Abstract
In Bulgaria, as in other post-communist countries of Eastern Europe, the restoration of civil and religious freedoms has often been accompanied by the rediscovery of religious roots. Southeastern Europe is involved in new types of networks of transnational relations, discourses and currents in which the influence of religion is expanding and becoming ever more visible. Within that process, the majority have preferred to return to traditional religious denominations after the fall of the iron curtain. Most Bulgarians are members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, but there is also a group of self-identifying ethnic Turks (about 10 %).
Today, there are tensions between the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the state especially concerning issues of education and family and also in dealing with the Muslim community of Bulgaria. The article mentions statistical findings about the relevant denominations in Bulgaria and explains the core problems of the relation between church and state.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In comparison with the previous censuses the one of 2011 used a new methodology which allowed people to choose whether to declare or not their religious affiliation and ethnic identity. As a result, 21.8 % of the citizens did not answer to these questions. Therefore, the presented per cent of believers in Tables 1 and 2 reflects only the proportion of people who have declared one or another religious affiliation and ethnic identity with regard to the total number of people who have declared them. If estimated on the basis of the entire Bulgarian population, i.e. 7,364,570 citizens, then the group of Orthodox people will count 59.4 %, Muslims—7.9 %, Protestant—0.9 % Catholics— 0.7 % and other religions—7.9 %.
- 2.
Although recently challenged by authors such as David Nirenberg (1996, p. 9), the term convivencia refers to the cooperative and conflict-avoiding coexistence of Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities in the medieval Iberian Peninsula.
- 3.
As a matter of fact, the phrase “radical Islam” is not used by the Prosecutor, but nevertheless this is how the case is known to the public through the mass media.
- 4.
See the classification of religions and sects of the Center for Religious Studies and Consultations “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” at the Sofia parochial church “St. Cyril and St. Methodius”.
- 5.
A high degree of intolerance of the Roma people is registered by the National Annual Reports on Youth for 2006 and 2007.
- 6.
Before the communist regime, the Muslim youth in Bulgaria studied mostly in private religious schools where they were taught Islam by imams, while the Orthodox youth had classes of religious instructions within the framework of the curricula taught in the state schools. These classes, however, were not taught by priests and embraced mainly the first three grades.
- 7.
There about 30 students enrolled in the regular (high school level course) and the two-year course for men over the age of 20 in the seminaries in Sofia and Plovdiv for school year 2013/14. “Only one new student was additionally enrolled in the Sofia seminary,” (Dveri na Pravoslavieto 2013).
References
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2008). Statement on the draft-law on family. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php?file=attitude_3.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2009). Appeal to the faithful no to attend the concert of Madonna. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php?file=appeal_4.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2010a). Declaration against the gay-parade in Sofia. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php?file=gay_parade_26_06.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2010b). Declaration of the Roundtable “Religious Education in Support of Bulgarian Society”. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php? file=declaration_2.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2010c). Statement concerning the establishment of Priests’ Trade-union. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php?file=attitude_5.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2012a). Statement on the Draft-law on the kindergardens and school education. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php?file=appeal_4.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2012b). Statement on the Draft-law on the child. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php?file=attitude_3.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2012c). Statement on the freedom of speech and freedom of religion. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php?file=attitude_4.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod. (2012d). Statement on the methods of assisted reproduction and surrogate motherhood. http://bg-patriarshia.bg/index.php?file=attitude_6.xml. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Darzhaven vestnik [State Gazette]. (1991, July 13). Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria. http://www.parliament.bg/en/const. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Darzhaven vestnik [State Gazette]. (2002, Dec. 29). Law of Denominations. http://www.bcnl.org/doc.php?DID=338. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Dveri na Pravoslavieto. (2013, Sept. 1). http://dveri.bg/xf83r. Accessed 15 Nov 2013.
European Court of Human Rights [ECHR]. (2013). http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-122763 {“itemid”:[“001-122763”]}. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Florovsky, G. (1972). Bible, church, tradition: An eastern orthodox view, Vol 1. Belmont. Mass Nordland.
Georgieva, T. (1991). La culture bulgare entre islam et chrétienté: Une culture de mélange. In J. Bonnet & A. Carenini (Eds.), Frontières visibles et invisibles: L’Europe de régions ou des aires culturelles (pp. 215–222) 2e Atelier PACT-Eurethno (Vol 2). Strasbourg: Conseil de l’Europe.
Hajiyski, I. (1966). Bit i dushevnost na nashiya narod [Everyday Life and Mentality of Our People]. Sofia: Bulgarski pisatel.
Hann, Ch (2006). Introduction: Faith, power, and civility after socialism. In Ch Hann et al. (Eds.), The postsocialist religious qestion: Faith and power in Central Asia and East-Central Europe (pp. 1–26). Münster: Lit.
Kepel, G. (2003 [1993]). La revanche de Dieu: Chrétiens, juifs et musulmans à la reconquête du monde. Paris: Le Seuil.
Lewis, B. (1998). The Multiple identities of the Middle East. New York: Schocken Books.
Ministry of Education and Science. (n.d.). Annual report on Youth in the Republic of Bulgaria for 2007. http://www.minedu.government.bg/opencms/export/sites/mon/left_menu/documents/strategies/godishen_doklad_mladezhta_2007.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Ministry of Justice. (n.d.). http://www.justice.government.bg/47/. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
National Statistical Institute. (2011) Population and housing census of the Republic of Bulgaria 2011. http://www.nsi.bg/census2011/pageen2.php?p2=179&sp2=209>. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Nirenberg, D. (1996). Communities of violence: Persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Niyozov, S., & Pluim, G. (2009). Teachers’ perspectives on the education of Muslim students: A missing voice in Muslim education research. Curriculum Inquiry, 39(5), 637–677.
Staridolska, E. (2013, Aug. 2). Za Hair [For God’s blessing], Kapital. http://www.capital.bg/politika_i_ikonomika/bulgaria/2013/08/02/2115095_za_hair/?sp=0#storystart. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Taylor, Ch (1993). Modernity and the rise of the public sphere. In G. B. Peterson (Ed.), The tanner lectures on human values (pp. 205–260). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Vasileva, S. (2013). Sad varna uvolnen zaradi sektantsvto uchitel [The Court rehabilitated a teacher previously accused of belonging to a sect]. Trud. http://www.trud.bg/Article.asp?ArticleId=2251076. The publication date, 21.08.2013. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.
Ware, K. (2012) Orthodox theology in the twenty-first century. Geneva: World Council of Churches.
Yalamov, I. (2006). The ‘renaming’: Consequences and how to overcome them. In E. Popova & M. Hajdinjak (Eds.), Forced ethnic migrations in the Balkans: Consequences and rebuilding of societies. (pp. 105–116). Conference Proceedings 22–23 February 2005. Sofia: IMIR and Meiji University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Evstatiev, S., Makariev, P., Kalkandjieva, D. (2015). Christianity, Islam, and Human Rights in Bulgaria. In: Ziebertz, HG., Črpić, G. (eds) Religion and Human Rights. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09731-2_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09731-2_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09730-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09731-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)