Modern religious poetry in Romania

This article by Bartolomeu Valeriu Anania, poet and bishop, offers a panoramic study of modern Romanian religious poetry, from its medieval roots to the major figures of the twentieth century. Noting the absence of a monograph devoted to this corpus, the author first examines its conceptual boundaries — the line between authentic religious feeling and mere literary motif — before tracing a lineage from Metropolitan Dosoftei to Nichifor Crainic, by way of Eminescu and Arghezi. The main contribution lies in highlighting an Orthodox spiritual continuity running through works that appear secular on the surface: the theological analysis of Eminescu's poem *Luceafărul* in light of the Johannine prologue, and the reading of Arghezi as a *homo religiosus* despite his avowed anticlericalism, both illustrate this thesis. The article thus sheds light on the distinctly Orthodox dimension of a national poetic tradition that has often been misunderstood.