Table Of Content“Balkan Contextual Theology is a rich book, as polyphonic as is the
Balkans that divides and unites. It is about liberated religions and
nations after the collapse of Yugoslavia. This book is the first contex-
tual and politically critical theology for the Balkans. Its theology is a
model for other difficult regions.”
Jürgen Moltmann,
University in Tübingen, Germany
“Balkan Contextual Theology introduces and explores the culturally
rich religious traditions of the Western Balkans. A very significant con-
tribution to Christian political theology. I highly recommend it.”
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza,
Harvard University, USA
“Scholars of religion usually talk about the Balkans. This book lifts up
the unique questions and challenges posed to theology from within the
Balkans, as well as the particular cultural, historical, and intellectual
resources for enriching theological thinking. With contributions from
scholars across disciplines, this book offers a much needed and valua-
ble contribution to contextual theology.”
Aristotle Papanikolaou,
Fordham University, USA
Balkan Contextual Theology
This book opens a new research field in Balkan contextual theology. By
embracing culturally rich traditions of the Western Balkans as its starting
point, it explores their existential and theological bearings. Placed at the
crossroads of civilisations and religions, this region has witnessed some
of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. At the same time, it has pro-
duced unique textures of inter-cultural life. The volume addresses some of
the most poignant phenomena endemic to the region, such as sevdalinka
music, intimate forms of neighbourhood, archetypes of “sacred warriors,”
the experience of democratic jet lag, collective melancholy, and intergen-
erational trauma. As the first book of this nature, it aims to encourage
further development of contextual theological thinking in the region and
promote its international reception.
Stipe Odak is a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Université
Catholique de Louvain (Belgium).
Zoran Grozdanov is an Assistant Professor at the University Centre for
Protestant Theology Matthias Flacius Illyricus at the University in Zagreb,
Croatia.
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Balkan Contextual Theology
An Introduction
Edited by Stipe Odak and Zoran Grozdanov
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/religion/series/SE0669
Balkan Contextual Theology
An Introduction
Edited by
Stipe Odak and Zoran Grozdanov
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Stipe Odak and Zoran
Grozdanov; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Stipe Odak and Zoran Grozdanov to be identified as
the author[/s] of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-72288-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-74448-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-15791-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003157915
Typeset in Sabon
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
Contributors x
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: Balkan the Unifier and Balkan the Divider 1
STIPE ODAK AND ZORAN GROZDANOV
PART I
Religion, Politics, Identity 15
1 Religion and National/Ethnic Identity in the Balkans:
Theological and Contextual Positions in Islam 17
ENES KARIĆ
2 Religion and National/Ethnic Identity in the Western
Balkans: Serbian Orthodox Context 30
VUKAŠIN MILIĆEVIĆ
3 Ecumenism Divided: Christian Churches at the Fault Lines 45
RADMILA RADIĆ AND NEVEN VUKIĆ
4 IncarNation: On the Possibility of Balkan Contextual Theology 79
ZORAN GROZDANOV
5 Gender and Religion in the Balkans: The Example of Croatia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina 92
ZILKA SPAHIĆ ŠILJAK AND REBEKA JADRANKA ANIĆ
6 “Democratic Jet Lag” and EUgoslav YUtopias 119
DAVOR DŽALTO
viii Contents
PART II
Violence, God, Memory 139
7 Prayer as the Curse: Religious Tabooisation of God 141
MARKO VUČETIĆ
8 The Balkan Love Triangle: God, Love, and Violence 156
VIKTOR IVANČIĆ AND DRAGO BOJIĆ
9 Theology in the Spirit of Palanka: Catechism of Croatian
Catholic and Serbian Orthodox Ethnonationalist Imaginaries 172
BRANKO SEKULIĆ
10 Lost Bodies, Missing Persons, and Extended Mourning 183
JADRANKA BRNČIĆ
11 Identities Built on the Memory of Wrongdoing and Ecumenism
of Compassion 197
IVAN ŠARČEVIĆ
12 The Grace of Not Remembering: Painful Memories
and Their Theological Implications 215
MIROSLAV VOLF
PART III
Life, Culture, Longing 231
13 Inat, the Explosive Instinct of Freedom: Towards
the Theology of Spite 233
AMILA KAHROVIĆ POSAVLJAK
14 Other God or God of the Other: Sevdah, Queer Laments,
and the Balkan Religious Imaginary 243
MILJENKO JERGOVIĆ
15 Neither Exclusionary Religious Nationalisms, Nor Abstract
Religious Humanisms: Belonging and Border-Living
in the Balkans 255
SLAVICA JAKELIĆ
Contents ix
16 Komšiluk: The Starting Point of the Balkan Contextual
Theology 276
STIPE ODAK
17 The Rootless God: Theology of Emigrations 287
ALIDA BREMER AND IVANA BODROŽIĆ
18 Paradise Lost: Theology of Nostalgia and Hope 299
JOSIP NOVAKOVICH
Index 310
