Between Third and Fourth Dimensions: Sculptural Forms in Eastern Orthodox Christian Church Art

Author(s): Liana Galabova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2020

Sculptural art is one of the least explored traditional expressions of Eastern Orthodox Christian spirituality. Artistic creativity in the field of carving and sculpting is an aesthetic response to particular confessional needs, and a creativity developing along discussions on church canonical and liturgical propriety of three-dimensional forms having in mind their fourth dimension as well. Sculptural church art relies on specific approaches to reflect on reality, express ideas, face religious needs, and therefore depict divine personages and sacred plots. Church blesses many forms of creation of beautiful forms representing piety, portraying saints by imagination from oral or textual descriptions, paintings or photographs, and depicting holiness even by anthropological restoration from relics. Eastern Orthodox Christian church does not fully appreciate the whole aesthetical value and meditational role of sculptured artworks to represent sacred notions as a history and invisible supernatural reality by means of decorations of high semantic quality. Therefore sculpture nowadays is incomparable with practices of other Christian religious traditions that promote artistic beauty and secular stylistics, or abolish visual material images at all. The very architectural design as church art transforms space by visual hierotopy, and the whole liturgical life in its performative scenic aspects implies mysticism represented as well in third and fourth dimensions really and not only symbolically, as cannons require from church art. Sculptural form is traditional part of appropriate temple decoration since Old-Testament times and visual antithesis to creation of idols that had been destroyed by Church through centuries. Nevertheless sculpture would not attain central or dominating role in interior decoration of Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, although its material substance and technology are more sustainable and rich in symbolism. Archaeological excavations and findings prove the aesthetic importance of imported eastern traditions of monumental stone carving and ceramics from early Bulgarian state and ecclesiastical history, and woodcarving is considered a traditional Balkan church art from late medieval period on. Adoption of Western influences in Eastern Orthodox Christian art has contributed to overcoming of aesthetical religious stereotypes by appearance of various local creative practices that reapprove the potential of sculpture as a religious phenomenon.

Kyrillos, the Metropolitan of Belgrade (1825–1827)

Author(s): Nedeljko V. Radosavljević / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2020

The paper elaborates on the administration of Metropolitan Kyrillos in the Belgrade Metropolitanate, which he assumed in 1825. Available sources suggest his Bulgarian origin. The paper contains biographical data about Kyrillos, such as his place and year of birth, his advancement in the structure of the Great Church and his spiritual mission, including the establishment of the exact date and place of his death. A focus is placed on Kyrillos’s versatile activity, visible in his restoration of churches and monasteries, control of the clergy and care about proper performance of rites. Also explained is his good cooperation with Serbian Prince Miloš Obrenović, whom he informed of confidential matters not only of ecclesiastical, but of secular nature as well, including diplomatic and military issues. An emphasis is also put on his illness, which significantly aggravated his work. Despite this, he persevered in carrying out his metropolitan duties until his death in 1827.

ПОЛІТИКА РАДЯНСЬКОЇ ДЕРЖАВИ ІЗ ЗНИЩЕННЯ ПРАВОСЛАВНИХ ХРАМІВ В УКРАЇНІ: МЕХАНІЗМ ТА ДУХОВНО-КУЛЬТУРНІ НАСЛІДКИ (1920-ті – 1965 рр.)

Author(s): Dmytro Valeriyovych Viedienieiev / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 2/2019

