Title of Session: The role of religion in the post conflict period in the West Balkan region (original) (raw)
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The Everyday of Religion and Politics in the Balkans
2018
The deeply social and political significance of religion becomes apparent when looking at how different religious traditions can challenge coexistence and toler ance in everyday life.1 Ideology-expressed in discourse and doctrine/ religious meaning, and moral values3-undergirds identity politics. As such, it is import ant to understand the place of religion in the social organization and transform ation of a given society. 4 Above all, discriminatory and stereotyping ideologies behind the categorizing processes of religious affiliations are inherent to any context, whether local, regional, or international.5 Southeast Europe provides a colorful display of the relationship between religion and politics at the level of religious leaders, state actors, intellectual elites, and ordinary people in everyday interactions. Th e importance of native language in religious offices and the pas sion for historical incursions in the everyday life of public discussions-in print media and online networks-shows the intricate interconnectedness of religion and politics. In everyday conversation, people commonly raid history to their own end, convinced that religious movements and political movements have something in common. Historical Incursions in Everyday Life People often repurpose history to legitimate their view of how the world was, is, and should be. Though such forays into history may seem innocent, often their impact on political and everyday life is not. In February 2012, the Vati can organized a world conference to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (O ctober 28, 312) and the legacy of Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity. In October 2013, the Serbian Orthodox Church also organized in Nish, the birthplace of Constantine, an even larger world conference to commemorate the importance of the Edict of Milan, in which Constantine established th e Christian movement as another official reli gion of the Roman Empire. The st ory of Constantine's acceptance of Christianity became important both to the growth of early Christianity and to the growth of Constantine's power, but it also embedded a narrative of providence within a political act that would later serve as a foundation for contemporary claims to the Balkan peoples being foundational to Christendom. Such moves are neither neutral nor unilateral. Ordinary Albanians are quick to remember June 28, 1989, when Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic used the six-hundredth-anniversary commemoration of the Kosovo Battle of 1389 to strengthen his power by exploiting the myth of the battle,6 probably not unlike Constantine did with the myth of his own dream. The narrative of a "M uslim" victory-despite both sides suffering heavy losses-is reinterpreted by Serbian nationalist politics, from the nineteenth century until today, as the emblematic Christian Serbian sacrifice at the hands of Ottoman armies. Gatherings to com memorate this myth served to justify the boundaries of Serbian holdings and any means needed to enforce them. Not surprisingly, they also glorified and sancti fied the ethno-homicidal criminals who best served Serbian identity politics.7 Such celebrations point to the mutually reinforcing-and locally contextualized nature of religion and politics and the ease with which nationalist tropes emerge as ordained and legitimate. Routinely, one hears support for the blending of religion and politics: ordinary Albanians may recall some imam in Prishtina running for president, 8 or some Kosovar politicians may advocate women wear ing Muslim headscarves to gain support among certain voters. 9 Similarly, the Serbian patriarch stated that "K osovo is the sacred land of Serbia" on Albanian national TV, on June 1, 2014, after the inauguration of the Orthodox Cathedral in Tirana, 10 where the Serbian flag was also briefly displayed. ll Many ordinary Albanians characterized this as a "brutal and unscrupulous provocation. "12 The Albanian prime minister was outraged and offended, and at his meeting with the patriarchs and primates of world Christian Orthodoxy, he demonstrably pointed his finger to the Serbian patriarch: "Your colleague abused our hospitality, he derogated our religious celebration day and he changed the evidence of our reli gious coexistence into an outdated political issue."13 Regardless of how outdated such moves may seem, incursions into history hold political clout to the exten t they make the present seem purposeful. Histo ries, however, are not without bias. Serbs can look to the churches and monaster ies built by the Nemanic dynasty to claim a territorial holding/4 just as they look to the Kosovo myth to speak of a Serbian sacrifice.1 5 Similarly, Albanians look to the efforts of the Greek Orthodox Church during the mid-nineteenth century in sq uelching the use of Albanian language as an example of systematic oppres sion. 16 There is an interconnectedness between religion and politics that repre sents both the imagined and the real state of everyday life. Religious Realpolitik On the Easter Saturday 2015 (A pril 11), when Orthodox Christians celebrated the resurrection of Christ in the Cathedral of Tirana, a prominent Albanian politician expressed his regret in the national press because the Greek archbishop of the Albanian Orthodox Church, Anastasios Yanoulatos, officiated not in Albanian but in Greek. 17 Many deacons rose to the archbishop's defense
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, 2005
When religion functions as an emblem of separate communities, such as the nation, the ethnic group, an empire, a civilization, the concept of "neighbour" is usually limited within the boundaries of these small or large communities; the so-called latent functions of religion come into action here (B. Wilson), which turn religion into a tool of community identity and self-affirmation. Actually, every action of the group or individual, carried out in the name of the faith, but with means that contradict the pathos and ethos of the holy books, tends to deeply erode the spirit and public image of religion. In fact such an action, viewed from a perspective internal to religion, cannot be considered religiously motivated at all. In such situations religion is usually reduced to "belonging," to a vivid emblem that signifies the community in its opposition to ethnic, linguistic, psychological otherness, at the expense of "believing," of the faith and its corresponding moral behavior (G. Davie). Thus the religious universality is subordinated to partial group values, instead of transcending and enhancing these values. Processes and trends in Eastern Orthodoxy in the Balkans in our times are directly connected with the difficult and painful "opening" of this region to global changes, to the "West", and to "Europe." In this complex process, marked at times by dramatic shocks for values, by anomie, etc., Eastern Orthodoxy has become a spiritual and institutional haven and channel for valuation and protection of the local identity, of the local ethnos and state, and of the regional civilization and cultural zone. The power and specifics of these trends have varied in the separate Balkan countries: in some of them the Orthodox Church has acted in RELIGION IN EASTERN EUROPE XXV, 4 (November 2005) page 2. collaboration with the political elite (Serbia), in others it has been critical of the pro-European values of that elite (Greece), in others still it has responded to and reflected the party and political division in society (Bulgaria). The causes for reanimation of the "community emblem" role of Eastern Orthodoxy in
