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Orthodoxy Confronting the Collapse of Communism in Post-Soviet Countries

Jagiellonian University, Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion, Poland, uzborowi{at}cyf-kr.edu.pl

English

In focusing on transformations in the religious institutions of Eastern Orthodox Europe and on the functions of Orthodoxy in the new social order that has arisen after the collapse of Communism and the Soviet empire, the author centres on the Russian Orthodox Church as the largest Eastern European Church and as the most ambitious in seeking to determine the role of Orthodoxy in the world. In this context, the analysis examines the ambiguous but close historical relation between Church and state in predominantly Orthodox countries, the inevitable role of Orthodoxy in shaping post-Communist state-political and national identities and yet the practical difficulties that Orthodox churches face in terms of resources, internal divisions, and adjustment to a religiously pluralist environment. The author concludes by stressing both the different and similar contexts in which Christian Churches in the two halves of Europe find themselves.

French

En prêtant attention aux transformations des institutions religieuses de l'Europe centrale orthodoxe et aux fonctions de l'orthodoxie dans le nouvel ordre social qui a émergé après la chute du communisme et de l'empire soviétique, l'auteure étudie l'Eglise russe orthodoxe en tant qu'Eglise d'Europe centrale la plus répandue et la plus ambitieuse dans sa volonté de déterminer le rôle de l'orthodoxie dans le monde. Dans ce contexte, l'auteure examine la relation historique, certes ambiguë mais proche, entre l'Eglise et l'Etat dans les pays majoritairement orthodoxes, le rôle inévitable de l'orthodoxie dans la formation des identités nationales, étatiques et politiques dans l'ère post-communiste et, en même temps, les difficultés pratiques auxquelles les Eglises sont confrontées en termes de ressources, de divisions internes et d'ajustement à un environnement religieux pluriel. Elle insiste enfin sur les similarités et les différences entre les contextes des parties orientale et occidentale de l'Europe dans lesquels se trouvent les Eglises chrétiennes.

Key Words: Communism • Eastern Europe • Orthodoxy

Social Compass, Vol. 53, No. 2, 267-278 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0037768606064339


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