Pastoral theology: foundations and practice

Pastoral Theology

Two of the paragraphs in chapter one refer to one of the most interesting concepts of the Orthodox faith, namely the concept of economia. The two paragraphs I am referring to both define the concept and put it into an antithetical perspective from a concept that may be seen as similar from the Roman Catholic Church. As such, the concept of economia in the Orthodox Church is described as the capacity of the priest to bypass some of the rules and regulations that have been added in the successive centuries of development of the Church.

These paragraphs are important because they describe a very important attribute for the priest in his relationship with the believers. The priest/prelate has thus the capacity to judge and evaluate the degree to which such regulations are still actual or still useful in the existence of the Church. Following on the words of Jesus Christ ("the Sabbath was made for man, not man for Sabbath"), the principle of economia gives enough flexibility to the Church to be able to face the challenges of new times and, if necessary, adapt not its principles, but rather successive regulation frameworks.

The fifth chapter refers to the dualism in terms of the marital status of the clergy. The paragraphs I am referring to brings into discussion the origin of this dualism and of the discussion between the spiritual superiority of either monastic or married life for the clergy. This discussion goes back to the time of the Gnostic and the fight against the Gnostic heresy.

While the Gnostics believed that the dualism of the world was very clearly defined and that all things material (including, thus, marriage) were evil, relevant figures of the Church, such as St. Paul, believed that all things material were acceptable as long as they were given proper thanks for. This really puts the idea of dualism in the marriage status and of the superiority of any of the two approaches on a very clear perspective: marriage, including for the clergy, has been regarded as something sacred in the Scriptures and, as a consequence, there is nothing more superior about leading a monastic life, just a matter of spiritual option.

Chapter 6 goes back to a concept that has been previously mentioned in chapter 1, the principle of economia. The principle of economia, as shown, referred to the capacity of the prelate to change or bypass existing religious regulation. In the paragraphs I am referring to, Joseph Allen discusses how this can be applied to the marriage of the clergy, in several distinct situations, such as marriage after consecration or marriage of a widowed priest. The paragraphs again emphasize the usefulness of the concept of economia as a way of adapting regulation to human context.