2012
SADRŽAJ Predgovor … 5 Sergej Flere Was the Bosnian War (1992-5) a full fledged religious war? … 7 Davor DŽALTO religion, politics and beyond: The Pussy riot case … 25 Martina Topić Deconstruction of the religious narrative: Antemurale christianitatis and the construction of Difference … 47 Darko Đogo mit naš nasušni (ili: o dometima mita i dometima demitologizacije) … 77 Zlatiborka Popov-Momčinović Faith-based aktivizam: novi praktički okvir za promišljanje projekta "demitologizacije" … 95 Nikola Knežević od kosovskog mita do mita o hrišćanskoj naciji: od deprivatizacije do politizacije religije i bellum iustum koncepta u srbiji i SAD … 111 Sergej Beuk konflikt i postkonfliktna teologija: mogućnosti demitologizacije … 139 Goran Golubović sufizam i verska tolerancija … 149 Lejla Mušić ekološki nacionalizam kao projekat rodne i religijske de(kon)strukcije u kulturi sjećanja Balkana … 163 Violeta Cvetkovska Ocokoljić, Željko Đurić, Tatjana Cvetkovski Podsećanje na krstaške ratove iz ugla vizantijskih i arapskih pisaca … 191 Branko Bjelajac o hrišćanskoj građanskoj javnosti … 209 Alma Jeftić Pogled na religijski narativ sa panoptičke distance netrepeljivosti … 229 Enoh Šeba Baptističke crkve u hrvatskoj i njihova reakcija na ratno nasilje promatrana iz perspektive kršćanske socijalne etike … 233 Urednici prof. dr Sergej Flere filozofski fakultet univerziteta u mariboru Was the Bosnian War (1992-5) a full fleDgeD religious War?
Eastern Orthodoxy Today: Diversity of Roles on the Balkan Scene
2007
The close connection and subordination of traditional religions and Churches with/to some contemporary social-political projects, besides being a consequence of secularization, is also one of the dimensions of globalization. P. Beyer expects that two basic trends in the process of inclusion of religion in the global world will be realized, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. The first is related to the privatization of the religious, its transformation into a private matter, an element of the formation of personal identity. The other unfolding tendency is the politicization of religion and the Church, their linkage to collective /national, ethnic/identities. Religion becomes a means, an instrument, and turns into a kind of civic religion. The Church is left with a symbolic authority, while the real authority is shifted to the state /Beyer 1999: 2 1-25/. The secularization paradigm, which was basic in the scientific approach to religion during most of the 20 th century, is undergoing serious revision today, in the time of globalization. Peter Berger considers it not a paradigmatic characteristic, but one of the cultural dimensions of contemporary religion /Berger 2001: 445/. The processes involving decrease of the unifying force of the nation-state, the revival of local forms of identity and sociality /ethnic, religious, cultural communities/, of regional and transnational alliances, have served to animate religious feelings and have redefined the cultural borderlines of religion. Some of the phenomena that demonstrate most convincingly the return of religion to the global public scene are: 1/ the transnational spiritual and institutional "networks" created by traditional religions and Churches, especially the Catholic Church; 2/ the increasing inclusion of religious affiliation among the constituting and unifying symbols of ethnic and cultural communities and identities; 3/ the appearance of religious movements and associations not committed to any religious tradition, any nation or ethnic group, but often representing a kind of synthesis, a bricolage of various religious ideas and practices /Casanova 2001: 425-429/. This specific property of religion to serve as an emblem of transnational unities, as well as its universalistic spiritual dimension, are actively utilized in the formulation of paradigms of the "new world order". Even as large-scale a cultural genre as the philosophy of history has also been resorting to the
Religion as a Source of Peace or Conflict in Balkan Politics: An Assesment
2013
Although scholars converge on the importance of religion in Balkan politics, they disagree on its exact role. Based on the activities of some religious groups in countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, some observers consider religion to have a divisive and centrifugal effect on the Balkan people. Another line of argument, however, states that religious actors can help prevent or mitigate conflicts in the region. Although further research is necessary for conclusive remarks, this study argues that both sides have validating points to their claims. Data from World Values Survey and other available research on the region affirm the general stance that religion constitutes a significant factor in the lives of Balkan people and politics, and cannot be easily dismissed as irrelevant. The importance attributed to religious institutions and leaders also make them likely candidates for promoting peace in the region. Whether religious leaders and institutions have used their full potential to...
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe
2014
For the contemporary Serbian sociology of religion it is evident that the process of desecularization has been present on the social scene of Serbia in the last fifteen years. Sociologists have provided arguments for this claim based on data gathered in Serbia during this period. The religious changes in question have been empirically recorded in all aspects of attachment to religion (mainly Eastern Orthodoxy) and the church (Serbian Orthodox Church), that is, in aspects of religious identification, doctrinal beliefs and religious behavior. Certain political subjects and social scientists feel that social life in Serbia is getting increasingly religious, and that religion and church are exerting influence within social fields they are not supposed to, if Serbia is to become a secular, democratic state. The paper analyzes some major conditions of the clericalization of the Serbian society. To be engaged in scientific research of religion in Serbia nowadays, and especially in empirica...