Ubiparipović, Stefan (2016) Religious Identities in South-Eastern Europe: Influence of the Catholic Church in Croatia and the Serbian Orthodox Church in the 21st Century. Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, 36 (3). pp. 25-36. ISSN 2693-2148
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Religious Identities in Southeastern Europe_ Influence of the Cat.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Religion has played an important, but more supportive than decisive role in the creation of the modern societies in South-Eastern Europe. At the end of the twentieth century, brutal civil war in Yugoslavia was labelled as having varying religious influences which shaped national identities and policies. Moreover, contrary to creating peace and coexistence between people, beliefs and faith in clerical organizations and their representatives were misused and lost in the vortex of warmongering, intolerance, and conflict. This essay will not go into details or analyse the influence of religious dogma which led to the conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia and supported nationalistic policies of the 1990s. Instead, it will try to point whether these “pious” organizations still have considerable impact on current secular democracies. Furthermore, there is a need to specify that influence shown through tangible and vivid political decisions coming from the highest authorities and their behaviour in regional and international relations. The focus will be on the two dominant Christian churches, namely the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Croatia and it will emphasize on their present relations with the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Croatia. Firstly, for each case separately, I will underscore the important legal relations between the state and church, pointing out their rights, privileges and obligations stemming from them. Secondly, recent events indicating war-like discourses supported indirectly or directly by the churches and with political consequences, are very important to be mentioned as an integral part of the explanation of the persisting poor quality of the contemporary Balkan relations. Thirdly, I will try to conclude with identifying similarities, together with relevant differences in these two cases, which are both being neglected and easily understood as if the internal situation has not changed since the Balkan wars.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Subjects: | B Mission theology/theory > Peacemaking and Reconciliation B Mission theology/theory > Identity issues D World Christianity and Central Eastern Europe > Europe G Christian traditions/Denominations > Eastern Orthodox G Christian traditions/Denominations > Roman Catholic |
| Divisions: | Balkan countries Balkan countries > Croatia Balkan countries > Serbia |
| Depositing User: | Speranca Tomin |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Sep 2021 14:49 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Sep 2021 14:49 |
| URI: | https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/2082 |
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