ABSTRACT Dynamic Civil Religion and Religious Nationalism: The Roman Catholic Church in Poland and the Orthodox Church in Romania, 1990-2010 Mihai Iustin Tarţa, Ph.D. Mentor: Daniel P. Payne, Ph.D. This dissertation addresses the association of national identity and religious tradition of the Polish Roman Catholic Church (PRCC) in Poland and the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Romania, and analyses the evolution and the contemporary significance of sacralized politics. This study relies on a historical comparative study of two most similar cases and it tracks the evolution and analyses the discourse of the PRCC and ROC, the state’s discourse, and the presence of religious symbols in state institutions. Using an interdisciplinary comparative method, this study is about the civil religious attitude of the two ecclesiastical institutions in relation to the nation-state and national identity in the post-communist period (1990-2012). It looks specifically at the relevance of religion in connection to nationalism, the official and unofficial discourse of the two ecclesiastical institutions, at politician’s discourse, and lay intellectuals’ discourse. The sacralization of politics concept best explains the gap between the high religiosity professed by Poles and Romanians and the low participation in religious life and pertains to the salience of civil religion in the detriment of “traditional” religion. Therefore, this dissertation asks what is the relation between religion and politics concerning the fusion of sacred ecclesiastical identity and national identity in Poland and Romania. The molding of religion and politics in the sociopolitical and historical context of the nation- state describes a dynamic phenomenon where the nation becomes sacred and the sacred becomes nationalized. It demonstrates that the molding of nationalism and religion materialized in civil religion, political religion and religious nationalism and it indicates a historical debate regarding the proper place of religion in public. In both countries, there was competition and shifts between banal civil religion and more assertive forms like political religion and religious nationalism. Poland and Romania first expressed their national identity by using a civil religious discourse with religious nationalist accents, than this discourse partially shifted towards political religion under the authoritarian Communist regimes and it reemerged as a banal civil religion after 1989. Dynamic Civil Religion and Religious Nationalism: The Roman Catholic Church in Poland and The Orthodox Church In Romania, 1990-2010 by Mihai Iustin Tarţa, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation Approved by the Institute of Church-State Studies ___________________________________ Robyn L. Driskell, Ph.D., Interim Director Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ Daniel P. Payne, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ William A. Mitchell, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Charles A. McDaniel, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Peter L. Berger, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Robyn L. Driskell, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School August 2012 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2012 by Mihai IustinTarţa All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ............................................................................................1 Review of the Literature ................................................................................................4 Methodology and Organization of the Dissertation .....................................................26 CHAPTER TWO: Historical Evolution of Nationalism in Poland and Romania .............38 The Evolution of Polish Nationalism ...........................................................................40 The Evolution of Romanian Nationalism ....................................................................63 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................86 CHAPTER THREE: National Survival, Saints and Christian Heroes ..............................88 National Myths and Polish Messianism .......................................................................91 Romanian Myths and National Heroes .....................................................................108 Conclusion .................................................................................................................132 CHAPTER FOUR: Public Life and National Churches after 1989 .................................134 The Polish Catholic Church and Democracy .............................................................136 The Romanian Orthodox Church and Democracy .....................................................157 Conclusion .................................................................................................................177 CHAPTER FIVE: Civil Religion and Religious Nationalism 1990-2010 ......................179 Civil Religion in Museums and Schools in Poland ...................................................182 Civil Religion in Museums and Schools in Romania ...............................................195 Conclusion .................................................................................................................213 CHAPTER SIX: Religious Nationalism, Xenophobia and Chosen Nations ...................215 Religious Nationalism in Poland ...............................................................................217 Religious Nationalism in Romania ............................................................................232 Conclusion .................................................................................................................245 CHAPTER SEVEN: Conclusion .....................................................................................248 Summary of findings..................................................................................................248 Directions for Future Research ..................................................................................252 Reflections on Civil Religion and Religious Nationalism .........................................254 BIBLIOGRAPHY: ..........................................................................................................259 iv CHAPTER ONE Introduction This dissertation addresses the association of national identity and religious tradition in two countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), specifically the Polish Roman Catholic Church (PRCC) in Poland and the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Romania and analyses the rise and the contemporary significance of sacralized politics. The identity quest might vary in form, substance and intensity1 and scholars have wondered if the richness of the category of religion and the protean shapes of nationalism are enough to mold new hybrids of religious-national identities. The molding of religion and politics in the sociopolitical and historical context of the nation-state describes a dynamic phenomenon where the nation becomes sacred and the sacred becomes nationalized. Therefore this dissertation asks what is the relation between religion and politics concerning the fusion of sacred ecclesiastical identity and national identity in Poland and Romania. It looks specifically at the relevance of religion in connection to nationalism, it analyses the occurrence of those events where religious tradition and national identity fuse, and finally looks at the attitude of the two ecclesiastical institutions in relation to the nation-state in the post-communist period (1990-2012). The main finding is that in the two ecclesiastical institutions religion matters more as carrier of national goals and identities rather than carrier of piety. Therefore, national identity and religious identity combine in various ways. This study attempts to demonstrate that this 1 Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?: the Challenges to America's National Identity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 13. 1 molding of religious-national identity was achieved in two ways: one is through the creation and preservation of an omnipresent civil religion and the other way is the creation and maintenance of two versions of civil religion that are more assertive: political religion and religious nationalism. Nation-states’ existence show the pervasiveness of nationalism, and in degrees, on an imaginary nationalistic scale, there is a difference in tension between civil and political religion, and in addition there is a quantitative difference between banal-inward civil religion and assertive-outward religious nationalism. Civil-religion seems to be employed in times of distress, or moments of high intensity of nationalism, and political religion seems employed as a totalizing dogma for an indefinite time horizon, or for as long as some interested actors uphold its power. Compared to religious nationalism, civil religion is a form of banal nationalism that contrasts with the explicit and potentially destructive religious nationalism. This study argues that Poland and Romania have come to express their national identity by using a civil religious discourse based on their religious traditions and majority religion, and it describes