Religion et politique dans les Balkans. Les enjeux contemporains
Religion and Politics in the Balkans: A Contemporary Dispute

Summary/Abstract: The article begins with a note on the rebirth of all the religious groups in the wider Balkans after the fall of communism, revisiting their social and politi­cal traditions, often inherited from the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, to participate in the construction of a new type of civil society and guarantee the democratic transitions. Here, religion is "symphonically" linked with the national issue, a conclusion that forbids any separation between the spiritu­al and temporal dimension. The author reviews three crucial layers: the recent heritage of the totalitarian regimes, the orthodox and Byzantine traditions, and the influence of nationalisms, enduring well beyond the 19th century. Nevertheless, the author warns against any account of a causal relationship between religious traditions and political behavior, as both are genetically inter­ twined. He provides an explanation of the predominantly auto-cephalous structures, as well as of the difficult history of minorities in the region, in a political ecclesiology that favors ethnophiletism, hindering the laicization of contemporary society and denying due respect to the different cultures and religions

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