Church and State versus Church and People: the two social orders of the Russian Orthodox Church

The ways in which Russian Orthodox religion has negotiated its relationship with secular state power are as diverse as they are fascinating.¹ In this book about the multifaceted engagement of Russian Orthodoxy with the secular order, two particular modes of engagement or, as I call them in this chapter, two “social orders” stand out: Russian Orthodoxy as a state church and Russian Orthodoxy as a people’s church. Drawing on two different theoretical perspectives on religionstate relations—the Byzantine concept of symphonia and the modern concept of public religion—this chapter sketches these two orders throughout Russian history.