Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania: The Limits of Orthodoxy and Nation-Building

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The Romanian Orthodox Church expanded significantly after the First World War, yet Protestant Repenter and schismatic Orthodox movements such as Old Calendarism also grew exponentially during this period, terrifying church leaders who responded by sending missionary priests into the villages to combat sectarianism. Several lay renewal movements such as the Lord's Army and the Stork's Nest also appeared within the Orthodox Church, implicating large numbers of peasants and workers in tight-knit religious communities operating at the margins of Eastern Orthodoxy. Bringing the history of the Orthodox Church into dialogue with sectarianism, heresy, grassroots religious organization and nation-building, Roland Clark explores how competing religious groups in interwar Romania responded to and emerged out of similar catalysts, including rising literacy rates, new religious practices and a newly empowered laity inspired by universal male suffrage and a growing civil society who took control of community organizing. He also analyses how Orthodox leaders used nationalism to attack sectarians as 'un-Romanian', whilst these groups remained indifferent to the claims the nation made on their souls. Situated at the intersection of transnational history, religious history and the history of reading, Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania challenges us to rethink the one-sided narratives about modernity and religious conflict in interwar Eastern Europe. The ebook editions are available under a CC BY-NC 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the University of Liverpool.

Reviews

Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania is a welcome foray into the religious history of this important era. Clark has produced an original work that takes a fresh approach, one that combines several histories that are usually told separately and challenges assumptions about the religiosity of interwar Romania ... Anyone with an interest in the history of religion in modern Eastern Europe will find this an important work to study. * H-Net Reviews: Humanities & Social Sciences Online *
Roland Clarks comprehensive historical study of the 1920s religious Romania is a welcome contribution to the field ... Clarks study offers a well researched, integrated and balanced presentation of inter-war 1920s religious situation in Romania that is much needed. * Jurnal teologic *
Roland Clarks book represents a precious historiographical piece for those who really want to understand in depth the complexity of inter-war Romania and the obstacles that stood in the way of a real and deep modernization of the State and society in the most dynamic reality of South-Eastern Europe. * European Review of History *
Based on a prodigious array of primary and secondary sources and underpinned by a sophisticated theoretical framework, Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania should become mandatory reading for history and religious studies scholars alike. * Church History *
Roland Clarks Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania provides a synthesis of the complex process of negotiation among leaders and innovators inside the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC). * Canadian Slavonic Papers *
Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania successfully introduces and systematizes a period about which not much has been written until now in the English-language scholarship. It is highly recommended for use by scholars of religion, historians and specialists in East European studies. Undergraduate and graduate students will appreciate it too. * Slavonic & East European Review *
Roland Clark has written an extremely thought-provoking book that opens up significant new perspectives on the relationship between Orthodoxy, religious otherness and the state in interwar Romania. Competing ideas of Orthodox renewal, social progress and national salvation, all in the shadow of the phantom threat posed by foreign Repenter sects, are methodically elucidated in this comprehensive study. Drawing on a unique set of archival and contemporary periodical sources that take us into the world of grassroots religious activists, missionaries, dissenters and renewal movements as well as the debates of bishops, theologians and politicians, this book will serve as a trusted guide to the complex world of religious sensibilities and identities, competition and contestation in Romania. This book is a must for all those seeking to understand the dynamics of religious and cultural exchange between East and West in twentieth century Romania and Orthodox Eastern Europe more broadly. * James A. Kapal, University College Cork, author of Inochentism and Orthodox Christianity: Religious Dissent in the Russian and Romanian Borderlands. *
Roland Clarks study represents a path-breaking analysis of the role played by organized religious faiths in developing an articulated nationalism in 1920s Romania. The author displays a sophisticated use of primary and secondary sources to construct a cogent conceptual framework that invites the reader to reconsider narratives about modernity by also highlighting the significance of universal male suffrage and the growth of civil society. As such, this book offers essential reading for all students of interwar Central and Eastern Europe. * Dennis Deletant, Emeritus Professor of Romanian Studies, University College London, UK *
Painstakingly documented and elegantly written, Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania: The Limits of Orthodoxy and Nation-Building presents an intricate palimpsest of discussions, publications and initiatives that ultimately linked Orthodoxy to nationalism in the young Romanian modern state. * Balkanistica *

Author Bio

Roland Clark is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is the author of Holy Legionary Youth: Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania (2015).