Dr Augustin Sokolovski
On June 30, the last day of the first month of summer, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel, and Ismael. Their names sound unusual, which is explained by their Persian origin. They suffered for Christ in Chalcedon, now a suburb of Constantinople, which in antiquity was an important independent city.
Manuel, Sabel, and Ismael were executed by Emperor Julian the Apostate (361–363), whose reign was marked by a desperate attempt to restore paganism. The three were Persian envoys. During a public banquet, Julian urged them to engage him in a religious dispute, but they refused.
“Religion is a personal, inward, and exalted matter, whereas politics is that for which we have been sent as ambassadors, and that which we are engaged in at present.”
Their example seems strikingly modern. Religion is often understood as the union of the divine and the human; however, the philosopher Giorgio Agamben (1942–) proposes a different understanding: religion as an act of separation—“Render unto God the things that are God’s, and unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” as the Gospel says.
A truly religious person distinguishes between these spheres, does not confuse them, and does not draw God into the sphere of everyday worldly affairs.
Shortly after the treacherous killing of the envoys by Julian, a war broke out between Rome and Persia, in which Julian himself was killed. The entanglement of religion and politics can be destructive, whereas their proper distinction serves the common good.
Only when God is no longer enlisted in the service of human purposes can He be encountered as the living God, who, in Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, grants His grace.