1. As a term of theology, “economy” denotes the nonapplication of a generally valid law in a specific case when the suspension of the law results in greater spiritual good than could be expected from applying it. Although economy in this sense has existed from the founding of the church, it is hard to define exactly, since it is not a legal concept but an expression of love, and therefore a reality that we can experience but not describe. Economy, at least as applied in the Orthodox Church, is not applied generally but only in special cases, thus differing from the dispensation of Latin law, wh…