http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=424
Rhodos, October 8, Interfax - There are voices in the Russian Orthodox Church, calling for a review of the modern concept of human rights.
"Orthodox Christianity does not share 'the Enlightenment's' teaching on man as a being who, in his free state, always seeks the good, while socium, again in its free time, seeks progress", noted Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, speaking in one of the section of the Dialogue of Civilizations forum to close on Saturday in the Greek Island of Rhodos.
The priest underlined that "for most Orthodox Christians, the values of faith, shrines and Motherland stand above those of human rights including the right to live".
The representative of the Church expressed hope that 'today's world will at least learn to respect and harmonize various hierarchies of values rather than establishing the monopoly of anthropocentrism'.
The priest also remarked that the church circles were compelled to engage in a profound reflection on human rights in the world today by the polemic with pro-Western human rights advocates who insisted that the human rights issues are alien to Orthodoxy as such.
Archbishop Augustine of Lvov and Galicia, in his turn, stressed at the forum that 'respect for human rights from the Orthodox perspective is bound up with the idea of service and doing one's duty before God, the Church, other people, family, state and the people'.
Rhodos, October 8, Interfax - There are voices in the Russian Orthodox Church, calling for a review of the modern concept of human rights.
"Orthodox Christianity does not share 'the Enlightenment's' teaching on man as a being who, in his free state, always seeks the good, while socium, again in its free time, seeks progress", noted Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, speaking in one of the section of the Dialogue of Civilizations forum to close on Saturday in the Greek Island of Rhodos.
The priest underlined that "for most Orthodox Christians, the values of faith, shrines and Motherland stand above those of human rights including the right to live".
The representative of the Church expressed hope that 'today's world will at least learn to respect and harmonize various hierarchies of values rather than establishing the monopoly of anthropocentrism'.
The priest also remarked that the church circles were compelled to engage in a profound reflection on human rights in the world today by the polemic with pro-Western human rights advocates who insisted that the human rights issues are alien to Orthodoxy as such.
Archbishop Augustine of Lvov and Galicia, in his turn, stressed at the forum that 'respect for human rights from the Orthodox perspective is bound up with the idea of service and doing one's duty before God, the Church, other people, family, state and the people'.
