St. Justinian the Great’s «Symphony» of Relations Between the Church and the State and the Modern Principle of «Symphony»: a Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The article presents the history and content of the principle of “symphony” of relations between the Church and the state, which was first formulated by St. Justinian the Great in the VI novella. The principle of “symphony” is an ideal to be pursued, but hardly achievable in practice. This is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that Saint Justinian himself was engaged in church law-making. This study provides a comparative analysis of the principle of the “symphony” of St. Justinian and the modern constitutional principle of the separation of religious associations from the state (Article 14 of the Constitution of Russia 1993). Despite the fact that the modern principle specifies the term “separation” instead of “symphony”, meaningfully it can be characterized as cooperation between religious associations and the state without interference in the exclusive competence of each other, that is, a principle similar in its basis to the principle of relations between a symphony of the Church and state, with the historical amendment that the original principle of the symphony was formulated for the Orthodox state. In other words, the relationship of the symphony was not with all “religious associations”, but only with the Church. However, today, given the special status of Orthodoxy in the history and culture of Russia as a state, its indirect consolidation in Art. 67.1 of the Constitution of Russia, the state imposing on the Church the role of the main spiritual and moral educator, support for preaching, cooperation between the Church and the state in the field of education, culture, family, etc., we can say that there is a gradual return to the principle of the Justinian Symphony, but taking into account modern realities.