If the title of the volume could cause a certain perplexity at first (what could one mean by Hungarian Religion, Romanian Blood?), but upon closer reading, things become more apprehensible and, above all, most compelling. We are here provided with the history of the Csángós in Romanian Moldavia (as the author calls it), an ancient community established mainly between the eastern Carpathians and the Siret River, especially since the fifteenth century. The origins of the community in question have generated—especially in the interwar period—ardent debates within Hungarian and the Romanian historiographies.
This time, R. Chris Davis revisits the issue of the origin of the Csángós, less so from a historical-empirical perspective, which is nonetheless present in the endeavor, harmoniously encapsulated in the first chapter. The author approaches the topic mainly through the analysis of two components. First, religious belonging (as the Csángós were Roman Catholics cohabiting within an Orthodox majority). Second, the scientific challenges popular at the time. Up to the end of World War II, they gained in momentum until reaching the level of an obsession. In the approach of the latter, the author employs the tools of the time in question, an age extremely involved in the scientific decoding of racial, ethnic, or national belonging, which has literally led in more than a few cases to pseudo-scientific assumptions. At the time, numerous areas of academic inquiry (History, Ethnology, Geography, Sociology, Anthropology, Biomedicine, and Eugenics) compulsively looked into such concerns. The belief that these scientific fields will unquestionably solve the identity dilemmas of insulated communities was part of the spirit of the time.
In fact, the debates about the origin of the Csángós were steeped in the historical context. At stake was a question that originated in geopolitics, stemming from the Romanian and Hungarian disputes over territories, especially after the Treaty of Trianon (1920). At the time, both contenders had the same agenda: appropriating this minority and constructing their version of the Csángós’ history in accordance with their own “national” interest. Mainly rural and scattered, their community had an ambiguous ethnic background. For the most part, the Csángós are bilingual, speaking an archaic version of Hungarian—but also employing Romanian—and of Roman Catholic faith. This laid the ground for identity dilemmas, later to be dealt with by several academic disciplines. Davis tackles the issue in at least two chapters, 3 and 4.
In this context, the book gives insight into the national belonging of the Csángós. Moreover, the degree to which religion can contribute to the preservation and enhancement of community awareness comes under scrutiny. Chapter 2 takes into account the activism of the Orthodox Church in Romanian society as well. Orthodoxy was proclaimed as the “dominant” religion, based on the 22nd Article of the 1923 Constitution. Consequently, all other denominations became marginal. The Orthodox Church has always regarded the Catholic Csángós as a subversive population, threatening the Orthodox hegemony in Moldavia. Notwithstanding, the Romanian extreme right movement (regardless of its name, National-Christian Defense League, Legion of the Archangel Michael, the Legionnaire movement, The Iron Guard) evolved with the Orthodox church by its side. Thus, the latter was in the spotlight, an equal partner. Sometimes, the religious factor was put forward, promoting—frequently in an aggressive manner—a discourse prioritizing the preservation and advancement of the nation's core identity. Also, this discourse entailed anti-modern attitudes, such as antisemitism, opposition to Freemasonry, Obscurantism, and so forth (see also Mirel Bănică, Biserica Ortodoxă Română. Stat și societate în anii ’30, 2007).
Simultaneously, the author makes the point that some of the Csángó intellectuals were misled into accepting state policies towards Romanization, believing they would thus save the Catholics in Moldavia from what they thought to be the peril of Magyarization. In this manner, some curious theories concerning the origin of the Csángós emerged. Essentially, they depicted them as Romanians (turned into “Székelys”), who came from Transylvania to Moldavia around the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries (see particularly D. Mărtinaș, Originea ceangăilor din Moldova, 1985). The volume also deals distinctly with Roman Catholic clergymen in Moldavia and Bucharest, as they represented the intellectual and political elites of the Csángós and, thus, produced historiographical, philosophical, and literary texts. This topic deserves further study, as some Csángós were active in Romanian extreme right organizations during the entire interwar period, as well as throughout World War II. Some of the Roman Catholic priests from this community encouraged their flock to abandon Hungarian identity by taking up Romanian names and share in Romanian nationalist ideals.
To sum up, this is a book of genuine erudition on ethnically-obscure minorities of southeastern Europe. From 1920 to 1944, the Csángós were an additional reason for academic tensions between Hungary and Romania, as territorial disputes were in the limelight. Davis emphasizes the significance of the part played by various historical and cultural components for the formation of ethnic and national groups. His extensive knowledge on the Csángós helps the book greatly: the author lives up to the challenge of decoding the genealogy of this marginalized group. In an approach that has obviously taken distance from the idea of “pure” peoples or cultures, Hungarian Religion, Romanian Blood is a key cross-disciplinary contribution to our understanding of the Csángós.
