On the 'Meaning' of Politics

This book offers a concise, yet provocative, summation of Christos Yannaras’ long reflection on the meaning of politics. It provides vital clarification on Yannaras’ conception and understanding of politics and his interpretation of its historical development in the Western and Eastern theological/civilisational traditions. The book critiques the Western (Christian) tradition of political thought and praxis, namely its individualistic epistemology, its utilitarian political organisation, its obsession with rationalistic efficiency, and its religionized Christianity with all the destructive ideologies flowing therefrom. It aims to recover and counterpose a Greco-Christian conception and practice of politics based on communion, the ecclesia, truth as a collective and common contest or struggle to discover, reveal and manifest cosmic reality and an ontological vision of humans living in harmony with the ornamental order of the universe. With a foreword by Rowan Williams, this is a highly original and significant meditation on the meaning of politics that will be of interest to both political theologians and political philosophers.

Foreword Introduction Translator’s note Acknowledgements 1. Reverence and justice 2. Necessity and freedom 3. Forms of organized co-existence 4. Cohesion through coercion 5. Leitourgima’s degeneration into office 6. Ratio dethrones authority 7. The desire for “salvation” dethrones ratio 8. The Ecclesia and religion: incompatible modes of existence 9. When truth becomes the priority 10. Politics: contest or art? 11. Shared need as shared truth 12. The pre-political character of freedom 13. The alignment of the ecclesia of the demos and the ecclesia of the believers 14. The exercise of authority as responsible service 15. The common roots of democracy, community, and the parish 16. The political consequences of the Ecclesia’s religionization 17. Religious totalitarianism 18. Ideology: the alienation of truth into accuracy 19. Societas: the alienation of communion into a partnership 20. Religious “salvation” and political individualism 21. Materialistic and idealistic utilitarianism 22. Politics is not the aim of the Ecclesia; The Ecclesia itself is the aim of politics 23. Augustine is Europe 24. Political forms of religious individualism 25. The Ecclesia’s alienation in confessionalism 26. A Trinitarian archetype of politics 27. Comprehension is not knowledge

Christos Yannaras is Professor Emeritus at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens, Greece. Jonathan Cole is Assistant Director of the Centre for Religion, Ethics and Society at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia.