Eastern European Studies Commons^™

Development Of Chaplaincy In Independent Ukraine: Current State And Trends Of Development, Nataliia Ishchuk, Oleksandr Sagan

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The preconditions and difficulties of the formation of the chaplaincy movement in contemporary Ukraine are systematized in this paper. It is shown that for a significant period of time after the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence, chaplaincy developed mainly by private initiatives of individual clergy or public organizations. In the first years of Ukraine’s independence, the main obstacles to its development were the atheistic legacy of the Soviet Union, ideological clichés, and the lack of a legal framework for the implementation of pastoral work. Nevertheless, as early as the 1990s, the chaplaincy ministry began to receive legal justification, significant international support, …

Journal Review: Illuminatio/Svjetionik /Almana: The Journal For New Ideas., İbrahim Karataş

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This is a review of the first issue of the academic online journal Illuminatio (Svjetionik in Bosnian and Almanar in Arabic). It began publication in 2020, and will be published twice a year by Al-Wasatiyya Center for Dialogue based in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The journal is bilingual and appears in Bosnian and English. The Editor-in-Chief is Mustafa Cerić, who was the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1999 to 2012 and holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago. The other editors and the advisory board of the journal are prestigious local and international scholars of …

A Protestant Revolution In Germany, 1989?, Katharina Kunter

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"It may be just a regional coincidence–or not. In any case, it is noteworthy that two of the most successful turning points in modern German history took place here, in the middle of Germany.1 The former German Democratic Republic, usually called "East Germany," is the area from which Martin Luther began the Reformation in the 16th century. Wittenberg, the site of Protestant turmoil in the early modern period, is only about 60 km from Leipzig, which was the city of the Monday demonstrations in the autumn of 1989. Are there historical connections and cultural references? While there is no doubt …

Religion In Latvia After The Fall Of The Soviet System: Fragmentation And Postsecularism, Valdis Tēraudkalns

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"The purpose of this article is to analyze changes that religions in Latvia have experienced since the collapse of the USSR. This is too broad of a topic, therefore I will concentrate on only two aspects, fragmentation of religious groups and postsecularism."

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 …

Restless Hungary, András Máté-Tóth

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Nowadays, many people ask what is happening in Hungary. Especially people who came to know and appreciate our country as the happiest barrack in the Eastern bloc and who knew from their own experience that it was an island in the great communist Red Sea, the Archipelago Goulash (alluding to the Archipelago Gulag in the Soviet Union). After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Hungary was for a while still a pioneer in the transformation to the market economy, to democracy, in short–in the direction of freedom. And now the economic data shows that Hungary is no longer …

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."

Book Review: Isolde Thyrȇt, Saint-Making In Early Modern Russia: Religious Tradition And Innovation In The Cult Of Nil Stolobenskii, Paul Crego

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Radna: The Holy Shrine Of The Multinational Banat Region (Romania), Erika Vass

Journal of Global Catholicism

Radna is the sacral heart of the Banat region in Romania. The shrine has united the Catholics for centuries in veneration of Virgin Mary regardless of their nationality and native language. Roman Catholic Bulgarians, Croatians (called Krashovani), Hungarians, Germans, Roma, Romanians, and Slovakians venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary together, but believers of the Orthodox and Greek Catholic Church also visit the sacred venue. Until the borders changed after the First World War, a great number of pilgrims had visited Radna every year from the region of the Great Hungarian Plain. The pilgrimage may be considered a rite of passage connecting …

Minor Letnica: (Re)Locating The Tradition Of Shared Worship In North Macedonia, Ksenia Trofimova

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper addresses trajectories of historical and devotional continuity of the annual pilgrimage to a Marian shrine. It analyzes the ways in which traditional worship of the Catholic Church in Letnica (Kosovo)—a major regional sanctuary of the former Yugoslavia—is relocated and replicated in a small chapel of St. Joseph in Skopje (North Macedonia). Both sites have been for a long period of time institutionally connected and shared by followers of different religious traditions (Catholic and Orthodox devotees, and especially by Muslims). Drawing upon fieldwork carried out in Macedonia and Serbia between 2014-2019, I focus on the processes of social construction …

