CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2011
| Author | Sincan, Anca Maria |
|---|---|
| Title | Of Middlemen and Intermediaries Negotiating the State Church Relationship in Communist Romania The Formative Years |
| Summary | The Church in Romania was pushed aside by the modern state in its endeavour to modernize the society. The Church was stripped of its social functions and left with ceremonial roles that served to legitimate the state. It was no longer an autonomous body but through economic, legal, cultural and social ties it became a dependant of the state. This put a dent in the much looked after doctrine of caesaro-papism since the Church had no longer a sufficiently strong status to challenge the state and negotiate its position in society. There were periods after 1918 when this situation was reversed by the Church. At the end of the Second World War a status quo characterized the relationship between the Romanian state and the Church. Much of its hierarchy was publicly outspoken in social, educational, political matters, while economically still dependant on the political administration politically it became an important factor in public life. The change of regimes after the Second World War brought about an increase in the new regime’s interest in the Church and its position in society. The communists acted on a pre-existing soviet model already tested in the regulation of the Soviet Union religious life. Policies were drafted following this model regarding the role of the Church, if and how it could have been replaced and by what. It was one of the few steady attempts to reform institutional religion to fit the role designed for it by the state. This research focuses on the church – state relationship as defined in the early years of Romanian communism (1948-1960). Through the lens of three case-studies it attempts to uncover the subversive factors (lack of trained cadres, an overlap between trying to use the religious denominations and trying to relegate them and so on) that compromised the “orthodox” model of relationship that came from the soviets or was fabricated by Party policy makers and introduced new regulations and ultimately a different/new model of relationship. Thus I show how the blueprints and policies regarding the regulation of religious life in communist Romania were challenged when put into practice from inside the central communist administration, from outside the political administration (by the Church) and from below. The research is organized into five parts, a theoretical and methodological overview, an introductory one that looks at the relationship between state and church in Romania and lays out the context of the regime change, followed by an analysis of three case-studies, all pointing out how internal and external factors influenced the relationship and changed the model and is concluded by a draw up of what the practiced mechanism looked like. |
| Supervisor | Al-Bagdadi, Nadia |
| Department | History PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2011/hphsia01.pdf |
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