The
Balkan was characterized more by religious tolerance than by
religious persecution. It was a model of successful co-habitation
and co-existence even of the bitterest enemies of the most disparate
backgrounds. Only the rise of the modern nation-state exacerbated
long-standing and hitherto dormant tensions. Actually, the modern
state was established on a foundation of artificially fanned
antagonism and xenophobia.
Religions in the Balkan were never monolithic enterprises. Competing
influences, paranoia, xenophobia and adverse circumstances all
conspired to fracture the religious landscape. Thus, for instance,
though officially owing allegiance to the patriarch in
Constantinople and the Orthodox "oikumene", both Serb and Bulgarian
churches collaborated with the rulers of the day against perceived
Byzantine (Greek and Russian) political encroachment in religious
guise. The southern Slav churches rejected both the theology and the
secular teachings of the "Hellenics" and the "Romanians" (Romans).
In turn, the Greek church held the Slav church in disregard and
treated the peasants of Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania to
savage rounds of tax collection. The Orthodox, as have all
religions, berated other confessions and denominations. But
Orthodoxy was always benign - no "jihad", no bloodshed, no forced
conversions and no mass expulsions - perhaps with the exception of
the forcible treatment of the Bogomils.
Pages:
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149