scholarly journals Identity of Three Bulgarian Christian Communities in Sofia

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 37-64
Author(s):  
Rasa Račiūnaitė-Paužuolienė ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
General Terms

This article focuses on the history and identity of three Bulgarian Christian communities from the second part of 20th c. until today. The article presents the results of ethnographic explorations between 2010 and 2020 carried out on a comparative basis among three Bulgarian Christian denominations in Sofia. The case of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church shows that believers might be desrcibed as ‘believing and belonging, without behaving’ (PRC 2017b). Under the Soviet regime, members of the Bulgarian Catholic Church managed to maintain their religious identity due to their interconfessional links. Their religious identity was strengthened by their witnessing repressed priests, monks and selfless members of the laity. Modern Bulgarian Christians have multiple identities, but prioritize their ethnic identity, followed respectively by their identities as religious in general terms and finally specific confessional identities.

To be Catholic or Not to Be: Is it Still the Question? Catholic Identity and Religious Education Today

Horizons ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C. Phan
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Catholic Identity ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Religious Educators ◽  
Catholic Faith ◽  
History Of ◽  
Education Today ◽  
The Church

AbstractRecent social studies have show that there are, especially among young American Catholics, different conceptions of what constitutes a Catholic. Factors contributing to this new understanding of Catholic identity include religious pluralism and the divergent conceptualizations of catholicity and Catholicism in contemporary theology. As a consequence, different criteria are used to define what it means to be a Catholic. These variations pose serious challenges to religious educators whose task is to shape the religious identity of the students.The study begins with a survey of the history of the concept of catholicity as well as of the criteria for Catholic identity. In view of the variations in the understanding of catholicity, the work discerns four challenges for religious education with its task of fostering Catholic identity: how to maintain a fruitful balance between Vatican II's recognition of the ecclesial nature of non-Catholic Christian communities and its claim that the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of the means of salvation; between Vatican II's call for dialogue with non-Christian religions and its insistence on the distinctiveness of Catholic beliefs and practices; between the legitimate concerns of “communal Catholics” and the necessity for all Catholics to participate fully in the Catholic symbol and ethical system; and between the spiritual and institutional, the invisible and visible elements of the church. The article concludes by suggesting an indirect method to develop and strengthen Catholic identity by means of the “deep structures” of the Catholic faith, with particular focus on Christian doctrines.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the Contemporary USSR

1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bohdan R. Bociurkiw
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
World War ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Western Ukraine

In 1944, the Soviet Army recaptured Galicia and Transcarpathia from the Germans, and the last stronghold of Ukrainian Greek Catholicism fell under Soviet control. Following the arrests of all Uniate bishops and of the “recalcitrant” clergy, the Lviv Sobor of March 1946 nullified the 1596 Union of Brest, which first established the Greek Catholic Church, and forcibly “reunified” the Uniates with the state-controlled Russian Orthodox Church. The post-World War II period saw the gradual suppression of the Uniate Church throughout Carpatho-Ukraine, Poland, and Eastern Slovakia, and marked the beginning of more than four decades of struggle for Eastern Rite Ukrainian Catholics in the USSR to maintain their banned Church against the overpowering alliance of the Soviet regime and the Russian Orthodox Church. Despite the enforced “reunification,” the Greek Catholic Church has remained the most important cultural and institutional preserve of national identity in Western Ukraine. The following is an examination of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church's attempts to assert its right to legal existence since the beginning of political and social revitalization under Mikhail Gorbachev.

scholarly journals Serbs in Romania relationship between ethnic and religious identity

Balcanica ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 117-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Djuric-Milovanovic
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Western Romania

The paper looks at the role of religion in the ethnic identity of the Serbs in Romania, based on the fieldwork conducted in August 2010 among the Serbian communities in the Danube Gorge (Rom. Clisura Dun?rii; loc. Ser. Banatska klisura), western Romania. A historical perspective being necessary in studying and understanding the complexities of identity structures, the paper offers a brief historical overview of the Serbian community in Romania. Serbs have been living in the Banat since medieval times, their oldest settlements dating back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Today, they mostly live in western Romania (Timi?, Arad, Cara?-Severin and Mehedin?i counties), Timi?oara being their cultural, political and religious centre. Over the last decades, the community has been numerically declining due to strong assimilation processes and demographic trends, as evidenced by successive census data (34,037 in 1977; 29,408 in 1992; 22,518 in 2002). The majority belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church (Diocese of Timi?oara), but a number of neo-Protestant churches have appeared in the last decades. The research focuses on the role of the Orthodox religion among the Serbian minority in Romania and the role of new religious communities in relation to national identity. The role of the dominant Serbian Orthodox Church in preserving and strengthening ethnic identity is looked at, but also influences of other religious traditions which do not overlap with any particular ethnic group, such as neo-Protestantism. With regard to the supranational nature of neo-Protestantism, the aim of the study is to analyze the impact of these new religions on assimilation processes among the Serbs in Romania and to examine in what ways different religious communities influence either the strengthening or the weakening of Serbian ethnic identity.

