The book authored by Dr. Roland Clark (University of Liverpool) describes the adventures of Romanian Orthodoxy and its relationship with various dissenting groups, within or outside, in the first decade after the unification of the Romanian state. The book aims to map the development of the Romanian Orthodox Church shortly after 1918 and the reaction of the Orthodox clergy to factionalism within through theological and missionary renewal but also the main characteristics of the emergent new evangelical groups inside the Orthodox fold (the Lord's Army and the Stork's Nest).
Accordingly, the author shapes his book into three parts. The first, entitled “A Modern, National Church” and subdivided into three chapters, discusses the new challenges addressed to Romanian Orthodoxy by the emerging problems and the rise of the new evangelical groups. The first chapter, “Romanian Orthodoxy,” provides an overview of the prominent trends that characterized the development of missionary and catechetical practices after 1918. New approaches in missionary studies implemented by Archimandrite Iuliu Scriban (1878–1949) provided the much-needed theological justification for defending Orthodox faith from the sectarian challenge. “Renewal” discusses the integration of Western ideas by Bishop Vartolomeu Stănescu (1875–1954) in “social Christianity.” It also addresses the turbulent relationship of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) with the local Federația Asociației Studenților Creștini din Romania. While “social Christianity” remained a marginal intellectual project within the framework of the Orthodox Church, the YMCA received much more attention and eventual contestation from intellectuals such as Mircea Vulcănescu (1904–1952). The steady growth in numbers of the Repenters in interwar Romania caught the eyes of the student organizations such as UNSCR (Uniunea Națională a Studenților Creștini din România), which were already beacons of Orthodox ultranationalism. “A Contested Patriarchate” reevaluates the establishment of the Romanian Patriarchate in 1925 and the turmoil generated in the newly acquired territories of Greater Romania (Transylvania, Bessarabia) by the politics of ecclesiastical unification. “The process of creating an autocephalous Romanian patriarchate thus embedded a number of festering sores within the Church. Miron Cristea's refusal to incorporate elements of lay church governance from Transylvania and Bessarabia alienated clergy from those regions which were already upset for being treated as second-class citizens by state officials from the Old Kingdom sent to ‘Romanize’ them.” (73)
The second section of the book, “Orthodoxy's Others,” relates the consequences of dissent status that eventually led to the emergence of splinter groups from the Orthodox Church and the relationship of the Orthodox Church with the other Christian denominations (Roman Catholics, Brethren, Baptists, Adventists). The section is again subdivided into three sections. “Reaction” maps the splinter groups emerging from the religious turmoil caused by the overcentralization of the Orthodox Church (the Inochentists and Old Calendarists). “Catholics” addresses the growing tensions between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic/Uniate Church, especially after the negotiation and signing of a Concordat between the Romanian state and the Vatican in 1927. The third chapter, “Repenters,” provides a comprehensive overview of missionary activity in Romania and the appeal within the structures of Romanian society of the main neo-Protestant groups (Baptists, Brethren, Pentecostals, Nazarenes, Seventh-day Adventists). While the Inochentists and Old Calendarists preserved to some extent their adherence to the Orthodox Church, the converts to these groups left the Orthodox Church, raising the suspicions of church and state authorities (123). The last chapter of the section, “Missionaries,” focuses on the reaction of the Orthodox Church, mainly through the voices of Bishops Grigorie Comșa of Arad (1889–1935) and Archbishop Gurie Grosu (1877–1943). All these hierarchs were involved in creating missionary societies of the clergy, supporting and publishing in numerous missionary journals (Misionarul, Renașterea), and publishing books and catechisms to stem the tide of Repenters’ proselytism.
The last section, entitled “Renewal Movements,” discusses in its two chapters the Lord's Army in Transylvania and the Stork's Nest movement of spiritual renewal in Bucharest. The chapters about the Lord's Army and the Stork's Nest, grassroots movements of renewal within the Orthodox Church and reactions to the Repenters’ propaganda, also tell the story of the rising tensions between the conservative Orthodox hierarchy and local priests’ efforts of revitalizing an authentic spiritual life in their communities. The Orthodox bishops had Fr. Iosif Trifa (1888–1938), the founder of the Lord's Army, Fr. Teodor Popescu, and archdeacon Dumitru Cornilescu, the architects of the Stork's Nest movement, defrocked because of their efforts to envisage spiritual alternatives to the outdated Orthodox religiosity. It also signals how new ways of translating and interpreting the Bible, the constant need for a more spiritual life, both for local clergy and communities, disenchantment with the dream of Greater Romania, and a unified Orthodox Church were already capturing the minds of the Orthodox clergymen and laymen alike.
Dr. Roland Clark's book also has some pitfalls. Contrary to the author's claims, the idea of spiritual renewal in the Romanian Orthodox Church originated in the church reforms implemented by King Carol I (1839–1914). The late nineteenth century governments forced the Romanian Orthodox Church to become an integrative part of Romanian society's national state-building and modernization. The increasing state influence in the Church's affairs at the end of the nineteenth century raises the issue of the agency of the state in the history of the Orthodox Church. How much did the state and the Orthodox Church collaborate in the Church's centralization, the renewal of its communities, and the missionary reaction of the clergymen to the incoming Baptists, Pentecostals, Brethren, and the Lord's Army?
Based on a prodigious array of primary and secondary sources and underpinned by a sophisticated theoretical framework, Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania should become mandatory reading for history and religious studies scholars alike. Dr. Clark's book would also constitute an indispensable teaching instrument for undergraduate and postgraduate classes in the history of Eastern Europe, church history, comparative religious studies, sociology of religion, and theology.
