Momchil Metodiev (Pforzheimer Fellow, Mar ‘24 – Jul ‘24) will present his project on:

The Orthodox Church as a Driver of Modernization: Bulgarian Church in European setting between the Two World Wars?

on 30 May, 2024 (Thursday) at 16:30 h.

Moderated by Martin Ivanov.

Abstract: The aim of the project is to explore whether and to what extent the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was part of the general trend, characteristic for other European churches (regardless of denomination), for taking part and supporting the modernization projects in their respective countries. The question seems to be important, on the one hand because it remains generally unexplored in the historical literature. It seems important also because nowadays the tradition of Church involvement in social work and modernization projects in Bulgaria is completely lost, mainly as a result of the official prohibition imposed on these activities by the communist authorities. Last but not least, because most of the contemporary Orthodox churches think of themselves as the custodians of an imagined conservative tradition and could hardly rethink their past in such a context.