Luís Carneiro

In the following paper, the interconnection and relationship between theology and politics is studied in the context of the iconoclastic controversy of the 7th and 8th centuries in the Eastern Roman Empire. We start by observing the historical context of this polemic. Then, the patristic theology of icons is presented on the basis of Saint John Damascene’s classical apologetic treatises on the holy images. The several meanings of «image» are analyzed, with special focus on the equivalence between images and logoi and its presuppositions based on a theology of divine energies. Subsequently, we draw attention to the correlation between icon and oikonomia, as well as to the significant distinction between theology and economy. The theologico-political assumptions of the Eastern Roman Empire are analyzed, with a confrontation between the descriptive models of «caesaropapism» and «symphony of powers». The «economical» presuppositions of the Eastern Roman political theology are evidenced and contrasted with the political implications of a metaphysical approach to theology. Finally, we observe how the iconoclastic problematic migrated to the West in connection with the nascent doctrine of the Filioque and outline its consequences for the newly developing Franco-Latin civilization.

Philosophy has taken a «practical turn». Metaphysics is no longer the privileged form of appearance and working frame of philosophy. The paradigm of praxis becomes generalized in contemporary society in conjunction with the so-called phenomenon of the «return of religion». It is from these facts and indications that the present article proposes to examine and critically evaluate the status of the religious and metaphysical approaches to theology, by detaching and isolating religion and metaphysics from theology, and to explore the potentialities of the mystagogical praxis of the Eastern Orthodox Church in its dogmatic presuppositions. The role of dogma, as well of logic, is clarified within the context of Orthodox theology, and the notion of the divine logoi is explored in correlation with its practical presuppositions. A brief critique of personalist philosophical theology is attempted and a confrontation with several contemporary philosophical tendencies is outlined.