Între așteptări și nedumeriri: Oliver Jens Schmitt, Biserica de stat sau Biserica în stat?

Abstract

Much more than a mere book review, the following article critically presents Oliver Jens Schmitt’s recently published monograph and, starting from it, a heated polemic concerning the history and historiography of the Romanian Orthodox Church during the last century. Generous references to primary and secondary sources of the topic are suggested to the author of the reviewed book. Moreover, the reviewer also makes valuable considerations regarding the ethics and deontology of research in social sciences and humanities, the methods used by historians in general, and by church historians in particular. This elegantly written and scientifically based book review turns into a worthy model to follow in further cases of coping with ideologically marked pseudo-scientific approaches.