The study of the pernicious spiritual-cultural consequences of the targeted destruction (closing) of the orthodox religious buildings as one of the policy direction of the state atheism in Ukrainian SSR, the disclosing of the ideological-political and state-administrative components of the campaign mechanism aimed to liquidate the churches as the valuable component of the historical-cultural heritage. Methodology. The article is based on the historical and logical epistemological approaches, the author uses the complex of the general scientific methods with the methods of historical science, cultural studies and other social-humanitarian sciences. In particular, the structural-functional, historical-genetic, historical-comparative, cliometric, cros-cultural, historical-legal methods are used. The scientific novelty. The author based on the analysis of the documental sources makes an attempt to complex consideration of the main stages (campaigns), regulatory framework and organizing-administrative policy mechanism aimed to destruction of the orthodox spiritual-architects buildings (churches, monasteries and other objects of the national spiritual-cultural heritage) as the structural-functional component of the state atheism, the form of the religious persecution and oppression of conscience freedom in Ukraine. Conclusions. The basis of the communistic relations model with Orthodoxy constituted from the displacement of the church from the all spheres of the social life by the any ways. Sharply negative attitude of the Soviet government to the church remained unchanged during the all USSR existence, however it had the different forms depends on the external and internal state position, political will of its leaders. The state structures activity for the destruction of the churches based on the purposeful ideological solutions of the leading organs of Communist party and headed state organs. Campaigns for the churches destruction, as a rule, correlated with the persecutions of faith, orthodox clergy and laity, coincided with the repression measures against the religious groups in USSR and Ukrainian SSR. The churches destructions or its transfiguration to the civil-households and other buildings not for its purpose in the same time delivered an irreparable blow to the spiritual-cultural heritage, because the religious buildings were the organic component of the domestic history, culture, the basis of the cultural-civilization traditions and one of the main marks of the historical-cultural memory.

Review of Buchenau’s Orthodoxie und Katholizismus in Jugoslawien 1945-1991

Author(s): Sabrina Petra Ramet / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2006

The review of: Orthodoxie und Katholizismus in Jugoslawien 1945-1991. Ein serbisch-kroatischer Vergleich by Klaus Buchenau. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004. pp. 484.

The Devil’s Confessors: Priests, Communists, Spies, and Informers

Author(s): Lavinia Stan,Lucian Turcescu / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2005

The article charts the efforts of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the country’s largest religious denomination, to block the public exposure of the names of priests and prelates who collaborated with the dreaded communist secret political police, the Securitate, by informing on other priests, disclosing information obtained from believers during confession or supporting communist antireligious policies. The article identifies four types of attitudes toward the Securitate of members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, presents the arguments in favor of and against the public exposure of tainted priests, examines the recent revelations regarding the controversial past of Patriarch Teoctist, and investigates the Church’s efforts to impose amendments to the Romanian transitional justice legislation that would exempt priests from being investigated by the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archive.

Review of Roudometof’s Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy

Author(s): Vladimir Solonari / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2003

The review of: Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans by Victor Roudometof. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001. pp. 304 + xvii, maps.

Samostan i crkva sv. Ilije u Grebenu (Krupa na Vrbasu), nekoć franjevački, a sada pravoslavni

Author(s): Velimir Blažević / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 53/2020

Srpski autori, uglavnom iz pravoslavnih crkvenih redova, kada pišu i govore o crkvi sv. Ilije u Krupi na Vrbasu, predstavljaju je, a i manastir uz nju, kao pravoslavne. Crkva i manastir sada to i jesu, svakako od g. 1888./1889., kada je mitropolit Sava Kosanović na tom lokalitetu poduzeo arheološke radove i obnovio, odnosno nanovo podigao porušenu crkvu sv. Ilije. Nije poznato da se prije Kosanovića itko od pravoslavnih autora bavio crkvom sv. Ilije i manastirom u Krupi na Vrbasu, a poslije njega piše se i govori o crkvi sv. Ilije i manastiru u Krupi na Vrbasu kao pravoslavnim. Da su današnji manastir i crkva sv. Ilije u Krupi na Vrbasu pravoslavni, to je neosporno. Ali se postavlja pitanje: Što je bilo ranije, od 13. st. pa na ovamo, o čemu srpski autori ne govore. Ovdje se želim time pozabaviti i, koliko je moguće, temeljem pisanih izvora i arheoloških istraživanja, barem malo to pitanje rasvijetliti.

ASPECTE IDENTITAR RELIGIOASE ÎN REGIUNEA TRANSNISTREANĂ. RETROSPECTIVE ȘI PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Mihai Melintei,Marius Spechea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2020

Religion is part of the category of particularly complex and sensitive issues, all the more so in the context of a conflict in progress, such as the Transnistrian one.Due to its geographical position at the intersection of geopolitical interests, the left side of the Dniester in its historical course has attracted special attention from a religious point of view.But this research aims to draw attention to the concrete potential of religion in the effort of the parties to build trust, going back through the religious history of the region to understand its identity profile and thus open perspectives for the future, in which the religious factor is involved as a partner in the effort to build trust and implicitly to resolve the conflict.

Martin Laird, Sheelah Treflé Hidden (red.), The Practice of the Presence of God. Theology as a Way of Life, New York: Routledge 2017, 136 s. ISBN: 978-1-4724-7832-0

Author(s): Łukasz Libowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 20/2020

The Bulgarian Church Representation in Istanbul after Lifting the Schism in 1945

Author(s): Boryana Buzhashka / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

In 1913, the seat of the Bulgarian Exarchate was re-located to Sofia while the Exarchal Vicegerency remained in Istanbul, unrecognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Turkish authorities, but supported by the Bulgarian government and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC). The conditions for lifting the schism in 1945 and the unsettled status of both the Exarchal Vicegerency and the Bulgarian Church Community in Turkey deprived the Bulgarians of Bulgarian church representation and predetermined their remaining in the diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 1950, the Bulgarians of Turkish citizenship elected a Church Board of Trustees and Managing Board of the Foundation of the Orthodox Church of the Bulgarian Exarchate, already registered in 1936, to manage the church affairs. Since 1953, the Church Board has been recognized as a legal entity with the right to manage the property of the Bulgarian church community. Since 1953 in Istanbul, the Patriarchal Vicegerency with very limited functions has remained in place of the Exarchal Vicegerency. Over the years, the role of the Church Board has been established. It has the right before all authorities in the country to seek and protect the property rights of the Bulgarian churches.

ペルミのステファンと 14 世紀モスクワにおける聖俗両権

Author(s): Itami Soichiro / Language(s): Japanese Issue: 67/2020

The fourteenth century was a significant era, when the Orthodox Church’s power grew in Northeastern Rus’ and its interactions with the state in the Grand Principality of Moscow increased. The mission initiated by Stephen of Perm (c. 1345-1396) to the Komi, Finno-Ugrian inhabitants of the Vychegda Perm region, the eastern part of the Russian North, occupied a distinctive place in the Church’s vibrant activities of this era. Stephen created the Old Permic script, translated Christian texts into the Komi language, and converted the Komi to Christianity—the single case in the long history of the Orthodox Church since the mission of Cyril and Methodius in the ninth century up to today, when the mission among non-Slavic peoples was accompanied by the creation of a new script. In addition, appointed as the first bishop of Perm in 1383, Stephen played an active role in alleviating the conflict between the Grand Principality of Moscow and the Republic of Novgorod. Previous scholarship, however, has not meaningfully captured Stephen’s important political role, primarily addressing the cultural aspects of his activities. This article sheds fresh light on the political implications of his mission to the Komi, detecting its connection with the expansion of the Grand Principality of Moscow and thereby clarifying the relationship between Stephen of Perm, the grand prince of Moscow, and the metropolitan of all Rus’. This helps us reconsider state-church interactions in fourteenth-century Moscow. The close linkage of Stephen’s mission with Moscow notwithstanding, there was a discrepancy between the grand prince of Moscow and the metropolitan of all Rus’. Dmitry Donskoy (r. 1359-1389), the grand prince of Moscow, was a constant supporter of Stephen’s mission to the Komi, together with his intimate clergy including the metropolitan candidate Mikhail Mityay, Bishop Gerasim of Kolomna, and Metropolitan Pimen. Presumably, Dmitry understood that Stephen’s initiative would be useful for the Grand Principality of Moscow’s northward expansion policy in general and its fur trade in particular. Yet no evidence shows that anyone but the pro-Dmitry clergy supported Stephen’s mission; the Metropolitan Alexius and Metropolitan Cyprian might have been unhappy with Stephan’s activities. Thus, it may be safe to argue that Stephan’s mission to the Komi was an enterprise independent of the Russian Orthodox Church and that the Church did not act in concert with the Grand Principality of Moscow. This does not mean that Stephan’s mission to the Vychegda Perm was totally subjugated to Moscow’s will, however. Stephen as bishop of Perm endeavored to preserve the “Komi Orthodox Church” catering to the Komi people. His use of the Komi language and appointment of Komi clerics as well as his involvement in the peace negotiation with Novgorod in 1386 account for the degree of leeway Stephen enjoyed from Moscow. In sum, this article contributes to the clarification of the relationship between Stephen of Perm, the grand prince of Moscow, and the metropolitan of all Rus’ in the following manner. Dmitry’s patronage of Stephen’s mission was an outcome of friendship and mutual interest. Given the grand prince of Moscow’s policy of northward expansion, Stephen’s mission may well have facilitated the later annexation of the Komi region. In addition, Stephen as bishop of Perm played a significant political role in arbitrating in the strife between Moscow and Novgorod over the Russian North. The fact that the Church in unison did not orchestrate Stephen’s mission reveals that such a state-church coordination as evident in later periods did not exist in fourteenth-century Moscow.

Saving the Selves or Saving the Others? Responses to Old Catholicism in Late Imperial Russia

Author(s): Mikhail Suslov / Language(s): English Issue: 41/2020

This paper examines Messianic thought in Russia through political and theological debates on the Old Catholic movement. The Old Catholic Church emerged as a reaction to the first Vatican Council (1870) with the program of reconnecting with the Lutheran, Anglican and Orthodox Churches on the theological foundation, laid out by the Church fathers and Church councils of the first ten centuries of Christianity. The Old Catholic question, which initially appeared as one of purely ecclesiological and perhaps theological interest, was broadly aired and discussed by literally every significant Russian public figure in the 1870s–1900s. Although Old Catholicism per se and its relations with the Russian Orthodox Christianity have not been successful to date, it induced the crystallization of a network of sympathizers in the Russian Empire. For them, Old Catholicism was a means to voice their discontent with the official Church and to shape their alternative visions about Russian Orthodoxy in world history. The Old Catholic movement stirred up religious and geopolitical hopes and initiated important ideological and theological discussions, which revolved around such questions as, what is Russia’s role in the world, and how can religious principles be implemented in everyday life.

Текстовата традиция на старобългарския превод на Слово за Усекновение на Йоан Кръстител (BHG 859)

Author(s): Hristina Davidkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 02/2020

The Homily In decollationem Praecursoris et Baptistae Joannis, et in Herodiadem (BHG 859/CPG 4570), which is often attributed to John Chrysostom, was translated in the early Old Bulgarian period. The present article examines the text-critical tradition of the Old Bulgarian translation based on three copies of the Homily on the Beheading of St. John the Baptist which are preserved in calendar collections. Differencies in text completeness and lexical variants are traced in the three sources. The analysis shows that the Jagicev Zlatoust contains the most individual features and ms Cetinje 50 has the least deviations from the prototranslation. The last mentioned copy shares a lot common variant readings with the Mihanović homiliary, which leads to the idea that they belong to the same branch of the manuscript tradition, although they do not originate from the same prototype.

ОТ СОЛОВКОВ ДО БУТОВО: РУССКАЯ ПРАВОСЛАВНАЯ ЦЕРКОВЬ И ПАМЯТЬ О СОВЕТСКИХ РЕПРЕССИЯХ В ПОСТСОВЕТСКОЙ РОССИИ

Author(s): Veronika Dorman / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2010

30 октября 2007 года, в День памяти жертв политических репрессий, президент Российской Федерации Владимир Путин впервые принял участие в официальной церемонии, организованной в честь памяти жертв советского режима на Бутовском полигоне. А за три месяца до этого на полигон с Соловецких островов по каналам, вырытым руками миллионов зеков, был доставлен монументальный крест.

Правовое и экономическое положение православного духовенства в 1930-е годы на юге Западной Сибири

Author(s): Peter Konstantinovich Dashkovskiy,Natalia Petrovna Zibert / Language(s): Russian Issue: 31/2020

The Resolution “On Religious Associations” and other normative legal acts adopted by the Soviet government during the 1930s were aimed at the gradual destruction of religious life. this paper analyzes methods of work used by the Soviet state to prevent the spread of religious creeds in the West Siberian Territory, which negatively affected the position of the Orthodox clergy. In addition, the attitudes of various segments of the population to changes taking place in spiritual life are discussed. During this period, worshipers were subject to numerous compulsory fees and were involved in various labor duties. At the same time, the elimination of priests as a class was accompanied and complicated by numerous conflicts of priests and parish church councils, as well as with local authorities. A serious problem was the desecration of churches and the frequent theft of church property, which greatly complicated, and often made impossible, the holding of church services. The increase in retail prices in 1931 ravaged the parishioners of many churches and put worshipers in an extremely distressing situation. At the same time, the repression of clergy intensified, during which many were arrested and executed. The reduced number of clergymen threatened the functioning or even existence of many parishes in Western Siberia, and the intensification of persecution of clergy after 1937, along with the active closure of churches, led to the disappearance of the Barnaul diocese, with its territories becoming part of the Novosibirsk diocese by 1940.

