New Europe College Yearbook 2011-2012 DANIEL BRETT ŞTEFANIA COSTACHE ANDREY DEVYATKOV FLORIAN GASSNER SORIN GOG ILYA N. KHARIN HYLARIE OURANIA DELYS KOCHIRAS RICCARDO NANINI BUKOLA ADEYEMI OYENIYI ZSUZSA PLAINER KATALIN PRAJDA AMY SAMUELSON Editor: Irina Vainovski-Mihai Copyright – New Europe College ISSN 1584-0298 New Europe College Str. Plantelor 21 023971 Bucharest Romania www.nec.ro; e-mail:
[email protected] Tel. (+4) 021.307.99.10, Fax (+4) 021. 327.07.74 ILYA N. KHARIN Ph.D. in History, History Department, Princeton University, USA (2011) Thesis: Self-realization of the Japanese Orthodox Church, 1912-1956 Japan Foundation Fellow, Researcher and Teaching Assistant, Osaka University, Japan (2008-2009) Preceptor, courses in modern Japanese and Soviet history, Princeton University, USA (2007-2008) Georgetown Undergraduate Research Assistant, Prof. David Goldfrank’s translation and research project for Nil Sorsky, The Authentic Writings (pub.: Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2008) (2003-2005) Conferences and symposia in US, Japan, and Romania Several articles published in Japan ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY, SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE AND THE JAPANESE CHURCH: THE FIRST CENTURY OF A RELATIONSHIP Introduction The history of the Japanese Orthodox Church’s relationship with Southeastern Europe from 1860’s to 1950’s is both the central subject and the central object of the present inquiry. The details and progression of this relationship offer one of the earliest illustrations of what one might call “globalization-as-catholicity” – the refraction of the modern globalization processes in the framework of Orthodox Christianity. However, perhaps even more importantly, the fact that such a relationship existed at all compels a reexamination of some powerful commonplace stereotypes about the composition, geography and character of the Orthodox Church, as well as about the relations among Japan, Russia and Southeastern Europe.