Georgios I. Mantzaridis, Orthodox Theology and Social Life, P. Pournaras Publications, Thessaloniki 1996, 216 pages.
The book begins with a foreword and introductory comments. The first chapter synoptically approaches the concept of theology in the ancient Greek world and more extensively in Christianity, from the Gospel to Elder Paisios. The second chapter examines the relationship between theology and social sciences and ascertains that, in spite of being subject to particular preconditions, they can cross-germinate.
The dialectic relationship between social determination and personal freedom constitutes the topic of the third chapter, which reaches the conclusion that, in the face of the dipole individual-society, the anthropology of the Church as body of Christ highlights the human person as a synthesis of social unity and individual freedom. In the fourth chapter, a criticism of religion is developed by contemporary thinkers (Feuerbach, Marx, Bloch), its significance is recognized, but also its limitations under the light of theological presuppositions of the religion of Revelation.
The fifth chapter defines the authentic meaning of communion as identical to that of the Church and not to conventional sociability, while the sixth chapter presents the nature of the social teaching of the Church. In the seventh chapter, the author, responding to accusations about the indifference of Orthodoxy to the social life and its problems, highlights the social character of the Orthodox Church.
The topic of the eighth chapter, with references to biblical and patristic approaches, is the purpose of work, while the ninth chapter examines the necessary preconditions so that the content of preaching does justice to the always topical meaning of Resurrection. In the tenth chapter, follows a theological hermeneutic comment on the issue Christ-Antichrist, where it is stressed that what makes the difference is the sacrifice on the Cross, which constitutes a victory of Christ over the enemy forces.
The two last chapters of the book, the eleventh and twelfth, address the problematic on the evolution in modern Europe, the spiritual dimension Orthodoxy attributes to these transformations and, in general, the testimony of Orthodoxy in the modern world as testimony of love, freedom and hesychia.