Boldea, Iulian, and Cornel Sigmirean (2018 eds.), Confession, Culture, Nation. A Historical Perspective / Confesiune, cultură, națiune. Perspectivă istorică. Cluj-Napoca: Argonaut Publishing, 2018. ISBN 978-973-109-818-0. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16789086

Boldea, Iulian, and Cornel Sigmirean,(2018 eds.)Confession, Culture, Nation. A Historical Perspective / Confesiune, cultură, națiune. Perspectivă istorică. Cluj-Napoca: Argonaut Publishing, 2018. ISBN 978-973-109-818-0.

Title: Confession, Culture, Nation. A Historical Perspective / Confesiune, cultură, națiune. Perspectivă istorică

Authors/Editors:

• Boldea, Iulian (Editor)

• Sigmirean, Cornel (Editor)

Publication date: 2018

Publisher: Argonaut Publishing

Place of publication: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

ISBN: 978-973-109-818-0

Language: English, Romanian

Keywords:
Confession, Culture, Nation, Historical Perspective, Romanian history, national identity, religious identity, political history, 1918 Great Union, Transylvania, intercultural studies

Abstract:
This collective scholarly volume, edited by Iulian Boldea and Cornel Sigmirean, offers a historical analysis of the intertwined relationship between confession, culture, and nation in the Romanian and Central-Eastern European context. Bringing together leading historians and scholars, the work addresses key themes such as religious identity in historiography, symbolic geographies, the role of political and cultural associations in national movements, the unification processes of 1918, interwar state–church relations, traditionalism, and the impact of communism on religious life. Special emphasis is placed on the interplay between national and confessional identities, and on how these dynamics shaped Romania’s cultural and political evolution during the 19th and 20th centuries. The volume is a valuable resource for academics, historians, and students interested in national identity formation, church history, and the socio-political transformations of Eastern Europe.

Related identifiers:

• ISBN: 978-973-109-818-0

List of Abstracts

Speech on Identity within the Greek-Catholic Historiography: Denomination and Nation
Narcis Martiniuc
The hereby study entitled “Greek-Catholic historiography” presents several Greek-Catholic historians who passed over their confessional vision in their scientific research. Thus, the study treats the opinion of these specialists and their ideas related to the following terms: “denomination” and “nation.”
We began reviewing what “Greek-Catholic historiography” stands for in the present. Afterwards, a particular case has been depicted: the way in which the theologian and historian Basiliu Rațiu observed the two above-mentioned aspects in his paper Church History – issued at Blaj in 1854 – compared with the 18th-century Greek-Catholic intellectuals’ view on “the first identity speech.” We passed over the “identity crises”: the Transylvanian School. The last part of the study consists of a short analysis of the mechanisms through which Romanian modern society was accomplished in the 18th–19th centuries.
Keywords: denomination, nation, Greek-Catholic Church, historiography, theology, modernism.

Constantinopole (Tsarigrad) in Romanian Folk Symbolic Geography
Mihaela Grancea
This essay¹ takes its substance from Romanian folk ballads, literary creations that keep alive rural traditions and mentalities. It reveals the way in which folk epic poetry events are transfigured into representative images, and all events progress by assuming different forms in accordance with collective aspirations, conforming to a mythic-historic framework. The revealed result is that immediate facts lose their former identity, acquiring new dimensions, and inherited images, perpetuated by ballad narratives, become clichés, influencing and determining collective memory, reality’s perception, and its projection. As our analysis shows, the Tsarigrad image in Romanian folk ballads is a key for understanding the transfiguration process of the actual historical fact into typical mental constructions of popular imagery.
¹This article is a development of a previously published article: Mihaela Grancea, “Tsarigrad in the Romanian Folk Imaginary,” in Studii şi comunicări de etnologie (Ethnology Surveys and Presentations), tome XII, Sibiu–Bucharest, 1998, pp. 75–78.
Keywords: Tsarigrad, Romanian folk imaginary, rural tradition, collective memory, folk culture.

Sensibilities of Romanticism and National History
Iulian Boldea
The author discusses Mihai Eminescu’s poetry, and the dimension of time, which accepts new coordinates through poetry, dream, and Eros. The physical time is transfigured through poetry, love, and dream—palliatives which render the time of succession and necessity into a time free of alienating constraints, unbound to the ephemeral and to the lapse. Thinking through myths and critical thinking are the two important dimensions of Mihai Eminescu’s poetry. Mythical, sacred time is in the past—in a mythical past or in a fabulous-historical one (of the natural state, in which skeptical, critical thinking did not intervene to create a state of crisis)—while the present is perceived by the poet as a devalued time, degraded, without positive significance in ontological order. This means denial of the past, irregularity, and rupture.
Keywords: poetry, history, critical thinking, time, dream.

The Nation’s Construction in Literature. From the Cultural Model of 1848 to the Junimist Model
Iulian Boldea
The 19th century is defined in Europe as “the Century of Nations,” thanks to the process of forming national states. Modern nations are an ideological and cultural construction with material and symbolic implications. The nation assumes a language accepted as such (national), known and spoken by all, a legitimate history of continuity with the forerunners, exemplary heroes illustrating and assuming the qualities of a nation, folklore in close correlation with cult literature, and picturesque landscapes eloquent for the spirit of the nation, illustrated as such in literature. Romanian pașoptism, having as its core the 1848 revolution, represents a period of beginnings and a period of consequences, this period being defined between 1830 and 1860. As political and cultural movements, pașoptismul and junimismul had a defining contribution to the process of modernizing Romanian society.
Keywords: nations, literature, construction, culture, model.

Alexandru Marghiloman and the Unification of Bessarabia with the Motherland Romania
Gheorghe Cojocaru
This study is dedicated to the political context in which the unification of Bessarabia with Romania took place and the role that the then prime minister Alexandru Marghiloman had in this decision. The return to the motherland after 106 years is linked with Alexandru Marghiloman’s name, which has the right to a place of honor in the pantheon of the creators of the Great Union and remains in history as the Romanian statesman who brought Bessarabia home.
Keywords: Bessarabia, political union, Greater Romania, Alexandru Marghiloman, political elite, international context.

The Role of the “Society for Romanian Culture and Literature in Bucovina” and its Members in the Promotion of National Culture and the Achievement of the Great Union of Romania in 1918
Maria Costea
This strong Romanian civil society organisation had in Bucovina a vocation similar to Astra’s vocation in Transylvania. During the period of Austrian administration (until 1918), the “Society for Romanian Culture and Literature in Bucovina” (1862–1944) was, together with the church and the school, a prestigious institution, which made a decisive contribution to the development of national culture, of the Romanian civic spirit, of national conscience and identity, and even of the national political movement, which contributed to the Union of Bucovina with Romania in 1918.
Keywords: Bukovina, culture, nation, national solidarity, political union.

The Unification of Bukovina and the Romanian Kingdom in the Autumn of 1918
Constantin Ungureanu
On October 27, 1918, a gathering of Bukovinian Romanian representatives took place in Czernowitz that proclaimed itself a national assembly. This gathering decided the unification of the whole Bukovina with the other Romanian provinces in an independent national state and the fulfillment of this dream together with Romanians from Transylvania and Hungary. On the same day, 50 members of the National Romanian Council were elected and an executive committee was created, whose president was Iancu Flondor. On November 11, 1918, the Romanian Army entered Czernowitz and in the next days took over the whole province. In the meeting of the National Romanian Council on November 12, 1918, a provisional constitution was voted. The same day, the Bukovinian government was created, headed by Iancu Flondor (president). On November 25, 50 new members were co-opted into the National Romanian Council, including 12 Bukovinian refugees. On November 28, 1918, the General Congress of Bukovina gathered, deciding the unconditional and eternal unification of Bukovina in its old borders. After a year of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference, the unification of Bukovina and Romania was finally recognized.
Keywords: Bukovina, political leaders, the role of Romania, the attitude of national minorities.

1918: Aspirations and National Endorsements
Cornel Sigmirean
The 1918 Union represented the triumph of the principle of nationality. This moment must not be perceived from a teleological perspective, as if inscribed in a centuries-long history. The act of union was the result of a complex of favorable factors, as well as of assuming certain risks by political leaders, provided that the historical evaluation of the union does not diminish the importance of December 1, 1918. It was the achievement of Romanian political elites, both in the Romanian Kingdom and in Transylvania, determined to realize the great national ideal during World War I.
Keywords: the Great War, the unification of the Romanians, the principle of nationality, Romanian political elites.

Managing Multiconfessionalism: Church and State in the Interwar Period. The Case of the Reghin Area
Maria Tătar-Dan
The present paper is a case study of the relations between the state, church, and society in the Reghin area during the interwar period. It is well known that for the Romanians living in Transylvania, the church was, throughout the 19th century, a powerful institution playing an important role in the national movement. But what happened after the national issue disappeared and Transylvania became part of Greater Romania? To what extent was the church still invited to play a part in the public life of Romanians, and how did the relations between church, state, and society evolve? These are the main questions addressed in this study.
Keywords: Church, society, multiconfessionalism, interwar period, Reghin.

Religious ‘Traditionalism’? The Origins of the Interwar ‘Traditionalist’ Circle
Ionuț Biliuță
The present paper surveys the intellectual origins of religious traditionalism in interwar Romania, including the Transylvanian contribution to traditionalist developments in Greater Romania. By highlighting the contributions of Aurel C. Popovici, Nicolae Iorga, and the religious revival of the young generation, I argue that the rediscovery of religion had both intellectual and spiritual dimensions. According to this perspective, Orthodoxy, as an ontological category, became one of the pivotal factors of national specificity.
Keywords: post-1918 Romanian nationalism, traditionalism, institutional modernization, liberalism, Orthodox Church.

National and Denominational Identity in the Philosophical Work of Lucian Blaga
Eugeniu Nistor
In some of his works (Gândirea românească în Transilvania în secolul al XVIII-lea) and later articles (“Patrie şi Înviere,” “Şcoala Ardeleană latinistă,” etc.), Lucian Blaga offered clear explanations regarding the relationship between nation and denomination. In Spaţiul mioritic, he analyzes in detail the commonalities and differences between the two. By comparatively examining “nations” and religious denominations, the author provides a case study identifying numerous differences between the three main religious denominations in Transylvania (Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox).
While the commonalities are linked to Christian bipolarity (orientation towards transcendence and immanence), disparities are perceived “from a cultural angle” and relate to the manifestations of religious typologies, perceptions of the nation, linguistic forms, and human typologies. The analysis also emphasizes the unfolding of rituals and the perspectives through which each denomination perceives the possibilities of salvation.
Keywords: Josephinian Enlightenment, Inochentie Clain, the Transylvanian School, Christian bipolarities, views about the nation.

Communism and the Church: The Presence of the Church in Official State Propaganda During the 1950s and 1960s
Corina Hațegan
This article takes as its starting point the debate concerning the official discourse of the Romanian Orthodox Church during the 1950s and 1960s, regarding peace advocacy, understanding between states, respect for state authorities, and the ways in which church discourse overlapped with state propaganda. In order to carry out this study, we used articles from theology journals such as Ortodoxia, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, Mitropolia Ardealului, as well as specialized studies that highlight the common points between church discourse and political propaganda, and the ways in which the Romanian Orthodox Church managed to integrate national programs and its position towards the declared atheist government into its speeches.
Keywords: Romanian Orthodox Church, propaganda, communism, official discourse, theology journals.

The Greek-Catholic Bishop Ioan Ploscaru and His Correspondents in the Secret Police Files
Anca Șincan
This article examines the correspondence between the Greek-Catholic Bishop Ioan Ploscaru and the Greek-Catholic Cardinal Iuliu Hossu before the latter’s death. The letters, intercepted by the Secret Police, offer valuable insights into how members of the Greek-Catholic higher clergy prepared for this moment and urged the Cardinal to leave nothing to chance. The correspondence also reveals Ioan Ploscaru’s political thinking, emphasizing his belief that martyrdom was essential for preserving the church during the communist period.
Keywords: Greek-Catholic Church, secret police, correspondence, martyrdom, communism.