Shaping the Romanian Identity. the Nationalist Discourse of the Orthodox Romanian Church

In a Europe increasingly secularized, Romanians trust the church is high and growing. According to the World Values Survey 1999-2000, 47.9% of the Romanian has high trust in this institution while only 2.7% is the opposite. Also, except Malta, the highest percentage of Europeans who believe that religion is very important in life is recorded in Romania (51.3%). We can say that we are witnessing, in the XXI century’s Romania, a true revenge of God (La revanche de Dieu, Gilles Kepel apud  Samuel Huntington).

Analyzing the academic literature (Bryan Wilson, 1998, Steve Bruce,2002, Rob Warner, 2010,Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart 2011,etc.) one can note the following explanatory factors of this phenomenon: the degree of modernization and economic development, human security and the feeling of vulnerability to risks, political repression during the communist and nationalist discourse of the Orthodox Church.

The purpose of this paper is to identify –in a longitudinal and transversal discourse analysis – the proximity between Orthodox Church and national ideas. We will try to prove that in Romania, as well as in other Eastern European countries, religious nationalism was a constant, regardless of the political regime. We illustrate the previous statement with a quote from Dumitru Stăniloae, one of the most respected theologians in Romania: Romanian nation is biological-spiritual synthesis Dacian elements, Latin and Orthodox Christian (...) Orthodoxy is an essential and vital function Romanian spirit. Our national ideal can be conceived only in relation to orthodoxy.