Religion Commons^™

On Both Sides Of The Wall, Christoph Schmauch

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Since the emphasis of this paper is to be on the Cold War and its aftermath, I will only mention that the first ten years of my life I lived in Silesia, Germany, on the outskirts of Breslau/Wroclaw during the Nazi period of World War II. I will begin with the end of WWII, 1945, my experience for two years in the mountains of Silesia under Polish administration, and from 1947 to 1950 in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany in Görlitz, and beginning in 1950 in Ost-Berlin, the capital of the German Democratic Republic."

Report On The Visit Of Prof. And Mrs. Josef Hromádka To The U.S.A., 1966, John Heidbrink

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Professor Josef L. Hromádka (referred to as JLH in the report) was a theologian of the Church of the Czech Brethren who took refuge in the USA during the Nazi conquest of his native Czechoslovakia and taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. He made what for many seemed a surprising decision to return to Prague after the communist coup d’etat in 1948. Soon he became the best known Protestant theologian on the other side of the “Iron Curtain” as he interpreted communism as a wave of a promising future to which Christians need to adjust in order to assist in the …

Reflections After Thirty Years, James R. Payton

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"All this awareness shaped my hopes for what might transpire in the wake of the remarkable changes enacted in the wake of 1989. Those hopes reverberated with what was expressed in a different field for the future of Eastern Europe in the aftermath of Communism’s collapse. I recall reading scholars much more gifted in things economic than I, hoping that the liberated nations of Eastern Europe might develop a “third way,” between capitalism and Communism. Much as that was talked about, however, the story of the past three decades reveals that no such economic third way has been discovered. I …

The Macedonian Orthodox Church At The Crossroads Between The External Denials And Internal Challenges, Maja Angelovska, Ruzhica Cacanoska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The purpose of this article is to provide an insight into the challenges the Macedonian Orthodox Church has faced since the independence of the Republic of Macedonia in the 1990s until today. In doing so, some of the more essential events were considered, such as the dispute with the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as the request sent in 2017 by the Macedonian Orthodox Church to the Bulgraian Orthodox Church to act as a mother church of the MOC. In terms of internal affairs, special attention has been paid to several key aspects such as religious education, revitalization of monasticism, …

From Traditional To Official Religion: The Legal Status Of The Bulgarian Orthodox Church After 2019, Atanas Slavov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church-Bulgarian Patriarchate is conventionally associated with the Bulgarian national identity, statehood, and culture. Recognizing its contribution for their preservation, the state has ensured certain privileges to the Church, including regulation of its legal status. During the Bulgarian monarchy (1878-1944) and under the 1879 Tarnovo Constitution, Eastern Orthodoxy had been recognized as the official religion of the state (Art. 37), and religion was present in the public schools, the army, and the public sphere in general. After the fall of the totalitarian communist regime, in the new democratic 1991 Constitution, Eastern Orthodoxy was recognized as the traditional religion …

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Oppressor: Glorification Of Crime And Contempt For The Victims As The Ultimate Challenge To Christianity In Post-Yugoslav Societies, Branko Sekulić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The glorification of one's own crimes and the contempt for victims of others is a common denominator of sociopolitical existence in post-Yugoslavian societies. Religious institutions, primarily the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, have contributed to the creation of such an atmosphere in their respective areas. Dealing with this type of aberration is their primary contemporary challenge.

Catholicism In The New Poland: A Religion And Society In Transition, Christopher Garbowski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "Polish society is divided along a number of lines; hardly unusual in any contemporary pluralistic society. The new divisions have not been adequately named. Michał Kuź, a Polish political scientist, has coined the self-explanatory terms “localists” and “internationalists” to describe perhaps the most pertinent current divide within European societies.1 These worldview divides are also visible along political party lines. The proportions of the parties of the divide are naturally different in Poland than in countries of the old Europe. It is relatively easy to indicate which of the parties in the political landscape of the country within the localist …

Frontmatter (Volume 40, Issue 5), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Interdenominational Dialogue In Contemporary Ukraine: Correction In War And Pandemic Conditions, Liudmyla Fylypovych, Oksana Horkusha

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the current state of interreligious communication in Ukraine and proves the need to correct interfaith dialogue during the war in Eastern Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors identify objective and subjective reasons for dialogue and recognize relevant issues (the lack of a joint denominational position on the need for dialogue), and new threats (the war and the pandemic) for establishing tolerant relations between religious organizations in Ukraine. Natural and socio-political catastrophes only expose problems that were not solved in peacetime. Preserving past achievements in interfaith communication is extremely important for creating new dialogue platforms. The existing …

Anti-Semitism In Slovakia After The Velvet Revolution Of 1989, Peter Salner

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This study discusses anti-Semitism in Slovakia after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The introductory section presents an overview of the most destructive manifestations of anti-Semitism during 1918-1920, the Holocaust, and the Communist era (1948-1989). Anti-Semitism in Slovakia is less aggressive than in many other countries of the European Union. Physical violence is especially rare, and even the defacement of Jewish sites (particularly cemeteries) is typically motivated by vandalism, rather than by anti-Semitism. The most frequent expression of prejudice against Jews takes the form of verbal insults. These are predominantly used by children, who hear them from their families. Children (and …

Spraying Religion: (Anti-)Religious Graffiti Of The Post-Socialist Transition, Mitja Velikonja

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article discusses graffiti and street art concerning religion, part of the author's much broader and continuous research on contemporary political graffiti and street art in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe, from the Baltics to the Balkans, from Prague to Moscow, comprising over 20 years of systematic fieldwork.

