CONSTANTIN SCHIFIRNEŢ ORTHODOXY, CHURCH, STATE, AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF TENDENTIAL MODERNITY Constantin Schifirneţ National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Department of Communication and Public Relations, Bucharest, Romania. Email:
[email protected] Abstract: The article analyzes the interaction of Orthodoxy and the state and its role in asserting national identity in the context of Romania’s modernization process. I have developed the concept of tendential modernity for studying the distinctive nature of Romanian modernity Modernity in Romania focused primarily on national and geostrategic problems, due to the absence of a state encompassing all Romanians. The Orthodox Church had been recognized as a symbol of national identity, therefore it was included among the basic institutions that would support the national project, in order to serve the new purposes imposed by modernity. In the context of the modernization process undergone by Romanian society, the church is not separated from the state, but becomes a church of the state, a church whose prerogatives are established by the secular power; thus the church is defined as an institution that is embedded in the process of modern change decided by the state. As a matter of fact, modernity itself was ambivalent and ambiguous, which influenced decisively the role of Orthodoxy in the assertion of Romanian identity. Key Words: church, national identity, orthodoxy, religion, state, tendential modernity Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, vol. 12, issue 34 (Spring 2013): 173-208 ISSN: 1583-0039 © SACRI Constantin Schifirneţ Orthodoxy, Church, State, and National Identity Introduction This article analyzes the relationship between religion and modernity in a society that underwent a type of modernization process which is different from the one experienced in the developed societies1.