Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series IVA. Central and Eastern European Philosophical Studies, Volume 48 Series VIII. Christian Philosophical Studies, Volume 7 General Editor George F. McLean Faith and Secularization: A Romanian Narrative Romanian Philosophical Studies, IX Christian Philosophical Studies, VII Edited by Wilhelm Dancă The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2014 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Box 261 Cardinal Station Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Faith and secularation : a Romanian narrative / edited by Wilhelm Danca. pages cm. -- (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series IVA, Central and Eastern European philosophical studies ; Volume 48) (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series VIII, Christian philosophical studies ; Volume 7) (Romanian philosophical studies ; 9) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Romania--Church history--20th century--Congresses. 2. Secularization-- Romania--Congresses. 3. Christianity and culture--Romania--Congresses. 4. Catholic Church--Romania--Congresses. 5. Biserica Ortodoxa Romania-- Congresses. 6. Orthodox Eastern Church--Relations--Catholic Church-- Congresses. 7. Catholic Church--Relations--Orthodox Eastern Church-- Congresses. I. Danca, Wilhelm, 1959-editor of compilation. BR926.3.F35 2014 2014015096 274.98'082--dc23 CIP ISBN 978-1-56518-292-9 (pbk.) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Wilhelm Dancă (University of Bucharest) Part I. Disjunctions between Catholic Church and People within the Romanian Orthodox Context Chapter I: “Wellness” in Religion, a Way of Emptying Churches? 11 Wilhelm Tauwinkl (University of Bucharest) Chapter II: Contradictory Sign of What is Missing: 25 A Narrative of Romanian Postcommunist Religiosity Violeta Barbu (University of Bucharest) Chapter III: Coming Back to Religion. The Imaginary Visit of 49 a French Canadian to Today’s Romania Gabriela Blebea Nicolae (University of Bucharest) Chapter IV: Becoming Secular? Dynamics of Teaching Religion 67 and Ethics in Central and Eastern Europe: A Comparative Study Focusing on Romania Raluca Bigu (University of Bucharest) Part II. “Secularization” and Public Religious Life in Romania Chapter V: Is Nationalism a Form of Secularization for Orthodoxy? 79 Gelu Sabău (University of Bucharest) Chapter VI: Secularization under Communism. Romanian 107 Legislative Measures Marius Silveşan (Theological Baptist Institute of Bucharest) Chapter VII: The Impossible Secularization 139 Mihai Maci (University of Oradea) Epilogue The Priest’s Temptations and the People’s Escape from Church 161 Wilhelm Dancă (University of Bucharest) Index 179 INTRODUCTION WILHELM DANCĂ During November 22-23, 2013, the Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology, University of Bucharest, with the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy from the Catholic University of Washington D.C., organized an International Conference on “Faith in a Secular Age”. Secularization is a complex spiritual, cultural and socio-political phenomenon, constantly expanding in some parts of the world through mass media and globalization. It involves a specific mentality and life style, with virtually no reference to Transcendence. To some, secularization is synonymous with the “death of God” announced by Nietzsche and other modern thinkers. To others, secularism is a banishment of faith, a radicalized freedom, where truth is rendered relative and material wealth praised, while the quality of human interaction is neglected and fundamental human values are degraded. In a secularized context God is no longer referenced in the public discourse of former Christian communities, and the inherited values of the Church’s tradition are no longer important. Many Christians seek and improvise new ways of living, and authentic faith is no longer at hand. Some get scared and some even give up hope. Yet some regard secularization as a providential challenge to be dealt with optimistically and bravely, and seek new ways to bring their faith and scriptural values up to date. Generally speaking, the approximately sixty participants in this conference focused their main attention on the sources of secularization: the political ideologies of the last two centuries, globalization, the Church’s self-secularization following the Second Vatican Council, liberation theology, the philosophy of resentment, etc. But seen from inside, the participants were divided in two parts: one part tried to explore fresh directions in conceptualizing faith as well as in living it in a secularized context, so that faith can cease to be further diluted and can be authentically and integrally experienced; the other part dedicated their contributions to the project “Disjunctions between Church and People”, a project initiated by Charles Taylor, José Casanova and George F. McLean. The authors are eight professors working in different Universities, Churches and Christian communities of Romania. The volume is divided into two parts. The first starts with the presentation of the disjunctions between Church and people within the Roman Catholic Church of 2 Wilhelm Dancă Bucharest. In order to understand this spiritual and ecclesiastical challenge, another three papers introduce us to the Romanian religious context which is dominated by the influence of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The second part continues the discussion already initiated in the first part and shows us what “secularization” could mean within the Romanian religious construct. The volume ends with an epilogue. The author of this final paper tries to say in a personalistic way and according to the phenomenological method that the priest plays an important role regarding the relation between Church and People. Part I. Disjunctions between the Catholic Church and the People in the Romanian Orthodox Context Chapter I, “Wellness” in Religion, a Way of Emptying Churches?, by Wilhelm Tauwinkl, helps us to jump directly into the Roman Catholic Church of Bucharest, and to gain an idea about the level of the disjunctions between Church and People from the local point of view. His contribution is based on interviewing 100 young people aged between 18-30, practicing Roman Catholics in the parishes of Bucharest, who were asked to answer questions regarding the frequency of religious practices, basic religious culture and catechetical knowledge, adhesion to the Church official teaching of faith, ethical views, attitude towards the Church, and the motivation of religious behavior. By analyzing the answers, he concludes that the group of practicing young Catholic people reveals the emerging buds of three types of disjunctions, which will probably manifest themselves in the future, if pastoral work will not succeed to take measures: disjunction between the present-day religious convictions and Tradition, disjunction between the clergy and the faithful, while the disjunction between the Catholics and the rest of the population is only partial and may disappear in time. The break with Tradition is already manifesting itself by the fact that the motivation of young people’s religious behavior is, to a large extent, based on some sort of religious “wellness”: peace of mind, the nice feeling of being “OK”, taking interest in common activities with other young people. All these are good in themselves, but not specifically Christian.A motivation based on “feeling” can disappear any time, for instance, at any moment young people would be able to satisfy the same (spiritual) needs elsewhere than in their Catholic parishes. This could lead to an emptying of churches, wherein only those having strictly religious motivations, such as eternal salvation, will remain. For Wilhelm Tauwinkl, a solution would be to reconnect catechesis and Christian formation to the Tradition of transmitting faith, based on Scripture and its interpretation by the Church Fathers and Doctors. Introduction 3 Chapter II, “Contradictory Sign of What is Missing: A Narrative of Romanian Postcommunist Religiosity”, by Violeta Barbu, starts with an analysis of the high level of religious practice among the Romanian people and the question about the “binding agent” of the present-day Romanian social, political and religious construct. From the outside, this construct seems to correspond to a pattern of post-secularization. Within the horizon of this pattern, the religiosity of Romanian Christian believers is shaped be the tradition and liturgy of the Romanian Orthodox Church, therefore we could speak about it in terms like “ethno-religion” (David Martin), neo-Durkheimian religiosity, “social sacred” (Charles Taylor), or “vicarial religion” (Gracie Davis). From the inside, the Romanian post-secularization phenomenon has numerous advocates and few critics. The advocates differentiate between the level of the public life of the Romanian Orthodox Church as institution and the level of the individual beliefs and behavior. The critics underline that the Orthodox Church in Romania has had in the long run a history of difficult relationships with modernity and is responsible for the tardiness, the delay, the resistance or the passivity shown by Romanian society to modernity. So, the “binding agent” is the Romanian Orthodox Church that has passed unaltered through the transition from communism to democracy. After 1989 there was put into practice a new strategy meant to assure a re-enforcement and a stronger legitimization of the Orthodox Church