Christian Social Doctrine East and West: the Russian Orthodox Social Concept and the Roman Catholic Compendium Compared

This article highlights some specificities of the Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as of the later document on human rights, by comparing them in some key points with the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church as made public in the Compendium. The guiding hypothesis is that four specifically Orthodox theological principles - pomestnost', symphonia, sobornost' and bogochelovechestvo - are at work in the Social Concept and determine its distinctive character. A central aspect of these principles is their function to balance a dualism - of divinity and humanity, of collective and individual, of state and church, and of territoriality and universality. This article shows how these principles are at work in the Social Concept, how they are applied to contemporary secular and modern society, and how they determine the attitude of the ROC to contemporary problems, for example in the area of human engagement in nature, economy, civil society, human rights, politics, war and bioethics. First and foremost, the Social Concept is a Christian social doctrine and in many cases it is similar to the Roman Catholic Compendium. In the areas mentioned, however, the Social Concept shows itself to be more conservative than the Compendium and more reluctant to accept secular civil society and biomedical technological possibilities or to speak out for existing human rights or democracy.