Canon law of the Eastern Orthodox Church
Consequently, some canons of Eastern Orthodoxy contradict each other, such as those related to the reception of heretics in the Church and the validity of their sacraments.
"[3] Viscuso writes that the Eastern Orthodox canon law expresses two realities.
"[6] Eastern Orthodox canon law has three sources:[7] The Bible contains no "detailed system of Church organization"; the role of the Bible in Eastern Orthodox canon law is that it "embodies principles of Christian doctrine from which rules may be extrapolated for solving disciplinary problems within the Church–but only the Church itself may do that."
[13] Canons are considered as the "ecclesiastical enactment of the highest authorities in the Church" as well as "revealed truth of Christ and Scriptures, sometimes mediated by spiritual fathers' experience"; there is a hierarchy among them.
Some hierarchs, priests and theologians have encouraged a codification in the past, but their will "did not go beyond the level of desire".
[9] Legislations taken from patristic writings were first introduced into the legislation of the Eastern Orthodox Church through the work of the 6th-century Patriarch John Scholasticus of Constantinople, in his influential collection of ecclesiastical canons called the Synagoge of Ecclesiastical Canons Divided into 50 Titles.
This is because some canonical collections are made to record institutions and practice which had ceased to exist a long time ago.
"[2] In the late Byzantine period, i.e. from twelfth to fifteenth century, "there were systematic approach to translate the canons into a contemporary application."
In contrast, in the modern age the Eastern Orthodox Church "has no appropriated its receive formal corpus of canon law, generally understood as the canons of ecumenical concils, local councils, and those drawn from patristic writings.
It was later adopted by Patriarch Neophytos VII of Constantinople and his Endemic synod as an official canon law collection.
Moreover, each decision in Eastern Orthodox canon law is unique and often private, because of the application of akriveia or economia.
canon law seeks "to personalize penances to suit both the gravity of the sin and the attitude of the penitent.
"[25] In Eastern Orthodox canon law, there exists two notions: akriveia and economia.
Akriveia, which is harshness, "is the strict application (sometimes even extension) of the penance given to an unrepentant and habitual offender."
Economia, which is sweetness, "is a judicious relaxation of the penance when the sinner shows remorse and repentance.
[13] The subjects of Eastern Orthodox canon law are: the sources of [Eastern Orthodox] canon law, church order, the foundation of new [Eastern] Orthodox churches, the canonization of saints, the ecclesiastical calendar, control for the execution of justice, the ecclesiastical court, marriage regulations, reception of converts from other confessions, the church’s relations with civil authorities, the correlation of church law with civil law, finances, and ownership relations.
[Eastern Orthodox canon law] includes the subjects and methods of other theological disciplines: critical analysis (church history), doctrinal teaching (dogmatics), canons of the holy fathers (patristics), baptism, and reception into the church (liturgics).
[4] In contrast to what happens in civil law, in Eastern Orthodox canon law "the penalties for canonical transgressions are medicinal and directed towards the spiritual state of the violator as well as the well-being of the Body of Christ, the Church".
This is "evidenced by the drastic step of isolating a spiritually destructive member through excommunication.
"[27] According to Lewis J. Patsavos, another distinction from Catholic canon law is that the Eastern Orthodox tradition is corrective rather than prescriptive; rather than anticipate a particular situation or hypothetical issue, the canon law of Eastern Orthodoxy is developed in response to events, questions, or circumstances as they arise.
