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This chapter analyses the legal and canonical situation of the Romanian Byzantine Catholics in Hungary at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Being part of the Hungarian State, the Greek Catholic bishops were subjected to the Hungarian hierarchy, attending the congresses and conferences of the Roman Catholic Bishops of Hungary. In addition, they were loyal to the Holy See, favouring the Latinisation of the Church in the three provincial councils. Through this approach, they secured the support of the papacy in disputes with the Hungarian higher clergy. Thus, they were able to uphold the individuality of their own Romanian Church, by organising their own mixed archdiocesan church assemblies which, just like the Romanian Orthodox Church from Hungary, had the role of conducting educational and economic diocesan activities.

The chapter summarizes the developments in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church during the communist period and the challenges it faced in the period of the post-communist transition. It argues that the church’s failure to confront its communist past, despite the opening of all related archives, has alienated its leadership from the public opinion and forced it to rely on, and look for, support from the minority groups, which claim to defend the purity of Orthodoxy. The current review of church life is based on the considerable literature that has been published over the past years and the state archives compiled in communist times, including the State Security secret files of all communist-era metropolitans of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, who were either targets of or collaborators with the secret police.

On the basis of a brief historical account of the Union’s genesis in Bulgaria and the development of relations between the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Eastern rite Catholics, as well as an analysis of the current situation of both churches, this chapter shows that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church today considers the Eastern rite Catholics neither as “stolen churches” nor as “bridges.” At present in Bulgaria there is rather a lack of interest in these churches and the related painful memories; however, this is not necessarily a negative factor since it contributes to the present nearly conflict-free relationship between the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church.

This chapter focuses on the case of the majority Romanian Orthodox Church. It begins by presenting the cases of three Romanian patriarchs who ruled the church as well as some other clergy who collaborated with the communist regime. It then argues that during the past three decades after the fall of communism, the Romanian Orthodox Church has systematically tried to hide its collaboration with the communist authorities, instead presenting itself as a victim of the regime. This comes as no surprise, given that two of this church’s post-communist patriarchs were both heavily involved in collaborating with the communist secret police, the Securitate.

Based on the centennial experience of state-building in Lebanon, this chapter discusses several strategic options to secure the survival and empowerment of local Christian communities in a turbulent, quickly changing regional environment. The chapter addresses this topic historically by discussing the Maronite community of Lebanon and its relationship with the state of Lebanon. Since the 2000s, accelerated by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the challenges of the “Arab Spring”, and the dramatic rise of Sunni Islamism all over the region, a creeping shift of strategic priorities in favor of ethno-communal survival can be observed. Indicators of this process include a reinforcement of millet-like mentalities in local Christian politics, a rapprochement with the regimes of Syria and Iran, balanced by ecclesiastic efforts to improve sub-state relations with pro-Western actors in the region. The chapter discusses the risks of these policies for Lebanon’s cohesion, security, and sovereignty.

This chapter explores the responses to the exhibition Ecce Homo by Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin in two countries where the exhibition was on display: Sweden (1998–99) and Serbia (2012). In this exhibition, Ohlson depicts twelve moments from the life of Jesus Christ, mixing the imagery and symbolism of church art and queer culture while positioning Jesus in present-day Sweden. The chapter aims to explore how public responses to art that is perceived to be blasphemous or controversial to illuminate the construction of religion and homosexuality in relation to national belonging. Located at the crossroads of religion, the secular, and the modern, blasphemy cases are instances of impure mixing Plate where both proponents and opponents of a certain work of art, cartoon, or pop song determine what “real” religion is, and in that sense blasphemy cases read like moments of identity politics. The chapter will argue that in Sweden, Ecce Homo led to a meaningful debate on the theological implications of the exhibition, resulting in a redefinition of what counts as sacred in Sweden: the inclusion of LGBT people by Christians, in general, and the Church of Sweden, in particular. In Serbia, public debates on Ecce Homo illuminate the role of Christianity, in particular, Orthodoxy, in the transformation of Serbia from a post-socialist to a postsecular state, a process in which the “two Serbias” (traditionalist, associated with Orthodoxy and liberal, cosmopolitan, secular) compete for the future of Serbian society.

