Keywords: Orthodox Church; identity; secularization; legitimization; public sphere.
After the fall of communism, the Romanian Orthodox Church engaged in the reconstruction of its public identity. This change is implicitly transmitted, for example, in the official discourses of its official representatives that this paper undertakes to scrutinize. Thus, in order to legitimize the resurgence of religion (and in particular of the Orthodox Church) in the public sphere, the Church itself is presented not only as a preserver of national values and as a socially relevant and spiritually prominent institution, but also as an “implicit actor of civil society”. Yet by following the modern secular logic in the social justification of its own existence, and despite the fact that its representatives publicly decry and/or refuse to acknowledge any signs of secularization within the Romanian society, the Romanian Orthodox Church might be actually contributing to the deepening of this very process both within society as a whole and within the Church itself.
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More...Keywords: Legislation; Orthodox Church; Parliament; Romania; religion
The article examines the legislation drafted during the last legislative term (2008-2012) in the area of Church-State relations and religions’ public status. First, special attention is given to the State Secretariat for Religious Denominations, to the consolidation of “social partnership” between the lay and religious authorities, and to the topic of Church financing. Second, the legal treatment of various issues related to bioethics and social ethics is put under scrutiny. Attempts to modify legislation in these areas reveal the ambivalent attitudes of Romanian decision-makers towards the public status of religious institutions and of religious values in particular.
More...Identity is not just about how we understand ourselves as opposed to the others. It is also about how we act. This article investigates the practices related to the reconstruction of the public identity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. After a brief incursion in the communist past, the first under scrutiny are institutional practices, from administrative nominations to formal and informal structures of authority and to structural change. It is followed by an analysis of the progressive reassessment of the Orthodox presence in state institutions (with a particular emphasis on the educational system) and in the political sphere. The final part of the study is devoted to the means of communication employed by the Church to transmit its message and to reclaim a strong position in the agora. As the article is merely a sketch of the practical application of a ”return in the public” sphere of the Orthodox Church, the floor open for discussion.
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Keywords: European spirit; European integration; intellectuals; Church; post-secularism
The paper provides the ideal-typical narrative of European integration manufactured by Romanian intellectuals and the official national Church (Greek-orthodox), that could be summarized as follows: in the realm of the spirit, Europe would have survived mainly in the East, shepherded by such intellectuals as the Romanian ones and by the spiritual legacy of the Orthodox Church; in political and economic terms, European Union is monitored according to secularist and relativist guidelines by the bureaucracy in Brussels. Whatever the latter, together with their Romanian counterparts, may have realized in the course of European enlargement is of little concern for the former. Both the Church and the mainstream intellectuals are engaged now in an operation that should have defined them long before the fall of state socialism: to boost intellectual non-conformity with respect to the political dominant discourse as a way of refusing the debate by taking it seriously. And they do it by means of the same narrative device that kept them silent under communism: they tell the story of the prevalence of culture and the spiritual over everything political.
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This is the sixth volume in series 'Coin Collections and Coin Hoards from Bulgaria' (CCCHBulg. VI), presenting the numismatic collections of state museums in the present-day Republic of Bulgaria. A comprehensive introduction provides background information on the southwestern area of Blagoevgrad district. In CCCHBulg. IV was presented the collection of the Regional Museum in Blagoevgrad. The collections of three municipal museums at the towns of Sandanski, Petrich and Gotse Delchev are presented here. These three cities are located in the valleys of the rivers Struma (anc. Strymon) and Mesta (anc. Nestos). Volume 6 provides a good picture of coin circulation along the valleys of Struma and Mesta within the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. In this volume we have new information including the data of the museums collections, archeological excavations and documentation of collectors and local historians. This information is significant in volume. It is about coin finds and is presented with photos, tables and brief descriptions. The registered small denominations ranging from hemiobol to trihemiobol from the period of 6-5 in. BC are especially valuable. There is already enough information about the heavy denominations. So we add this new information and complete the picture for the minting and coin circulation of the earliest period in the researched region. We are also convinced that this new information on scattered coin hoards and single silver and bronze coins from the region will contribute to the study of local history. The number of coins presented in the catalog is 1200. The number of documented scattered coins in the region is 1131. The volume of the book is 283 pages. The format is A4.
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Keywords: archaeology;moldova;heritage and education;
The book is a collection of articles done by DAAD Alumni scholars from the Republic of Moldova. Most of the contributions are debating various topics on archaeology and preservation
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Keywords: chronological order; political landscape; international;
Under the coordination of Silvia Marton, this chronology was made by Valentin Burada, Iuliana Conovici, Luciana-Alexandra Ghica. Lucian Vereșciaghin (for January 2002) and Ruxandra Ivan also collaborated in compiling the chronology. The sources used were: the main international press agencies (BBC, CNN, Reuters, RFI), the foreign policy pages of the Romanian principal dailies ("Adevărul", "Cotidianul", "Cronica Română", "Curentul", "Evenimentul Zilei", "Jurnalul Național", "Libertatea", "România Libera", "Ziarul Financiar", "Ziua"), think tank analyzes (RAND), online editions of "The Guardian", "The Times", "The New York Times", "Le Monde", "Pravda", the sites of international organizations (NATO, EU, UN, OSCE, Amnesty International, etc.), as well as sites dedicated specifically to high-profile events (Middle East crisis, war in Afghanistan, etc.).
