Religion and Cultural-Historical Archetypes
Religion and Cultural-Historical Archetypes

Summary/Abstract: The religious spirit, diversity and even unity in the Balkans very often are dominated by state interests, ideology, as well as by mass mentality. Following the paradigm of cultural-historical archetypes, the paper will try to outline some dominant archetypes: 1) The archetype of acumene (according to D.Obolensky, J.Meyendorff, P.Mutefchiev, etc.). Born in the time of the Byzantine Empire, it includes a powerful state and cultural center which has "privatized" Christianity and God, sacralization of the military and the cultural invasion of the "Center" toward "Periphery" ("barbarians", "heretics", "infidels", "pagans"). Within the acumene the distinct states continuously fight against each other and also with the "center" in order to take its place (for most Balkan countries the ideology and practice of totalitarian socialism reproduced the oecumene archetype in modern political form, the notions - federation, union, "camp"). 2) The archetype of yoke and liberation: the conqueror is identified through its religious faith (enslaver - Islam, enslaved - Orthodoxy). Nowadays this identification becomes more and more intensive. 3) The archetype of powerful and weak state-organization ? Diversity in the level of state identity depends on the historical fate and the synthesis between religion, the state and mentality. The most powerful centers in this respect are Serbia, Greece, Romania - partly (Obolensky, Litavrian, Iorga, Mutafchiev, etc.); the weakest - Bulgaria, Albania. Humanistic discourse is based on the idea that the inertia of cultural archetypes could be overcome through their rationalization and through the cultivation of universal values - human life, God, liberty; through stimulation of positive self-identification and not the "enemy" theory. This ethics is addressed both to local conflicts and to developed countries. It requres understanding, mutual respect, consideration of cultural and historical specifics.

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