Church Reckoning with Communism in Post-1989 Romania

Author: Lucian Turcescu, Lavinia Stan, Monica Ciobanu, Csongor Janosi, Lucian Leustean, Cristian Vasile, Vasilica Croitor and Anca ?incan

This collection examines how Romania's religious majority and its most significant religious minority fared under communism. The contributors also analyze the post-communist period and argue that little elite renewal has taken place.

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Summary

Description

The present volume focuses on the relationship with communism of Romania's most important religious denominations and their attempt to cope with that difficult past which continues to cast an important shadow over their present. For the first time ever, this volume considers both the majority Romanian Orthodox Church and significant minority denominations such as the Roman and Greek Catholic Churches, the Reformed Church, the Hungarian Unitarian Church, and the Pentecostal Christian Denomination. It argues that no religious group (except the Greek Catholic Church, which was banned from 1948 until 1989) escaped collaboration with the communists. After 1989, however, most denominations had little desire to tackle their tainted past and make a clean start. In part, this was facilitated by the country's deficient legislation that did not encourage the pursuit of lustration, which in turn did not lead to a serious movement of elite renewal in the religious realm. Instead, a strong process of reproduction of the old elites and their adaptation to democracy has been the dominant characteristic of the post-communist period.

Critic Reviews

[The] book provides a rich theoretical and empirical approach that will appeal to an audience with an interest in religious studies and society in East European countries. The book provides a systematic and detailed framework of the church-state relationship both at a personal and institutional level among the main Christian denominations and groups active in communist and post communist Romania.

-- "Europe-Asia Studies"

About the Author

Lavinia Stan is professor at St. Francis Xavier University.

Lucian Turcescu is professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University.

More on this Book

The present volume focuses on the relationship with Communism of Romania's most important religious denominations and their attempt to cope with that difficult past which continues to cast an important shadow over their present. For the first time ever, this volume considers both the majority Romanian Orthodox Church and significant minority denominations such as the Roman and Greek Catholic Churches, the Reformed Church, the Hungarian Unitarian Church, and the Pentecostal Christian Denomination. It argues that no religious group escaped collaboration with the Communists. After 1989, however, most denominations had little desire to tackle their tainted past and make a clean start. In part, this situation was facilitated by the country's deficient legislation that did not encourage the pursuit of lustration, which in turn did not lead to a serious movement of elite renewal in the religious realm. Instead, a strong process of reproduction of the old elites and their adaptation to democracy has been the dominant characteristic of the post-Communist period.