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2024 - Volume 7 - Number 2

The Bulgarian Ethnic Model: “Secular” Religion, Denominational Admissibility and Territorial Tolerance

Vladimir Chukov * ORCID: 0000-0002-4544-3708
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Sofia, BULGARIA

Open Journal for Studies in History, 2024, 7(2), 81-86 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsh.0702.03081c
Received: 21 October 2024 ▪ Revised: 15 December 2024 ▪ Accepted: 30 December 2024

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
The so-called The Bulgarian ethnic model is a Bulgarian political philosophy that presents itself as a formula that theorizes the ethno-religious balance in the post-communist society. The paradigm was created immediately after the fall of the regime of the communist dictator Todor Zhivkov and became matter of a fierce discussion of often contradictory opinions. The promoter of the mentioned particular matrix was the emerging post-communist and pro-democracy academic Bulgarian community with their professional invention, not the politicians. The latter rather hindered the public dialogue, being dominant supporters of the various tendencies of the remnants of nationalism. It reflects not only a specific stage of the country’s political development, but also the economic, social and folk-psychological momentum of the local society. Three main factors determine the specificity of the ethno-religious tolerance of the Bulgarian society. In the first place, it is the presence of de facto content oxymoron “secular religion” in the society at the expense of practically zero indoctrination of the religious practices. It is about the irreversible erosion of the public authority of the Christian and Muslim clergy. In the second place, we can note the wonderful stitching of the most statesmanlike, secular Christian denomination – Eastern Orthodoxy and the most tolerant Islamic orthodox school – Hanafi Sunnism. It is about a kind of interreligious harmony. Thirdly, the successful sustainability of the Bulgarian ethno-confessional balance is due to the so-called positional tolerance, relating it to the geographical distribution between the different religious groups.

KEY WORDS: Bulgarian Ethnic Model (BEM), secular religion, denominational admissibility, territorial tolerance.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Vladimir Chukov, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Sofia, BULGARIA.

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