Horia-Roman Patapievici

This article is an interview given by Horia-Roman Patapievici, a Romanian intellectual, to Costion Nicolesco in January 1996. It takes the form of a critical dialogue on the situation of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the aftermath of communism. The central idea is the distinction between the institutional Church — the B.O.R. — perceived as a profane structure populated by clerical functionaries cut off from spiritual reality, and the living Church, a community of believers carrying an authentic tradition. Patapievici rejects an arithmetic definition of faith reduced to external practices and defends a conception of Orthodoxy as an inner way of being, an experience lived in the Spirit rather than juridical conformity. The contribution of this interview lies in the lucid and demanding perspective of a cultivated layman on the tensions between ecclesiastical institution, modern intellectuality and authentic spiritual life in post-communist Romania.