Orthodox Churches and Politics in Southeastern Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. The Orthodox Churches of Southeastern Europe: An Introduction

   • Sabrina P. Ramet

   Pages 1-14

3. Faith, Nation, and Structure: The Diachronic Durability of Orthodox Churches in the Balkans

   • David B. Kanin

   Pages 15-40

4. Conservative Orthodoxy in Romania

   • Lucian Turcescu, Lavinia Stan

   Pages 41-51

5. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church: Authoring New Visions About the Orthodox Church’s Role in Contemporary Bulgarian Society

   • Daniela Kalkandjieva

   Pages 53-83

6. The Church, the Nation, and the State: The Serbian Orthodox Church After Communism

   • Jelena Subotić

   Pages 85-110

7. RETRACTED CHAPTER: Orthodoxy and Antisemitism: The Relationship Between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Jews

   • Francine Friedman

   Pages 111-129

8. The Orthodox Church of Greece

   • Altuğ Günal, Zeynep Selin Balcı

   Pages 131-165

9. The Macedonian Orthodox Church in the New Millennium

   • Zachary T. Irwin

   Pages 167-196

10. Navigating the Challenge of Liberalism: The Resurrection of the Orthodox Church in Post-Communist Albania

    • Isa Blumi

    Pages 197-222

11. The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia: Survival of a Minority Faith in a Secular Society

    • Frank Cibulka

    Pages 223-247

12. Retraction Note to: Orthodoxy and Antisemitism: The Relationship Between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Jews

    • Francine Friedman

    Pages C1-C2

13. Back Matter

    Pages 249-267

    PDF

Orthodox Churches, like most religious bodies, are inherently political: they seek to defend their core values and must engage in politics to do so, whether by promoting certain legislation or seeking to block other legislation. This volume examines the politics of Orthodox Churches in Southeastern Europe, emphasizing three key modes of resistance to the influence of (Western) liberal values: Nationalism (presenting themselves as protectors of the national being), Conservatism (defending traditional values such as the “traditional family”), and Intolerance (of both non-Orthodox faiths and sexual minorities). The chapters in this volume present case studies of all the Orthodox Churches of the region.

• Christianity
• Nationalism
• Conservatism
• Homophobia
• Religious Intolerance
• European politics
• post-communist states
• anti-Semitism
• private vs. public
• human rights
• Orthodoxy
• abortion
• LGBTQ
• religious denomination
• faith minorities
• identity
• Greek Orthodox
• right wing politics
• atheization
• post-modern world

“Filling a large gap in literature on religion and politics, Orthodox Churches and Politics in Southeastern Europe provides timely, insightful case studies. It provides unique and extensive coverage of the politics of church and state in this region.” (Paul Rowe, Professor and Coordinator of Political and International Studies, Trinity Western University, Canada)

“Sabrina Ramet has assembled an impressive list of world-class authors, whose work has informed the scholarly understanding of Orthodox communities in diverse contemporary settings. Here, with striking revelations, they move the discussion from the familiar terrain of ethnoreligious politics of identity into an in-depth consideration of the uncharted, problematic exclusion of the ethnic and sexual other.” (Andrii Krawchuk, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Sudbury, Canada)

• Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

  Sabrina P. Ramet

Sabrina P. Ramet is Professor Emerita of Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), in Trondheim, Norway. Born in London, Great Britain, she earned her Ph.D. in Political Science at UCLA in 1981 and moved to Norway in 2001. She is the author of 14 books, including, most recently, Alternatives to Democracy in Twentieth-Century Europe: Collectivist visions of modernity (Central European University Press, 2019).

Policies and ethics