Syntheses on the Social-Philanthropic Activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. A Grounded Theory Research
Syntheses on the Social-Philanthropic Activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. A Grounded Theory Research

Summary/Abstract: The article contributes to the development of knowledge on the social-philanthropic activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The article gives a secondary analysis of the data obtained in the doctoral research, with the purpose of creating a specific framework of the charitable activity and of the social work in Romanian Orthodox Church in the professionalization process. The article is based on a qualitative Grounded Theory methodology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with several social actors that have a direct connection with the institutionalized practices (Hunea et al. 2017: 17-25) or not institutionalized of social work: priests offering professional services licensed and accredited; priests and abbots who offer institutionalized charitable and social work services and who are not licensed or accredited, but who possess all the operating notices; social workers who work in the social work programs carried out by the Church. The research has as aim the study of social work and charitable activities carried out in institutional regime (accredited or uncredited) and those informally implemented which are not institutionalized, in the Archdiocese of Iasi. As a result of the analysis we could conclude that the social work carried out by the Romanian Orthodox Church respects the quality standards of the social services and, respectively, the ethical norms specific to the social work in general, to which is added a spiritual dimension related to the values of the love and of carring for the others. The characteristics of the social-philanthropic activity of Romanian Orthodox Church they are still under construction and customization, as long as part of the services are already licensed and part is in the intermediate stage between licensing and traditional philanthropy.

• Details
• Contents