Christian unity: the search for ways to achieve

2001 ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Yu. Ye. Reshetnikov
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
The Press ◽  
Christian Unity ◽  
Future Policy

Last year, the anniversary of all Christianity, witnessed a number of significant events caused by a new interest in understanding the problem of the unity of the Christian Church on the turn of the millennium. Due to the confidentiality of Ukraine, some of these events have or will have an immediate impact on Christianity in Ukraine and on the whole Ukrainian society as a whole. Undoubtedly, the main event, or more enlightened in the press, is a new impetus to the unification of the UOC-KP and the UAOC. But we would like to focus on two documents relating to the problem of Christian unity, the emergence of which was almost unnoticed by the wider public. But at the same time, these documents are too important as they outline the future policy of other Christian denominations by two influential Ukrainian christian churches - the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. These are the "Basic Principles of the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to the" I ", adopted by the Anniversary Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Concept of the Ecumenical Position of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, adopted by the Synod of the Bishops of the UGCC. It is clear that the theme of the second document is wider, but at the same time, ecumenism, unification is impossible without solving the problem of relations with others, which makes it possible to compare the approaches laid down in the mentioned documents to the building of relations with other Christian confessions.

The Baltic Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 586-600
Author(s):  
Sebastian Rimestad
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Baltic

The three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) have a varied religious history. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they were the last region of Europe to be Christianized. Today, they—and especially Estonia—are among the most secularized societies in the world. This is not only due to the Soviet past but also to Baltic German dominance at key moments in their history. While Lutheranism has dominated in the north (in Estonia and Latvia), the Roman Catholic Church is still the main religious player in the south (in Lithuania and parts of Latvia). Primarily due to Russian migration, the Orthodox Church also plays a significant role in Baltic affairs. There is, finally, a small but vibrant cluster of new religious movements, notably neo-pagan groups.

scholarly journals A beleaguered church the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) 1941-1945

Balcanica ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 269-287
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Stojanovic
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Mass Killings

In the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) from its establishment only days after the German attack on Yugoslavia in early April 1941 until its fall in May 1945 a genocide took place. The ultimate goal of the extreme ideology of the Ustasha regime was a new Croatian state cleansed of other ethnic groups, particularly the Serbs, Jews and Roma. The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), historically a mainstay of Serbian national identity, culture and tradition, was among its first targets. Most Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries were demolished, heavily damaged or appropriated by the Roman Catholic Church or the state. More than 170 Serbian priests were killed and tortured by the Ustasha, and even more were exiled to occupied Serbia. The regime led by Ante Pavelic introduced numerous laws and regulations depriving the SPC of not only its property and spiritual jurisdiction but even of its right to existence. When mass killings stirred up a large-scale rebellion, a more political and seemingly non-violent approach was introduced: the Croatian regime unilaterally and non-canonically founded the so-called Croatian Orthodox Church in order to bring the forced assimilation of Serbs to completion. This paper provides an overview of the ordeal of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the NDH, based on the scholarly literature and documentary sources of Serbian, German and Croatian origin. It looks at legislation, propaganda, the killings and torture of Orthodox clergy and the destruction of church property, including medieval holy relics. The scale and viciousness of some atrocities will be looked at based on unused or less known sources, namely the statements of Serbian refugees recorded during the war by the SPC and the Commissariat for Refugees in Serbia, and documents from the Political Archive of the Third Reich Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

scholarly journals Eastern Orthodox Church and modern religious processes in the world

2012 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-441
Author(s):  
Miroljub Jevtic
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Orthodox Christianity ◽  
The World ◽  
Collapse Of Communism ◽  
Society Today

