Vol.2, No 6, 1999 pp. 101 - 111
UDC:316.6
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
IN THE BALKANS
Georgi Fotev
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Abstract. Religions are of a key importance for the meaningful construction
and constituiting of the societies which they are embedded in. In the traditional
societies this is obvious in a most direct way. In the secularized (modern)
societies this function of the religions is most often too mediate and
in many cases it is even expressed through derivatives. For instance, a
large portion of people in the national societies and ethnic groups in
the Balkans nowadays are not religious in the meaning of believers but
as a rule they determine themselves as Orthodox Christians, Moslems, Catholic,
etc. on the basis of their belonging to the respective traditional religion.
For historical and geopolitical reasons there are neighbourhoods of
various religious communities in the Balkans. From a typological point
of view the study of the neighbourhood and its classification embrace a
considerable variety of this type of relations. The religious belonging
is mirrored in all the aspects of the polydimensional phenomenon of neighbourhood.
The negative experience piled up throughout the historical developments
in the Balkans brings forward the acute problem of "Kolakovski" which can
be projected in respect to each and everyone of the traditional religions
as well as to the newly born religious movements. The report focuses on
the problems which arise along the path from the attitude towards "the
other" in the meaning of "the hostile", "the antagonistic other" to the
constituting of good neighbourliness.
SUSEDSTVO VERSKIH ZAJEDNICA NA BALKANU
Vere su od ključnog značaja za značenjsku izgradnju i konstituisanje društava
u koja su ugrađene. U tradicionalnim društvima ovo je očigledno na najneposredniji
način. U sekularizovanim (modernim) društvima ova funkcija vera je često
previše posredna i u mnogim slučajevima ona se čak izražava preko svojih
derivacija. Na primer, veliki broj ljudi u nacionalnim društvima i etničkim
grupama na Balkanu danas nije religiozan u verničkom smislu, već, po pravilu,
oni se deklarišu kao pravoslavci, muslimani, katolici na osnovu pripadanja
tradicionalnoj veri.
Iz istorijskih i geopolitičkih razloga postoje susedstva raznih verskih
zajednica na Balkanu. Sa tipološkog stanovišta izučavanje susedstva i njegova
klasifikacija obuhvataju širok spektar ovog tipa odnosa. Religijska pripadnost
se ogleda u svim vidovima polidimenzionalnog fenomena susedstva. Negativno
iskustvo, nagomilano tokom istorijskih zbivanja na Balkanu, stavlja u pravi
plan akutni problem "Kolakovski" koji se može projektovati u odnosu na
sve i svakog u tradicionalnim, kao i u novostvorenim verskim pokretima.
Ovaj rad je usredsređen na probleme koji se javljaju na putu od odnosa
prema "drugom" u značenju "neprijateljskog", "antagonističkog drugog" do
stvaranja dobrog susedništva.