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Keywords: chronological order; political landscape; international;
Under the coordination of Silvia Marton, this chronology was made by Valentin Burada, Iuliana Conovici, Luciana-Alexandra Ghica. Ruxandra Ivan also collaborated in compiling the chronology. The sources used have were: the main international news agencies (BBC, CNN, Reuters, RFI), the foreign policy pages of principal dailies in Romania ("Adevărul", "Cotidianul", "Cronica Română", "Curentul", "Evenimentul Zilei", "Jurnalul Național", "Libertatea", "România Libera", "Ziarul Financiar", "Ziua"), the analysis of some think tank-un (RAND), the online editions of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (www.rferl.org), "The Guardian", "The Times", "The New York Times", "Le Monde", "Pravda", the websites of international organizations (NATO, EU - www.europa.eu.int, www.euractiv.com -, the UN, the OSCE, Amnesty International, etc.), as well sites dedicated especially to some highly publicized events (crisis in the Middle East, war in Afghanistan, etc.)
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Keywords: chronological order; political landscape; international;
Under the coordination of Silvia Marton and Ruxandra Ivan, this chronology was made by Valentin Burada, Iuliana Conovici, Luciana-Alexandra Ghica. Ligia Ciuciucu and Raluca Goleșteanu also collaborated in compiling the chronology . The sources used were: the main international news agencies (BBC, CNN, Reuters, RFI), the foreign policy pages of the principal dailies in Romania ("Adevărul", "Cotidianul", "Cronica Română", "Curentul", "Evenimentul Zilei", "Jurnalul Național", "Libertatea", "România Libera", "Ziarul Financiar", "Ziua"), analyzes think tanks (RAND), the regular editions of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (www.rferl.org), "The Guardian", "The Times", "The New York Times", "Le Monde", "Pravda", sites of international organizations (NATO, EU - www.europa.eu.int, www.euractiv.com -, UN, OSCE, Amnesty International, etc.), as well as websites dedicated especially to highly publicized events (the Middle East crisis, the war in Afghanistan - www.afghan.com, www.arabnews.com - etc.)
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Keywords: chronological order; political landscape; international;
Under the coordination of Silvia Marton and Ruxandra Ivan, this chronology was made by Valentin Burada, Iuliana Conovici, Luciana-Alexandra Ghica. Ligia Ciuciucu, Cristina Fometescu, Cristina Vasilescu also collaborated in compiling the chronology. The sources used were: the main international press agencies (BBC, CNN, Reuters, RFI), the foreign policy pages of the Romanian principal dailies ("Adevărul", "Cotidianul", "Cronica Română", "Curentul", "Evenimentul Zilei", "Jurnalul Național", "Libertatea", "România Libera", "Ziarul Financiar", "Ziua"), the analysis of some think tanks (RAND), the online editions of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (www.rferl.org), "The Guardian", "The Times", "The New York Times", "Le Monde", "Pravda",the websites of the international organizations (NATO, EU, UN, OSCE, Amnesty International, etc.), as well as a website dedicated specifically to high-profile events (Middle East crisis, war in Afghanistan - www.afghan.com, www.arabnews. com etc.).
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Keywords: Church; post-communism; society; Romania;
The author applies content analysis to uncover how the Romanian Orthodox Church - simultaneously with the whole of Romanian society - responds to the necessity to understand and adapt to new - and constantly changing - cultural, political and other realities after 1989. The Church deals with the axiological challenges of modernity by putting forward its theological vision on liberty as the right to act morally. Since its discourse claims a perennial symbiotic relationship with the Romanian nation, its relations with politics and the State are structured from this perspective: while it will not get directly involved in party politics, the Church wants a relationship of collaboration with the public authorities. Though with caution, the Romanian Orthodox Church has also come to fully engage in the ecumenical dialogue and to support Romania's efforts to integrate the European Union. It participates thus in the Romanian society's collective deliberative efforts to rebuild its normative foundations.
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Keywords: Greek stamps; roof tile; amphora handles; Istros/Histria; Hellenistic period;
The present paper analyzes three Greek stamps on ceramic objects (a roof tile and two amphora handles) from Istros/Histria, discovered in the Sărătură Sector and dated mainly to the 4th c. BC. A short context of the discovery is also provided.
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Keywords: Orthodox aesthetics; modern art; contemporary art; Nichifor Crainic; Dumitru Stăniloae; art for art’s sake;
This paper aims to outline the current Orthodox aesthetics vision on modern and contemporary art, based on a thorough exploration of relevant Orthodox theological writings published in Romania. After going through a significant part of the theological literature that deals with aesthetics written by Romanian authors such as Nichifor Crainic, Dumitru Stăniloae, Ioan Bizău, Mihaela Palade, etc., and by internationally well-known Orthodox theologians translated into Romanian such as Paul Evdokimov and Leonid Uspensky, we are able to highlight the main features of a coagulated Orthodox vision on modern and contemporary artists, art movements and artistic phenomena. There is a general agreement among Orthodox theologians that Renaissance was the age when the spirit of individuality and formal freedoms entered art, which led to a distancing of artworks and artists from God. Also, modern art and contemporary art are usually regarded as harmful to the human soul and to its Salvation. These views also reverberate among some circles of Romanian visual artists and art critics with strong Orthodox personal beliefs. Furthermore, this aesthetic vision might partially explain why the Romanian Orthodox Church has remained fairly uninterested in recent art phenomena and why it hasn’t tried to establish a theological or practical dialogue with the artworld, in the past few decades.
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