Towards an Orthodox Acceptance of Geopolitical Responsibility: Building an Orthodox Agenda Based on Peace Ethics

Abstract

Because of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the question about the capacity of the Eastern Orthodox Church to act as a geopolitical actor and to explore its role on the international stage is more urgent than ever. The aim of this paper is to stress the importance of providing an ethics of peace regarding the Ukrainian conflict, following the classical methodology of social ethical research: (1) I begin by paying attention to the context; (2) I then analyse it according to the normative principle of social ethics; finally, (3) I try to respond to the following question: What could be done to improve the current situation?

Keywords

• Orthodox Church
• ecumenism
• social ethics