Frontmatter (Volume 40, Issue 4)

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Politik Und Gesellschaft Im Kaukasus: Eine Unruhige Region Zwischen Tradition Und Transformation, Paul Crego

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Olaf Leiße, editor, Politik und Gesellschaft im Kaukasus: Eine unruhige Region zwischen Tradition und Transformation. Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag, 2019. x, 490 pages 978-3-658-26373-7; 978-3-658-26374-4 (eBook)

Increasing State Restrictions On Russian Protestant Seminaries, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"In sum, Russian Protestant seminaries are presently undergoing a trial by state inspection that threatens their very existence. Academics Perry Glanzer and Konstantin Petrenko are correct in asserting that the Russian state’s “power to license and accredit” is “the power of life and death” over any educational institution.

State justifications for close oversight of Protestant seminaries appear overstated at best and lack credibility at worst. As regards state concerns for quality control, should not the Russian constitution’s requirement for separation of church and state take precedence over a secular government’s presumption to instruct believers on how best to train their …

Book Review: Za Bolji I Pravedniji Svijet: Etika Politika Religija [For A Better And More Just World: Ethics, Politics, Religion], Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The book contains 98 columns written in the period from 2006 to 2009, by one of the best known and influential Protestant religious voices from Eastern Europe.

A review of Peter Kuzmič, Za bolji i pravedniji svijet: Etika politika religija. [For a better and more just world: ethics, politics, religion], Zagreb-Sarajevo: Synopsis, 2019. Hard cover, 326 pp. ISBN: 978-953-7968-85-4.

Roman Catholicism In Ukraine: The Contemporary Situation, Social Acceptance, And Social Service, Tetiana Havryliuk, Maryna Lukashenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article investigates the historical peculiarities of the formation and specificity of the current stage of development of Catholicism in Ukraine. It considers the spiritual, socio-cultural, economic, and political prerequisites for the resumption of the activity of the Roman Catholic Church during the revival of Ukraine's independence in the 1990s. A quantitative comparison of dioceses since the end of the last century has been undertaken and their patterns of growth have been identified. The main achievements of the largest Catholic churches in the country since Ukrainian independence have consisted in building its ecclesiastical structures and expanding its community networks and …

Development Of The Greek Catholic Church In Independent Ukraine: Persons, Historical Heritage, And New Trends, Mykhailo Kobryn, Olena Lyovkina, Hennadii Khrystokin

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes historical features and tendencies of the development of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (the UGCC) in the period of independence of Ukraine. It considers the prerequisites in which this church has begun its revival in the early 1990s after the official ban on church activity in the Soviet Union. Three stages of the development of the UGCC have been identified which correspond to the times of the various church leaders’ management. The first stage in the development of Greek Catholics corresponds to the time when the community was governed by Ivan-Myroslav Lyubachivsky. The main tasks of that …

Ethnic And Confessional Relations In Cross-Border Regions: A Comparative Analysis Based On Sociological Research, Vasyl Balukh, Yurii Lopatynskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The study deals with the issues of confessional issues (religiosity), freedom of conscience, state-church relations, interethnic relations, cultural identity, and language use in cross-border regions of Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to find common features in the relations between different nationalities and representatives of the multi-confessional environment of the two cross-border regions of Ukraine and to identify the specifics of each of them in solving the most important life problems of inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relations. The method of sociological research is a survey that contains 44 questions of mixed type. The research was carried out by the Center …

Guest Editor’S Foreword: Religiosity In Contemporary Ukraine, Nataliia Ishchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "The issues of civilizational identity became paramount to the social existence of the church in the decade of revolution and war (2010-2020). This decade has become the most heroic and, at the same time, the most tragic one in the history of modern Ukraine, for its people and its churches. The Maidan and the Revolution of Dignity (late 2013 to early 2014) gave the people of Ukraine great hopes and expectations for the choice of a European future. The annexation of the Crimea by Russia and the ongoing war in the east of Ukraine, as planned by the Kremlin’s …

Problematic Issues Of Institutional Development Of Islamic Associations In Contemporary Ukraine, Serhii Ismahilov, Galyna Sagan

