By Protopresbyter Fr. Thomas Vamvinis
It will be a long time before the work of the late Protopresbyter John Romanides is assimilated; a theological and historical work or, rather more correctly, as our Metropolitan Hierotheos has pointed out, a work that connects theology with history. The theology of the Holy Fathers was not a disembodied philosophical contemplation. It was a description in created human words of the theoptic experience of those who “crossed over to theoria.” This experience, of course, transcends all representation and all imagination, and therefore cannot be fully encompassed in any logical description. As an experience, however, it had (and still has) tangible effects, which can be studied by various branches of science. And this not only for the holders of the experience, but also for the people who were taught the prerequisites and the way to prepare for this experience, because it influenced the institutions of their society and their relationship with the rest of creation. It oriented their culture, politics, art and daily life – even in its most material aspects – to the theological perspective of man. These people were the citizens of the Eastern Roman State. In these people, thanks to the great figures of the Greek-speaking Fathers of the Church, but also to the political foresight of its leaders, the apostolic tradition found the appropriate – “correct” – conditions to demonstrate the salvific results of the great “experiment” of life in Christ. Father John Romanides often used the terminology of the empirical sciences when he spoke about the real character of Orthodox theology. The “experiment,” therefore, of life in Christ was carried out (and with state participation and support) within specific historical dimensions, among the citizens of the Eastern Roman State. The figures of the Saints were central figures in the history of Romiosini, the spirit of which was identified with the spirit of the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” This identification was a deliberate political choice of its emperors. Proof of this fact are the Ecumenical Synods, which, as Father John Romanides said, were imperial synods that aimed to make the correct dogmatic teaching of the Church, as well as the sacred canons that regulated its life, the law of the State.
