Religious Icons in Romanian Schools: Text and Context
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Public discourse on religious matters is a sensitive issue in Romania. It has raised heated debates for at least two reasons: on the one hand, the repressive policy of the Communist regime concerning religion created a strong boomerang-effect, a religious renaissance after 1989; on the other hand, there is a deep cleavage between the “two Romanias: ” the urban and the rural, the modernized and the traditionalist, the liberal and the conservative. Religion still serves as a major cultural marker of national identity, and the church is one of the most trusted institutions in Romania. We are exploring the hypothesis that the 2006-2007 religious icon scandal in Romania is a typical example of heated public debate in a transitional society. Factual background: the main events that stirred the debate on religious icons On June 11, 2008, the Romanian Supreme Court’s decision concerning the right to display religious symbols in schools across Romania put an end to the legal side of a heated public debate. The dispute was sparked by a parent’s protest letter in August 2006 against the practice of displaying religious icons in his daughter’s school, and reached its peak between November 2006 and January 2007. Our empirical analysis is focused on this time frame. In December 2006, the Romanian media was bombarded by headlines such as: “The war of icons”1, “The scandal of icons exiled from schools”2, “The trial of icons – part of a plan to destroy faith”3, “The renaissance of iconoclasm, the first step to the pursuit of Christianity in Romania”4. A web page was also created: “Save children’s icons- against the discrimination of the majority”5. The topic was mainstreamed by the Romanian media during
Authors: Gisela Horvath, Rozália Klára Bakó
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1771217435