narrative of their identity, actors' decisions in international affairs arena are determined a priori by the norms and constitutive rules of Eastern Orthodox religion. Chapter 2-Trinitarian economy The concept of economy is and should be indistinguishable from the concept of trinity;

economic trinity--what God does and ontological trinity--who God is. From the economic trinity we need to take seriously the idea of all 3 beings working with one will and one goal, and in which epistemological structure there are no issues of command/subordination/obedience between all agents/parts involved. There is no economic inequality within the Trinity. This is does not imply socialist economy or equality per se, it just means what it means- a unity of will and purpose. I think here we can develop on Agambens insights about the trinity and economy, although he tends to contradict himself on the duality issues of execution/administration and god/son: Eastern Christianity correlates ecclesiology with the Trinitarian doctrine. In a Trinitarian economy, the son has no foundation in the father and is represented as an expression of an anarchical power which moves to and through the divine persons according to an essentially vicarious paradigm. There is no way to assign to ONE person the original foundation of power. Power has a Trinitarian foundation, it circulates vicariously in this form. The issue of egalitarianism & unity of will and purpose implies the following:

no command economy of any type, socialist/soviet/communist of any type allowed under the constraints of the trinitarian conceptual framework; also this means a rejection of state industrialization policy so popular in Eastern Europe during Communism but not only-IP made its present felt in most south-eastern asian countries in the last 20 to 30 years and it is alive and kicking in the Chinese society and the policy-making circles of the Communist Party. the vicarious form of the power and economic mgm. also touches on the fragility of the modernity project and its wonder boy, democracy. No universal laws or principles of the market economy are still taken for granted; or at least their efficacy and its ethics and its humanity are to be contested given the depth of the current Western economic and financial crisis. not sure that the trinitarian economy system would support Agambens arguments that the secret of politics lay more in execution/adminstration. We need some approved or socially negotiated terms of debate, maybe even some semi-universal, transparent principle of organization and function, some communitarian laws in order to be able to execute and administer the political and economic body of decisions and actions; of both beings are anarchic without foundations, then what are we to implement? this link between father and son being independent from each other and anarchical contradicts the foundamentals of trinitarian economy. divine anarchy as meaning the beginning without foundation. Being and Action are without foundation, independent of each other and thats why government is possible; government defined as the coordination between general law and execution, between general providence and particular providence.

One the other hand, the concept of oikonomia was originally used by Aristotle with the meaning of management; was introduced and accepted by early church councils so as to manage/reconcile the emerging dogma of the trinity with the existing conceptual history of

the Church manifested and represented by monarchism and monotheism. The managerial paradigm of the oikos is what renders possible the reconciliation of the trinity with monotheism. Unfortunately, the concept of oikonomia has been abandoned for the concept of politics and so the battle has commenced between economic theology and political theology as a sharp opposition between the economy and politics where from the Greek view, politics cannot be reduced to an economy. The mystery of economics means that God is not mysterious, but his actions are. Chapter 3-Interest Rate and the three-tiered structure the issue of Interest Rate: Council of Nicaea of 325 and the prohibition on Interest Rate above 1% for both deity and laity; here we have a small comparative analysis with protestant alternative and a historical narrative about this issue so as to bring it to the present and propose that limiting the interest rate in a trinitarian economy has the potential to support the common interests and productive activity so as investors take part not only in profit but share the risk as well; this can limit unnecessary speculation and asset bubbles. 3 tiered structure of economics development framework to reflect the trinitarian foundation of orthodox economics. The 3 tires will be represented by government/state compelling economic interests, private moneyed interests, and labor/workers interests; this 3 interests need to be conceptualized as communities in the theological sense of defined and historic communities identified by rituals, stories/language, and a shared sense of the responsibility towards the sacred which in our economics framework means the well-being (full sense of well being, materially and spiritually) of people. These communities have to exist in a true coordinated cooperation mode....

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