The paper investigates the relationship between the state, society and
Serbian Orthodox Church in 19th and 20th century, considered from the
standpoint of national identity, as a basic principle of contemporary
cultural policies. The aim of the paper is to identify similarities and
differences in three intersecting points in time in the relationship between
state and church, as well as look at possibilities and obstacles for their
cooperation in the context of democratic transition and consolidation of
society in Serbia, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The theoretical
exploration starts from the position that Orthodox Christianity, as it is
?dependent on the state and concept of national church?, is a source of
nationalism and obstacle to democracy, based on which a number of
intellectuals and civil organizations in Serbia are against acceptance of
Orthodox Christianity as an identifier of national identity of
post-totalitarian society in Serbia. Qualitative empirical research that
investigated the starting theoretical assumptions is based on the case study
of Pcinja county in the South East of Serbia, which is a religious, cultural
and political centre of this part of Serbia, with monastery Saint Prohor
Pcinjski located in its centre. The results of research demonstrated that
repressive political factors supressed Orthodox Christianity from the public
life, thus there is no empirical evidence of ?Orthodox nationalism?, and
instead we can observe that throughout 20th century the church was a victim
of ideologies of Yugoslavia, Communist atheism and ethnical nationalisms of
the newly established countries in the region. In Serbia, this type of
relationship towards Orthodox Christianity moved from former party state
that dominated the society into a section of civil society, whose political
activities tend to overtake the role of former Communist party. This part of
civil society, as it is burdened with totalitarian heritage itself, bases
its political attitudes on the empirically unfounded theoretical
speculations, which is why, despite its efforts, it represents a challenge
to the democratization of inherited post-totalitari an cultural system and
an obstacle for Serbian Orthodox Christian community to realize its
democratic right to free expression of values and ideas in which it
believes.
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