CHRISTIANITY OF FUNDAMENTALISM AND SECULARISM: ARE THERE HINTS OF SOCIAL TEACHING WITHIN THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH?

Abstract

The scientific paper before us will question the role, scope and importance of Orthodox
Christianity in social issues, especially in the case of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC). The topic
of the scientific work is focused on questioning the connections between the specifically Orthodox
experience of religion and its place in contemporary (Serbian) society. Therefore, the views
of church dignitaries of the Serbian Orthodox Church regarding the role of the Orthodox faith
in social issues were selected as the subject of research. Through his research, the author has set
himself the goal of predicting the possibilities of establishing and building the social teaching of
the Serbian Orthodox Church. The increasingly active role of religious communities and churches
in contemporary society: from culture, through politics and economy to the natural environment
points to the legitimate social significance of the basic assumptions of this scientific paper. The
questioning of theoretical assumptions, religious conceptions and spiritual-political phenomena:
fundamentalism, integralism and secularism on the example of an isolated case study in the ideas
and value positions of dignitaries and theologians of the Serbian Orthodox Church leads to an
indisputable innovative contribution and scientific justification of the research. After all, the SOC
has always been the foundation of the national rallying of the Serbian ethnos, and the main lever
of national identity, so the overall justification of the topic is greater. In the paper, the author
started from the initial assumption that the current opinion in the Serbian Orthodox Church is
not favorable towards the establishment of the social teaching of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The research was based on numerous methods in social sciences, such as: observation, case study,
content analysis, comparative approach...