Meanings of the Сoncept of Oikonomia Absent in Latin Canonical Collections

Abstract

This article presents the meanings of the concept of oikonomia contained in the rules of the canonical corpus of the Orthodox Church and yet absent from the Latin medieval collections of canons. All the identified meanings are compared with the modern content of the concept of dispensation in order to establish whether the meaning of oikonomia contained in this or that canon has not been assimilated to its Latin counterpart, dispensation. The article touches on the meanings of oikonomia as divine housekeeping, administration, indulgence, dispensation, and the controversial use of oikonomia as an instrument of pastoral approach and the Church's communication of grace. The article describes the properties of dispensation that are similar to the meanings of oikonomia, such as dependence on a cause, the removal of which makes dispensation and oikonomia irrelevant. As a conclusion, it is suggested that further study of the concept of oikonomia should be guided by the system of dispensations in the Roman Catholic Church as a source for apophatic description.