Orthodox Christianity and National Identity in Post-89 Romania

The revival of the Orthodox Church in post-communist Romania brought along a renewed discourse on national identity. This study traces the Church’s arguments on identity, it explores the clergy’s deployment of the concept of Orthodoxy, along with Latin legacy, to legitimize the Church’s institutional aims and scrutinizes the workings of the discourse. 

An Orthodox church in Bucharest, January 2016. Russian Saint Nicholas Church, a.k.a. Student Church. Photo: fusion-of-horizons © Copyright 

A survey of scholars’ and public intellectuals’ views on national, and indeed cultural, identity complements the Church’s views. The investigation attempts thus to offer an insight into the efforts of the Church to re-assert itself, given free rein in a post-dictatorial world of resumed and accelerated modernization. Scholars have drawn attention to the lack of studies on contemporary intellectual history in post-communist areas.

The juxtaposition of the Church’s and of the secular views on identity—occasionally, in dialogue with one another—examines the complexity of the intellectual context of the past three decades in Romania. The overviews of the Church’s and of the secular intellectuals’ opinions on national identity give an account of the various strands of thought on the issue. The final analysis employs a combination of methodological tools to examine the articulation and use of concepts against a background of political and social re-adjustment.

Cover of The Orthodox Church and National Identity in Post-89 Romania
The Orthodox Church and National Identity in Post-Communist Romania - A title in the book series Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe

 

 

 

 

Contact

Adrian Velicu
Docent
University of Karlstad