Religious Romania. Triple book launch and debate

7 April 2025, at 6:00 p.m., Multicultural Centre, Transilvania University of Brașov

The Multicultural Centre and the Faculty of Letters within Transilvania University of Brașov invite you on Monday, 7 April 2025, starting at 6:00 p.m., to a triple book launch, followed by a debate.

The year 2024 was marked by a revival of the religious phenomenon, inclusively in terms of specialised anthropological research. This is the year when three books of major importance, within the scope of the Romanian cultural studies, came out in the light of day, namely:

- Mirel Bănică, Between Two Worlds. Orthodox Monasticism and Modernity / Polirom Publishing House;

- Valer Simion Cosma, Prayers, Church Readings and Curses. The Priest in the Transylvanian Romanians’ Peasant World (18th - 19th Centuries) / ULBS Publishing House and MEGA Publishing House;

- Giuseppe Tateo, Under the Sign of the Cross. People’s Salvation Cathedral and Church Building in Post-socialist Romania / Polirom Publishing House.

All these three books bring, each in its own field, answers to the Romanian society’s turmoil, amid the current revival of the religious experience. In his book, Valer Simion Cosma looks at the sublayer, deeply embedded in history, of the relations between autochthonous Church and peasant religiosity. Mirel Bănică’s book reveals the capacity of the Orthodox monastic environment to adapt to the transformations, not without convulsions, of secularization. Giuseppe Tateo’ study looks into the political intervention on the public space and the extent to which it reflects the rebirth of the religious feeling in post-socialist Romania.

Within the event, the authors will be joined by Simion Pop (the author of the preface to Giuseppe Tateo’s book), Caius Dobrescu, Adrian Lăcătuș, Cristian Pralea and Florin Dumitrescu for the debate.

We will therefore be waiting for you on Monday, 7 April 2025, between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m., at the Multicultural Centre of Transilvania University (ground floor of the Rectorate building, 29 Eroilor Blvd.). 

The entrance is free within the limit of available seats.