Source: The Wheel The pandemic now ravaging the Orthodox Church is not only COVID-19 but also fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is a sort of populism for the church. It is based on post-truth and conspiracy theories. Although it pretends to be pietistic, it is quite secular and secularizing. I would apply to fundamentalism the phrase once coined by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “cheap grace.” Fundamentalism is a cheap spirituality and a cheap substitute for genuine ecclesial existence. The circumstances of the COVID 19 epidemic demonstrate that fundamentalism not only corrupts minds and muddies faith, but can also kill bodies. It is time to treat…
The Very Reverend Dr. Cyril Hovorun is Expert and Contributor at Encyclopedia Britannica, Associate Dean of St. Ignatios Theological Academy (Sweden), Director of Research at the Institute of Theological Studies at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine), and Acting Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University (USA). From 2007 to 2009, he chaired the Department of External Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. From 2009 to 2011, he was the first Deputy Chairman of the Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church.