The Serbian Orthodox Church

Abstract

This chapter disputes the age-old identification of the nation and confession among Orthodox Serbs. Belonging to the Orthodox Church became interwoven with the Serbian national identity due to their marginal and oppressed status under foreign rule and only after the long process during which the discourse about the Serbian nation was confessionalized and the Orthodox Church became nationalized. It traces long and troubled transformation of the Karlovci Metropolitanate in the Habsburg Monarchy, demonstrating how an imperial establishment became imbued with modern political ideology of nationalism. Particular emphasis is placed on the Belgrade Metropolitanate, which during this period achieved autocephaly and together with the state promoted the Piedmont role of Serbia in national and later ecclesiastical unification. Shorter overviews of other ecclesiastical jurisdictions in Dalmatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Montenegro further illuminate common developments.