“Give Me Some Beautiful Holy Images That Are Colorful, Play Music, And Flash!” The Roma Pilgrimage To Csatka, Hungary, István Povedák

Journal of Global Catholicism

This study introduces the Csatka pilgrimage, which is one of the most significant festive events for Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. Csatka, a small and secluded village, became one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Roma since the mid-20th century. Tens of thousands of Roma, entire families from Hungary and the surrounding countries arrive to the feast on Nativity Day at the beginning of September. For them, however, the rite is not only about religious actions, but also about their powerful role in strengthening Roma ethnic identity. Through the analysis of the rite, we can gain a good …

Breaching Boundaries: Homogenizing The Dichotomy Between The Sacred And Profane In Csíksomlyó, Zsofia Lovei

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines how a Marian shrine in Csíksomlyó, Transylvania acts as a Foucauldian heterotopia for Magyar speaking individuals, residing in the Carpathian Basin, and beyond in the diaspora most especially during the annual Pentecost pilgrimage. Following introductory remarks on the site and my stance, I turn to methodology, and Hungarian scholarship on the topic. Afterwards, I provide a “thick description” of fieldwork I conducted on-site in May of 2015. I then turn to various theoretical ties, which I support with emic analysis. Lastly, I turn to ideas of heterotopias, and provide a brief formal analysis. My main incentive is …

Overview And Acknowledgments, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

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.

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, …

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

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

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.

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)

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 …

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 …

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 …

Frontmatter (Volume 40, Issue 3)

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Interwoven Existences Of Official Catholicism And Magical Practice In The Lived Religiosity Of A Transylvanian Hungarian Village, Cecília Sándor

Journal of Global Catholicism

During the last five years I have been doing field research in a Transylvanian Hungarian village, Sânsimion (Hu: Csíkszentsimon). I present my research on this religiously homogenous, Catholic community’s worldview. Based on interviews conducted with members of the village’s various age groups, I map religious and magical knowledge passed down through the generations, using the theoretical frame of collective memory and religious transmission. Second, I highlight two different but coexisting “constructions of reality” in this rural community. By “constructions of reality,” I mean interpretations of reality expressed in narrative discourses and local magical practices that are closely and inextricably interwoven …

Rockin' The Church: Vernacular Catholic Musical Practices, Kinga Povedak

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article focuses on the unique dimensions of lived or vernacular Catholicism through the analysis of contemporary congregational music in Hungary. Looking at the musical lives of Hungarian Roman Catholics from the late 1960s to contemporary times can provide us with new understandings of the theological contents and aesthetics, as well as the vernacular religiosity of the community. Christian popular music appeared behind the Iron Curtain relatively early, in 1967 when the first “beat mass” was created and introduced at Budapest. The early Christian popular music sounded astonishingly similar to the songs of the American Folk Mass Movement of the …

Longings, Letters And Prayers: Visitor's Books At Hungarian Marian Shrines, Krisztina Frauhammer

Journal of Global Catholicism

The following study seeks to show the flow of contemporary rituals associated with pilgrimage shrines. I will consider how visitor’s books placed on display at shrine churches are being utilized in the modern context by pilgrims and tourists alike. Requests, words of thanksgiving, and testimony are coupled with an honest, reflexive style that lends to the formation of these individualized prayers. These prayers are original, specific and peculiar as they follow patterns that are informal in nature. These prayers allow pilgrims to initiate contact with the Transcendent through the act and practice of writing. An idiosyncratic form of sacred communication …

Introduction: Consumer Contexts And Divine Presences In Hungarian Catholicism, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

Introduction to Hungarian Catholicism: Living Faith Across Diverse Social and Intellectual Contexts, highlighting both the specific contributions of the articles to the study of Hungarian Catholicism and situating them within the broad sweep of Hungarian and Catholic Studies.

Overview And Acknowledgements, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

Overview of Hungarian Catholicism: Living Faith Across Diverse Social and Intellectual Context, highlighting the articles' contribution to the study of Global Catholicism.