The Russian Orthodox Church and Society

Abstract

The past and the present of Russian society clearly demonstrate a lack of social ethics. By social ethics, we have in mind the self-regulation of social relations, not through coercion exercised by legal institutions but with the help of social actors' own inner mechanisms for coordinating interactions. These mechanisms develop out of complex means of coordinating traditions, social ideals, and relevant social goals and a collective view of reality. Only at first glance does this permanent discourse (discussion, criticism, and acknowledgment of values) appear to go on spontaneously. It also has an institutional dimension, which is determined by norm-setting institutions. There must be a certain distance between political and legal institutions that service values and norm-setting institutions that create them. The failure to establish such distance can paralyze the socio-ethical discourse, turning it into a totalitarian diktat. ¹