Remembering Suffering and Resistance

Assessing issues related to the Orthodox Church from an academic, secular point of view is a sensitive matter. However, through a kind of methodological agnosticism, this volume has managed to tackle the subtle topic in a very delicate and value-neutral way. The book traces and interprets the mnemonic engagement of the Serbian Church with the memory of Serbian heroic victimhood in World War II. The author examines the motivations, forms, strategies, and outcomes of these activities in post-2000 Serbia, arguing that for late modern societies, a compact presence of the past in the present is of crucial importance. The search for a collective memory is particularly urgent in the face of societal uncertainty, to which Churches can provide an effective response. Religious institutions therefore often use their memory potential to reaffirm their public relevance. The Serbian Orthodox Church could develop a wide range of activities within the memory fields framed by the post-communist, post-conflict, and post-secular horizons. In doing so, the Church was motivated by its long-term goal of (re)establishing its position of power and (re)asserting its legitimacy in the public sphere of post-2000 Serbia. Its public engagement in this regard took liturgical and non-liturgical forms, often involving a hybrid fusion of the two. As a result, the author argues, the Church has become omnipresent at all levels of World War II-related memory production.