Les pratiques identitaires de l’Eglise orthodoxe Roumaine dans le postcommunisme: carnet de route

Abstract

Identity is not just about how we understand ourselves as opposed to the others. It is also about how we act. This article investigates the practices related to the reconstruction of the public identity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. After a brief incursion in the communist past, the first under scrutiny are institutional practices, from administrative nominations to formal and informal structures of authority and to structural change. It is followed by an analysis of the progressive reassessment of the Orthodox presence in state institutions (with a particular emphasis on the educational system) and in the political sphere. The final part of the study is devoted to the means of communication employed by the Church to transmit its message and to reclaim a strong position in the agora . As the article is merely a sketch of the practical application of a "return in the public" sphere of the Orthodox Church, the floor open for discussion.