Balkan Idols

Balkan Idols
Author: Vjekoslav Perica
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195174298

This text explores the political role and influence of Serbian Orthodox, Croatian Catholic, and Yugoslav Muslim religious organizations in the Balkans during 20th century. The author rejects the notion that a 'clash of civilizations' has played a central role in fomenting aggression.

Serbian Orthodox Fundamentals

Serbian Orthodox Fundamentals
Author: Christos Mylonas
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2003-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 6155211205

This book is a comprehensive exposition of the interaction of a national (the Serbian people) and a religiou (the Orthodox Christian faith) content, in the formation of a distinctive national identity and a mode of being. Its interdisciplinary approach, drawing on sociology, social anthropology, theology, political theory, Balkan historiography, and Serbian folklore, is deployed to provide a powerful and original analysis of how Serbian Orthodoxy has resulted in the sacralisation of the Serbian nation by framing the parameters of its existence. Addresses the following questions: what 'makes' a Serb? Are meaningful assumptions possible by introducing Serbian Orthodoxy as the primal point of reference? Why does religion appear to have an especially strong appeal?

Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Southeastern Europe

Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Southeastern Europe
Author: Lucian N. Leustean
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2014-07-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0823256081

Nation-building processes in the Orthodox commonwealth brought together political institutions and religious communities in their shared aims of achieving national sovereignty. Chronicling how the churches of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia acquired independence from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the wake of the Ottoman Empire’s decline, Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Southeastern Europe examines the role of Orthodox churches in the construction of national identities. Drawing on archival material available after the fall of communism in southeastern Europe and Russia, as well as material published in Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Russian, Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Southeastern Europe analyzes the challenges posed by nationalism to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the ways in which Orthodox churches engaged in the nationalist ideology.