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the revival of the Islamic religion which began in Ukraine in the 1990s. The authors point to the problematic issues of the institutional establishment of Islamic associations in contemporary Ukraine. In particular, four stages of development of Islam in independent Ukraine, which have their own institutional and ideological characteristics, are distinguished. Thus, the first stage was the creation of the first three spiritual administrations (the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Crimea, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine, and the Spiritual Center of Muslims of Ukraine), the development of which defined the ideology of future development …

Dynamics And Growth Prospects Of The Protestant Denominations In Ukraine, Irina Vasilyeva, Vita Tytarenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The intensity and nature of changes in Protestant communities in Ukraine is analyzed on the basis of broad empirical material (statistics, sociological surveys). The confessional specificity of the spread of Protestant communities in the Ukrainian territories is revealed, as well as their dynamics, geographical conditionality, and more. Changes in institutional, socio-political, cultural, and educational spheres of life of Protestant churches in modern Ukraine are recorded. Social legalization, the legal recognition of these movements as the churches and religious organizations equal to other traditional churches, as well as dynamism of Protestantism in evangelical and missionary sphere and public life, have contributed …

Confrontation Of Orthodox Churches In Modern Ukraine: Reasons, Trends And Prospects Of Reconciliation, Nataliia Ishchuk, Oleksandr Sagan

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The current canonical and social statuses as well as the relationship of the largest Orthodox churches in Ukraine are considered: the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine emerged on December 15, 2018, as a result of the unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and a small number of representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. On January 6, 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in accordance with the decision of the Synod of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate, together …

Reformation Of Confessional Spiritual Educational Institutions Of Ukraine: Containment Factors And Leadership Experience, Petro Kraliuk, Nadiya Sukhova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The main tendencies, prospects, and complexity of reforming confessional, educational establishments in Ukraine have been systematized and substantiated here. Based on statistics, their quantitative and qualitative characteristics are being examined. Their evolution has been traced from the final years of the Soviet Union to recent days. Currently there are 204 establishments of this kind operating in Ukraine. Due to their large number, they are mostly small. Most of them have dozens of students studying there. Usually, they lack complete and qualified teaching staff and adequate facilities. Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and representatives of other denominations get theological education there. …

Frontmatter (Volume 40, Issue 3)

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Fortieth Anniversary Of Publishing Opree (Ree), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Forty years ago in February 1981 the first issue of Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe appeared. The Executive Committee of the now defunct “Christians Associated for Relationship in Eastern Europe” of which I was a member and occasional president supported my initiative to start printing information as one of our tasks is to educate church leaders and scholars with reliable information about the religious situation under communism. Previously a fair number of American church leaders and travelers were misled not only by communist government officials who dealt with religious affairs of their respective countries but even by some …

The Socialist Impact On Christian-Muslim Shared St. Naum Monastery, Evelyn Reuter

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Shared religious places may be provocative phenomena—for the members of the sharing communities as well as for uninvolved observers. An increasing number of research literature focusing on the contesting character of such places and the consequences for the identities of sharing communities serves as evidence for that thesis. The heads of the theoretical discussion regarding the influence of sharing religious and political identities are the anthropologists, Robert Hayden and Glenn Bowman. Due to the long-lasting Christian- Muslim contacts characterized by peaceful as well as conflicting interaction, both bring examples from Southeastern Europe, especially from the post-Yugoslavian context. It is obvious …

Thirty Years Of Religious Freedom In Russia: The Case Of Ekaterinburg, Elena Glavatskaya

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"The religious revival, which began nationwide during the USSR’s last decade, affected all religious denominations, including the so-called “traditional” religions, which had deep roots in Imperial Russia’s history, and new religions that appeared after the collapse of Soviet ideology. The religious renaissance manifested itself through the rapidly increasing number of religious communities, religion’s fast penetration into social and political life, and the church buildings that mushroomed all over the country. This article focuses on the history of the religious landscape in Russia since 1989, using the city of Ekaterinburg as a case study. We use the religious landscape concept to …

The Handmaid Of The Lord Redux: Constructing The New Orthodox Womanhood Between Cradle And Convert, Katherine Kelaidis

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"In an era when questions of sexuality and gender dominate much of the debate in theological circles, regardless of religious or confessional affiliation, the meaning of Orthodox Christian womanhood remains a simultaneously over-discussed and under-theorized aspect of these conversations. This article attempts to address this discrepancy by articulating and problematizing some of the myriad of forces that are shaping the construction of Orthodox Christian womanhood and the identity of Orthodox Christian women today. In particular, we explore how the “Culture Wars” (a once largely American political phenomenon) have internationalized and become a major force in the articulation of gender both …

Frontmatter (Volume 40, Issue 2)

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Book Review: God’S Spies: The Stasi’S Cold War Espionage Campaign Inside The Church, James R. Payton Jr.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Review of Elisabeth Braw, God’s Spies: The Stasi’s Cold War Espionage Campaign Inside the Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2019. $25.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-0-8028-7525-9.