Identitate națională și ecclesială

Abstract

After many decades in which the idea of a nation-state seemed to be proven wrong or, in the best case, vague, it is now being reassessed by a wave of right-wing populism. Many of its sympathizers may regard themselves as Christians. The Church has to take a position on this. She faces a latent question today, in view of the national cultures the Church herself helped to engender: Isn’t it the case that even the concept of a national culture contradicts Christianity’s universalist claims? If it is, than as local Churches have now matured, the further question seems to arise if it is – or if it should be – possible to drop out, repulse or refute those cultural goods that are stained by “national character”. The present analysis will argue that the national does not run against the universal, that “nationalism” still possess another equally legitimate sense, besides the one of the ideology, and that this more or less lost sense was not condemned by the Holy Synod from 1872. Finally, it will be shown why even Christ endorsed the nation as a form of communion.