Biserica Română Ortodoxă şi modernitatea. Procesul secularizării şi caracteristicile sale
Romanian Orthodox Church and Modernity. The Secularization Process and Its Traits

Summary/Abstract: My paper approaches a rather challenging topic, one that gave birth to a great deal of studies concerning the relationship between Church and state. The first section of my study describes what modernity is, how it was defined by European scholars from a postmodern point of view, and why secularism is a subsequent process within the modernity's frame. The second section of my study talks about how secularism developed in countries like France, Russia, England and Germany, from a historic point of view, trying to stress that, even if secularism occurred and unfolded during the eighteenth and nineteenth century in Europe, it had different shapes, developing specific traits for every country it took place in. Finally, the last section deals with the same process, drawing a comparison between France and Romania and describing the similarities and differences of secularism in these two countries. One the one hand, we have two major traits, very much alike, both in France and Romania. At the beginning of eighteenth century, in France, and nineteenth century, in Romania, state established control over Church possessions and involved in its affairs by making the appointment of Church hierarchy a political issue. On the other hand, in 1905, France took the next step towards a total secularism and passed a law stipulating the separation of churches and the state, which barred the government from officially recognizing, funding or endorsing religious groups. As opposed to France, Romania didn't take the same step, thus giving the government a way to interfere in religious affairs.

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