Teologiczne wątki maryjne mozaik Centro Aletti w sanktuarium św. Jana Pawła II w Krakowie

Author(s): Lucjan Bartkowiak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The post-conciliar liturgical indications, of which the free-standing altar with the priest celebrating the liturgy „facing the faithful” became a visible sign, freed the presbytery walls of newly built churches from large altar extensions. The situation became a kind of call for the creators of sacred art, providing an opportunity to return to the noble mosaic art, whose monumental works of the first millennium have survived to this day. It is enough to mention the temples of Ravenna, Palermo or Rome itself. Their iconographic programs, rich in form and content, are continued in the large-format, contemporary altar mosaics by Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, in which a refined artistic form intertwines with a well-thought-out theological concept, showing the vitality of tradition at the threshold of the third millennium. The aim of this article is to present the basic Marian theological themes present in the largest complex set of mosaics that has been built in Poland in recent years.

Гласник Удружења архивских радника Републике Српске – Година IV, бр. 4

Author(s): S. Petrović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 3/2012

Câteva documente din fondul mănăstirii Adam, Județul Galați

Author(s): Costin Clit / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2020

The Adam Monastery, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the foundation of Adam the Captain, prior to 1652, located on Apărătura Hill, in the Ghenghei Forest, was the focus of several historical researchws. The fund of Adam monastery, very rich in documents, preserved today in the National Archives of Iași, came under our scrutiny. In the past, the monastery was administratively located in the past in Tutova and Covurlui counties. Today, it is located in Galati county. Previously, it was under the jurisdiction of Husi diocese. In this article, we publish 29 original documents related to the Adam monastery, dating from the period between 1648-1841.

Rival Narratives, Competing Memoirs and the Issue of Canonization of the Martyrs of the Romanian Orthodox Church from the Communist Period

Author(s): George Enache / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The Romanian Orthodox Church has developed in the public space, after 1989, its own narrative about the sufferings endured during the communist regime, highlighting the names of those persons (priests, monks or laypersons) who were detained in the communist prisons as martyrs of faith. Through this discourse, the church wanted to answer those who accused it of collaborating with the communist regime but, at the same time, to recover a memory of the suffering that most of the population was not aware of.Thirty years after the fall of communism, although there have been monuments built and many books have been written about the crimes of Communism, the Church has not officially proclaimed any victim of the communist regime, dead for faith, as a saint of the Orthodox church. This raises perplexity among believers and polemics in public space because, from a symbolic point of view, the act of canonization is, for a believer, the supreme act of consecrating the person's worthiness. The dilemma is the following: is the refusal of canonization an acceptance of the fact that the Romanian Orthodox Church did not have worthy priests during the communist period or has the church hierarchy been prevented from doing so? In this study, we will try to show what lies behind this impasse of religious consecration, but also of memory management.

PAMIĘĆ I (NIE)PAMIĘĆ: O BURZENIU CERKWI PRAWOSŁAWNYCH NA CHEŁMSZCZYŹNIE I POŁUDNIOWYM PODLASIU W 1938 ROKU

Author(s): Anna Moroz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 70/2021

In the article, I will present the history of the destruction of Orthodox churches in the Chelm region and southern Podlasie in Poland in 1938. This incident is an important element in the process of symbolizing the existence of the Orthodox Church in Poland, which is why the memory of trauma is a feature of the memory of Orthodox people. This incident does not actually exist in the public discourse, it is unknown, and what is more, it does not fit the common Polish perception of the Second Polish Republic. The trauma of this incident in the Orthodox community is part of the post-memory discourse, which means that the next generations also experience trauma.