Orthodox Christianity in Italy can be considered as a ‘Western Orthodox laboratory’. In this scenario, in fact, some patterns relating to the establishment of Eastern Orthodoxy in Western Europe may be identified. Taking into consideration that in Italy there is the largest number of Orthodox faithful in Western Europe and the largest Romanian Orthodox diaspora in the world, I adopt the framework of religious glocalization and focus on the hybridization of Orthodox diasporas within the Italian environment. The first objective is to offer an overview of the universe of Orthodox churches in Italy. I examine the Orthodox community in the Italian peninsula, and then I study the constellation of its jurisdictions (canonical and non-canonical). In summary, I attempt to portray a recent Orthodox Christian panorama in Italy. The second aim is to offer an overview of the patterns of establishment of the three main Orthodox jurisdictions. I try to define the engagement with the host context of diasporas of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Russian Orthodox Church. I hypothesize that these three diaspora religions maintained different relationships with society, the dominant religion, and the State in the Italian context. They have thus developed different paths of settlement and religious orientations within their mission.

This chapter explores conflicting claims about the relationship between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Yugoslav/post-Yugoslav Jewish community. It focuses particularly on complaints about, and incidents suggesting, that there are antisemitic tendencies in contemporary Serbia, also briefly considering Republika Srpska’s record with regard to Jewish-Orthodox relations.

My chapter focuses on the role the Serbian Orthodox Church has played in Serbian politics since 1989, but especially since 2000, with the end of the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milosevic. Centering the discussion on four principal dimensions that capture the Serbian Church’s influence in this period—nationalism, conservatism, homophobia, and religious intolerance—this chapter pays special attention to two main social and political fault lines in post-2000 Serbia and the Church’s central role in them: the status of its LGBTQ community and the continuing contention over Kosovo’s secession. The chapter concludes that the SOC continues to serve as a political force in Serbian society—a foundational source of Serbian national identity and an organization deeply immersed in contemporary Serbian politics. It is a Church that is deeply conservative, opposed to change, and primarily interested in preserving its status and privilege in Serbian society.

This chapter examines the political challenges, potential, and environment of the Macedonian Orthodox Church during the twenty-first century. It interprets the Church’s place in shaping Macedonian identity, expressed by the idea of Church as a national “pillar,” and support of its quest for acknowledged “autocephaly,” proclaimed unilaterally in 1967. The chapter develops several themes. First, it examines the Macedonian Church’s relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church, the abortive “Nis Agreement,” and Serbian formation of a rival Orthodox entity under Bishop Jovan Vraniskovski. Second, the chapter comments on a “syndrome” of attitudes and values associated with the Macedonian Church: intolerance, homophobia, nationalism, and conservatism. The final section considers Archbishop Stefan’s offer to the Ecumenical Patriarch, to rename the Church the “Archbishopric of Ohrid,” possibly in connection with the “Prespa Accord,” resolving the “name dispute” with Greece. A conclusion speculates whether an autocephalous Macedonian Church might diminish espousal of those aforementioned values conflicting with Macedonia’s EU membership.

This chapter examines the visions which have been advanced by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to expand and secure its influence in society after fall of communism. While the end of the atheist rule inspired the Church’s hierarchy to seek a restoration of the pre-communist dominant status of Orthodoxy as the majority religion, the newly adopted understanding of freedom of conscience and belief as a just and equal treatment of all religious communities impeded the realization of this goal. As a result, the promotion of the Church’s positions on the communist past, the form of political governance, nationalism, and traditional values have turned out to be a dynamic process that provokes ambivalent reactions not only in society but also in the community of Orthodox believers.

This chapter considers the topics of nationalism, conservatism, homophobia, and religious intolerance in the Romanian Orthodox Church (RomOC, hereafter) after the collapse of communism in 1989. This analysis begins with a brief historical overview of the Church during the pre-communist and communist periods, and then turns its attention to presenting and assessing the above topics in post-communist times.

