Constantine Bozinis: JOHN CHRYSOSTOM AND DEMOCRACY

Although in the modern bibliography we encounter occasional references to John Chrysostom’s attitude toward monarchy—the political regime during the Roman period—there has been no discussion of his convictions regarding democracy. Nevertheless, the term dēmokratia appears twice in Chrysostom’s writings—once even in reference to the apostolic Church of Jerusalem (In Eph., Hom.XX, 4). In the corpus Chrysostomicum, there are also occurrences of both the adjective dēmotikos (=democratic) which John uses to characterize his ecclesiastical office (In Tit., Hom.II, 2), as well as the nouns isonomia and isēgoria (=equality before the law and equal freedom of speech) in the frequent praises which the father sings about the Church, extolling the equality of the faithful in her bosom (e.g. De stud. praes., 2). Moreover, as I have had the opportunity to show in a previous work, John knows well the philosophical conversation carried out in antiquity regarding democracy and makes use of the arguments for and against the democratic polity as formulated by Plato and Aristotle (K. Bosinis, Johannes Chrysostomus über das Imperium Romanum, Mandalbachtal-Cambridge 2005, pp. 79-90). The evidence which we have collected from the homiletic work of Chrysostom proves that he was not indifferent to democracy. But is this evidence sufficient for us to elicit his view of the political arrangement in ancient Greece? This is the question posed in the paper that I would like to present and which will be answered through a general overview of the political thought of this Church Father.