1st Edition

Orthodox Religion and Politics in Contemporary Eastern Europe On Multiple Secularisms and Entanglements

Edited By Tobias Koellner Copyright 2019
    274 Pages
    by Routledge

    274 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book explores the relationship between Orthodox religion and politics in Eastern Europe, Russia and Georgia. It demonstrates how as these societies undergo substantial transformation Orthodox religion can be both a limiting and an enabling factor, how the relationship between religion and politics is complex, and how the spheres of religion and politics complement, reinforce, influence, and sometimes contradict each other. Considering a range of thematic issues, with examples from a wide range of countries with significant Orthodox religious groups, and setting the present situation in its full historical context the book provides a rich picture of a subject which has been too often oversimplified.

    1. Introduction – On Multiple Secularisms and Entanglements: Orthodox Religion and Politics in contemporary Eastern Europe and Beyond - Tobias Köllner



    2. Symphonia and the Historical Relationship between State and Church: Legacies from Byzantine Times until Today - Daniel Jianu







    3. ‘Proud to be Orthodox’: Religion and Politics during the 2014 presidential elections in Romania - Lucian Cîrlan







    4. The Temple Mount Comparison – A new Paradigm of the Relationship between State and Church? - Marten Stahlberg







    5. A Resilient Harmony, or How the Politics of Social Inequality in Post-Soviet Russian Society Have Informed Orthodox Parish Life - Detelina Tocheva







    6. National Heroes, Martyrs of the Faith and Martyrs of the People: Mixing Political and Religious Discourse in the Post-Communist Romanian Orthodox Religious Education Textbooks - Ana Raluca Bîgu







    7. The Shifts Between: Multiple Secularisms, Multiple Modernities and the Post-Soviet School - Agata Ładykowska







    8. Religious Education in Russian School: The False Symphony - Anna Ozhiganova







    9. The Dichotomy between Europeanisation and the Revival of Moldovan Orthodoxy: The Strategy of the Moldovan Orthodox Church in Relation to Equality Legislation - Romanița Iordache



    10. Between Europeanisation and the Russian-Georgian Brotherhood: Nationalism, Orthodoxy, and Geopolitics of the Georgian Church - Nutsa Batiashvili







    11. The End of the Pro-Orthodox Consensus: Religion as a New Cleavage in Russian Society - Dmitry Uzlaner



    12. Guided by a ‘Symphony of Views’: The Russian Orthodox Church’s Role in Building Russia’s Symbolic Capital - Alicja Curanović







    13. Surrendering to Public Pressure: The ‘Macedonian Orthodox Church’ and the Rejection of the Niš Agreement in 2002  - Nenad Živković







    14. Orthodox Christianity and State/Politics Today: Factors to Take into Account - Vasilios N. Makrides

    Biography

    Tobias Köllner is assistant professor at the Witten/Herdecke University and board member in the Centre for Research on Transformation at Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany