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A Perspective on National Identity and Ethnicity in the Orthodox Church
Written by Fr. Vladimir Vranić Monday, 05 December 2022 23:08
Nation and Ethnos (Ethnicity), as we perceive them today, have become two sociological phenomena since the second half of the XVIII century, particularly after the French Revolution. However, in Church circles, and even more outside of them, one can hear criticisms at the Church’s expense in the sense that she, in present days, "fell under the influence" of these two phenomena, and is in "imminent danger" to fully embrace them. Nevertheless, these criticisms bear little value in the tradition and history of the Church. Referring to the time long before the emergence of the postmodern understanding of nation and ethnicity, these concepts were seen as natural, and as such an integral part of the social order. This paper aims to show that the concepts of nations and ethnos have always been known to the Church, and that the Church has incorporated them into official names and titles for more accurate and precise administrative determinants. Ultimately, it aims to show that the danger of postmodernism is not, so much, in pursuit of artificial and impalpable goals, but in twisting the meaning of the natural and pure concepts such as nation and ethnos.
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