ORTHODOXY AND NATIONALISM IN RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY (original) (raw)

The paper explores the relationship between Orthodoxy and nationalism in the Russian Orthodox tradition. It employs the term “Orthodoxy” when referring to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in general, while using “Russian Orthodoxy” to signify the historically constructed specificities of Christianity in the Russian lands. On its turn, nationalism is approached as a modern phenomenon that does not simply reflect a national identity, but becomes an ideology that by equating “nation” with “state” has the potential to bring mass political mobilization on historical and cultural grounds. The paper presents a critical analysis of the wide spread view that Orthodoxy has been genetically connected with nationalism, which in the Russian case is claimed to has existed since the baptism of Kievan Rus’. Therefore, the author’s aim was to specify the temporary limits of the marriage between nationalism and Orthodoxy in Russian Orthodoxy and to trace its evolution and major concepts. This is done through an analysis of those features of Russian Orthodoxy that are blamed for the development of specific expansionist nationalism: the language of liturgy and Cyrillic alphabet; the model of church-state relations, often defined as caesaropapism; and the Russian Orthodox Church itself. The paper gives a central place to this Church as a key factor in the symbiosis of Orthodoxy and nationalism in Russia.

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