Mylonas, Christos.; (2001) Serbian Orthodox fundamentals: The quest for an eternal identity. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This study addresses the following research questions: what makes a Serb? What particular properties" or "fundamentals," could and should be attributed to this identity? Are meaningful assumptions possible by introducing Serbian Orthodoxy as the primal point of reference? Why does religion appear to have an especially strong appeal? Does this "appeal" originate in the nature of the Orthodox faith, or rather arise from the societal framework, within which the Serbian identity is articulated? These issues have been principally explored by means of an analytical appraisal of bibliographical material -regional sources and additional treatises on Orthodoxy (doctrinal and functional). Orthodoxy is identified as the sacralisation of the Serbian national identity (the primary hypothesis of this thesis): upon which perceptions of collective belonging are forged; moral preferences and principles of social conduct are delineated; a mythopoeic content -the national imaginary- is constructed; and a sense of historical, diachronic, continuity is established. A notional thread of a primordial existence nurtures the lives of the Serbian being and his society, sanctified within the Orthodox cosmology of venerated patriots, good and evil, liturgical cycles and worshipping practices. In this context, the fundamentalist discourse is used to decipher the depth and scope of the processes by which, the Serbian individual establishes a mode of national belonging and reinforces a differentiation between himself and his diverse ethno-religious periphery. It should be noted that the concept of fundamentalism is applied, as an evaluative perspective of religion and not for the derogatory purposes, customarily associated with its excessive and uncritical usage.

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