The majority of the Christian world today is affected by weakening adherence to principles of religious practice. The reverse is the case in the countries of predominantly Orthodox tradition. After the collapse of communism, all types of human freedom were revived, including the religious one. The consequence is the revival of the Orthodox Christianity. It is reflected in the influence of the Orthodox Church on the society. Today, the most respected institutions in Russia and Serbia are the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Church, respectively. Considering the decline of the Western Christianity, the revival of the Orthodox Church has raised hopes that the Western Christianity can be revived, too. Important Christian denominations, therefore, show great interest in including the Orthodox Church in the general Christian project. It is particularly evident in the Roman Catholic Church foreign policy. The Roman Catholic Church is attempting to restore relations with Orthodox churches. In this sense, the most important churches are the Russian and the Serbian Church. But, establishing relations with these two is for Vatican both a great challenge and a project of great significance.

scholarly journals Relasi Narasi Visual dan Teks dalam Ikon Transfigurasi Paroki St. Dionysios Yogyakarta

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Alex Cristian Justisia Ginting
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Late Period ◽  
Visual Form ◽  
Byzantine Art ◽  
Artistic Heritage

Seni lukis Byzantine adalah salah satu warisan kesenian dunia yang belum banyak dibahas oleh kalangan akademisi seni di Indonesia. Warisan seni lukis Byzantine sering disamakan dengan Ikonografi, yaitu gambar-gambar suci yang sampai hari ini masih dipertahankan fungsinya dalam gereja-gereja yang menggunakan ritus Byzantine (Gereja Orthodox dan Gereja Katolik Ritus Byzantine). Seni Byzantine dibagi tiga periode, yaitu awal, tengah, dan akhir, dimana pada periode Tengah-Akhir muncul ikon berjenis Menologion. Seni lukis Byzantine dikaji menggunakan Ikon Pesta Transfigurasi yang merupakan digitalisasi dari ikon aslinya yang berasal dari abad ke-16 untuk menjelaskan bentuk visual, struktur dan hubungannya dengan narasi. Kajian  menemukan ada kesamaan antara visualisasi narasi ikon dengan struktur pesta Gerejawi yang memiliki tiga pola (Pra Pesta – Pesta – Pasca Pesta/Apodosis).Byzantine painting is one of the world's artistic heritage that art academics have not widely discussed in Indonesia. The legacy of Byzantine painting is often equated with iconography, which is sacred images that still retain their function in churches that use the Byzantine rite (Orthodox Church and Byzantine Rite Catholic Church). Byzantine art had developed in three periods, namely beginning, middle, and end, wherein the Middle-Late period, an icon of the Menologion type appears. The byzantine painting was studied using the Transfiguration Feast Icon, digitizing the original icon dating from the 16th century to explain its visual form, structure, and relationship to narrative. The study found similarities between the visualization of the iconic narrative and the ecclesiastical party structure with three patterns (Pre Pesta – Pesta – Post-Pesta / Apodosis). 

scholarly journals Features of Establishment of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church in Conditions of Ongoing Russian Agression

2018 ◽  
pp. 722-732
Author(s):  
Serhii Zdioruk
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Rite Of Passage ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Hybrid War ◽  
Ukrainian Society ◽  
Modern Russian

The essence and need for the establishment of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church are revealed. It shows a direct correlation between the assertion of independence of Ukrainian Orthodoxy from the Moscow Patriarchate and the consolidation of Ukrainian society and the strengthening of national security of Ukraine. A dangerous challenge for the Ukrainian people is that we were forced to realize our ethno-religious identity not through world structures (the Vatican, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and so on), but through Russian Orthodox fundamentalism, obscurantism, and primitive rite of passage, as a result of the inadequate policy of our guides for decades after the restoration of state independence. The article shows the threats to the national interests and national security of the state created by the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. Russia now considers the use of inter-Orthodox relations as one of the effective mechanisms against the consolidation of the Ukrainian people for the approval of the Ukrainian local Orthodox Church. It is stated that as a result of the deconsolidation of the Ukrainian Orthodox community, Ukraine will lose the potential of Ukrainian citizens. It is noted that the assertion of the Ukrainian local Orthodox Church is equal to the establishment of the national Church, regardless of other foreign religious centres. The recommendations suggest measures, in particular legislative ones, for the democratic settlement of public-religious and state-Church relations in order to consolidate Ukrainian society. They should help ensure the realization of the national interests of the Ukrainian people in the conditions of modern Russian aggression. Keywords: Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church, national interests of Ukraine, Russian aggression, hybrid war, establishment, international religious relations.

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