Orthodoxy Confronting the Collapse of Communism in Post-Soviet Countries

Abstract

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.

Religiosity in Europe: an index, factors, and clusters of religiosity

“…None of them are Catholic, which again confirms Borowik (2006) and Plaat's ideas (2003). Lastly, there was a decline in the Orthodox Church in four of six countries, which confirms the conjecture of the importance of a strong Orthodox Church to strengthen religiosity (Bogomilova, 2005;Froese, 2004).…”

“…This feature is also intrinsically recognisable for all countries with a national identity linked to religion. Lastly, the Catholic nationalism of Poland confirms assertions of Borowik (2006) and Plaat (2003), who argue that the Catholic Church had a stronger role in fighting communism.…”

Religious Change among Cohorts in Eastern Europe: A Longitudinal Analysis of Religious Practice and Belief in Formerly Communist Countries

“…The first mechanism, which is common to all the Orthodoxmajority Eastern European countries, essentially focusses on the overlap between religiousness and national identity; as Borowik (2006) says, being Orthodox and Bulgarian is almost the same thing. The second mechanism instead has to do with the less intense communist religious persecution that took place in Bulgaria (Borowik 2006), which would be consistent with an easier restoration process for institutional religion after the fall of communism.…”

Conflicting and reinforcing identities in expanding Europe from 1995 to 2019. Findings revisited in an even larger Europe

“…This finding applies only to Western Europe, where minorities are (still) more attached to Europe than their national majorities. Another potential explanation for the drop in European identification in post-communist nations may stem from the rise in Orthodox Christianity across most PC nations (Borowik 2006;Sarkissian 2009;Pew Research Center 2017). There has been an increasing affiliation between Eastern European churches and growing nationalism (Sarkissian 2009), such that large majorities of people believe that being 'Orthodox' or being 'Catholic' is an inherent part of being 'truly' one's nationality (Pew Research Center 2017).…”