What might have befallen the “Jews of Arab lands” in the shadow of the Holocaust certainly did not apply in the case of Lebanon. Lebanese Jewish life was markedly different from Jewish life elsewhere in the Arab-defined Middle East. This chapter speaks to a relatively “stable” Lebanese Jewish experience, in an era when the world at large was committing collective suicide, when the Jews of Europe were on the cusp of destruction, and when Middle Eastern Jewry was being slated for a similar fate.

Maronites who are identified as Monothelet by some historians mostly lived in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, and Cyprus. They were recognized in Yohannes Maron’s leadership as a different community in Christian world. A long period following Maron’s death is not known well. During the period of the Crusades, they built close relationship with the Christian World. Although they had lived under ottomans sovereignty following the conquest of Syria and Egypt by Ottomans, they were particularly affected by French cultural and political influences. In nineteenth century there were important changes in social and economical architecture of Ottomans and rest of the world. Consequently, coastal regions with rich economical surroundings and port-town such as Izmir, Mersin, Beirut, and Haifa developed rapidly. The fact that a Maronite church was started out at Mersin in this period indicates the formation of a Maronites community. For different reasons, over the time, Maronites emigrated from their homeland to different countries. In nineteenth century majority appear to immigrate to America and a small number of the community settled in Adana, Tarsus, and Mersin. There are different views about the reason for their migration. In this study, demographical records of Maronites who settled in Mersin were evaluated.

Based on the issues of the journal Christiyanka (Christian Woman), an organ of the Union of Orthodox Parish Confraternities in Bulgaria, the present chapter discusses the media strategies of the clergy and laity for defining and defending the aspirations of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to intervene actively in the social sphere after World War I. This chapter shows how this specific version of religious renewal presupposed collaboration with the state, a kind of secularisation of the main functions of the clergy, and a monopolisation of discussions of social questions by the Church. It also traces the development of the Bulgarian conception of practical Christianity‚ understood as intensive charitable work and influenced by the Protestant diaconia and Catholic caritas.

The chapter presents detailed findings on the earliest intellectual networks and grassroots groups that engaged in Serb nationalist activism in BiH, merged to form SDS, and defined the party’s internal power relations. Recognizing that the agency of the Serb movement in BiH extended beyond the official party, it also discusses a variety of different organizations and modalities that circulated the same discourse and thus contributed to the same political mission. These are Serb cultural societies, the Serbian Orthodox Church, official institutions staffed by SDS personnel, and the Serb para-institutions that the party created in 1991 and 1992 to oppose unfavorable decisions by the Bosnian government.

This chapter is an attempt to present the formation, main characteristics, and development of the God Worshipper movement on the basis of historical sources and the press. It further seeks to offer an answer to the question of to what extent this movement was indigenous or influenced by other similar movements. The God Worshipper movement emerged in the Kingdom of Serbia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Movement received the official blessing of the Church in 1920; it quickly spread in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and from 1932 received an ‘institutional-religious framework’. Worshippers influenced monastic life in the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), helping to increase the number of monks. After 1945, the God Worshipper Movement retreated underground and slowly disappeared.

This chapter tries to understand the complex field of lived religion, nationalism, and sexual (in)tolerance by analyzing the online public responses to the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej’s comments on the Belgrade Gay Pride Parade 2012. The aim is to identify discourse strategies of commenters on the most visited online multimedia portals in the Serbian language who responded to the news items published on October 3, 2012 concerning Patriarch Irinej’s open letter to the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, urging him to ban the upcoming Pride Parade. The discursive strategies found in the material are organized in two main categories. Relational strategies (focus on online intolerance) emphasize the direct interaction between speaker and audience, in this case between the Patriarch and the commenters. Argumentative strategies (focus on online lived religion) highlight the content of the interactions. The concept of lived religion will serve here as an analytical and epistemological tool for understanding online religious practice and its perspectives on the politics of intolerance in Serbia. Lived religion is understood as the patterns of meaning, experience, and action of religious and spiritual persons and groups that emerge from and contribute to their relation with (what they consider to be) the sacred. The focus of a lived religion approach is neither on the canonical sources of a religious tradition nor on the doctrinal calibration of religious convictions but on the day-to-day ways in which religion is lived. Religion then is also understood in a broad sense, including the major traditions and denominations as well as post-modern spiritualities, indigenous cultural habits, and civil religion or implicit religion (Ganzevoort and Roeland 2014). More specifically, in this chapter we will not be looking at the theological debates about religious diversity (theologia religionum), nor at those about sexual diversity. Instead we will focus on the ways the debates are played out in public discourse at the societal level. Recent developments in the study of lived religion mostly focus on the importance of lived religion in individual everyday religious/spiritual practices and experiences in specific sociocultural contexts; less effort is spent in grasping the complex subtleties of how religion is lived in virtual spaces. For that reason, there is a clear shortfall in the existing literature in terms of analyzing lived religion in the virtual (online) spaces.

This chapter offers an example of the renewal of the Church in the Romanian context and highlights the enduring power of Scripture to change lives and renew communities within an Eastern Orthodox context. It looks at the crucial role that the Bible played for renewal movements within the Romanian Orthodox Church at the beginning of the twentieth century by presenting the lives and influence of three key Orthodox priests: Dumitru Cornilescu, Dumitru Popescu, and Iosif Trifa (the founder of the Lord’s Army). An important section of this chapter explores the foundation, establishment, and theology of the Lord’s Army. This chapter also presents a brief portrait of the renowned Romanian Orthodox peasant poet Traian Dorz, the second leader of the Lord’s Army in Romania

This chapter studies the influence of renewal religious movements on the language policies of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the second half of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries before the decision to introduce modern Serbian into the religious service was taken in 1964. The chapter recognises the influence of Protestant communities , particularly the Nazarenes and Adventists , ‘the movement of the pious’ (which later evolved into the God Worshipper movement), the Greek Orthodox brotherhoods of Zoe and Soter, and the liturgical renewal movement in the Roman Catholic Church .

At the beginning of the twentieth century, new religious communities and movements began to arise in Serbia. The appearance of these new religious trends was influenced by the West, and their expansion was facilitated by the general state of Serbian society and the Church. By the interventions of particular members of the clergy, this national religious impulse was channelled into the unique God Worshipper movement. The characteristics of its followers (God Worshippers, or bogomoljci) were regularly going to church, frequent praying, fasting, self-sacrifice, charity, and the chanting of specific hymns. The aim of the paper is to consider the characteristics of God Worshippers’ melopoetic creativity and thus contribute to a more comprehensive perception of this religious phenomenon, which significantly defined and shaped contemporary ecclesiality.

This chapter reflects on the history of Serbia and current debates on human rights and religion in Serbia. It begins with a discussion of how religion is the cause of differences among people, which is especially evident throughout South-Eastern Europe (SEE) and in Serbia in particular. Through the term “balkanization” the author explains the position of small eastern European countries including Serbia which are characterized as societies overburdened by the “fear of communities”. Remarks are made in regard to constitutionals legacy and the process of nation/state building, in which religion has played an important role. Further clarifications with respect to Serbian Christianity are presented and followed by insights into Serbian modern theology and theological figures, as well as an articulation of the theologial basis of human rights in Eastern Orthodoxy and the relation between Serbian Orthodoxy and human rights. The chapter concludes with reflections on students’ perceptions of religion in Serbia.

A parallel shape grammar has been defined to study Serbian medieval monastic churches of the Rascian School. It combines church plans with the associated justified permeability graphs. The new grammar does what shape grammars traditionally do: explores the richness of the language by enumerating its possible instances—there are 62 different types of Rascian church plans enumerated by the grammar. In addition to this, the grammar also pinpoints possible change in social use of the church space evident in churches built after Serbian Orthodox Church gained independence in 1219.

In Bulgaria, as in other post-communist countries of Eastern Europe, the restoration of civil and religious freedoms has often been accompanied by the rediscovery of religious roots. Southeastern Europe is involved in new types of networks of transnational relations, discourses and currents in which the influence of religion is expanding and becoming ever more visible. Within that process, the majority have preferred to return to traditional religious denominations after the fall of the iron curtain. Most Bulgarians are members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, but there is also a group of self-identifying ethnic Turks (about 10 %).