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Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania: Reforming Apostles PDF

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CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania Reforming Apostles Marc Roscoe Loustau Contemporary Anthropology of Religion Series Editors Don Seeman Department of Religion Emory University Atlanta, GA, USA Hillary Kaell Department of Anthropology School of Religious Studies McGill University Montreal, QC, Canada Contemporary Anthropology of Religion is the official book series of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion, a section of the American Anthropological Association. Books in the series explore a variety of issues relating to current theoretical or comparative issues in the study of reli- gion. These include the relation between religion and the body, social memory, gender, ethnoreligious violence, globalization, modernity, and multiculturalism, among others. Recent historical events have suggested that religion plays a central role in the contemporary world, and Contemporary Anthropology of Religion provides a crucial forum for the expansion of our understanding of religion globally. More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/14916 Marc Roscoe Loustau Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania Reforming Apostles Marc Roscoe Loustau Journal of Global Catholicism Catholics & Cultures Program College of the Holy Cross Worcester, MA, USA Contemporary Anthropology of Religion ISBN 978-3-030-99220-0 ISBN 978-3-030-99221-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99221-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Album / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To Amy A N A o , N , ote bout rthogrAphy Ames p N ANd lAce Ames I use standard Romanian and Hungarian orthography. I identify public figures by name, especially when discussing their pub- lished works. When it is unclear whether individuals are public figures, I err on the side caution. For instance, all members of the Csíksomlyó choir are identified by pseudonyms. I also use pseudonyms for individuals who explicitly requested that their identities be protected. For place names, I use the model established by Brubaker et al. (2007). I use official place names as determined by the governing legal regime of the period in question. For example, I use the “Csík Valley” when discuss- ing the era of Dualist Austro-Hungarian rule in Transylvania. I change this place name to the “Ciuc Valley” for the interwar decades and then, from the post-World War II period until the present. Csíksomlyó is the only the exception to this convention. I use the Hungarian place name throughout because it refers to both a place and an event, as in “the annual Csíksomlyó pilgrimage.” A ckNowledgemeNts I am grateful to the colleagues who both supported and exhorted me while I was writing this book. Mathew Schmalz and Tom Landy at the College of the Holy Cross provided wise counsel and pedagogical mentor- ship. Members of Holy Cross’s Department of Religious Studies were engaged interlocutors about their own groundbreaking research projects. The Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Central European University supported a semester’s residency, and I continue to benefit from the relationships I made while in Budapest. A post-graduate school conversation with Michael D. Jackson about intellectualism as a vocation was both personally and theoretically impactful. I remain grateful for Michael’s friendship. The editorial staff at Palgrave -Macmillan were patient, skilled, and helpful. Hilary Kaell and Don Seeman, editors of the Anthropology of Religion book series, have been friends and champions of my research. I received the support of several generous institutions without which I could not have finished this book: Harvard University and Harvard Divinity School, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Panel on Theological Education, the Center for Theologically Engaged Anthropology, and the Working Group on Lived  Religion in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The Catholics & Cultures Program at the College of the Holy Cross has kept me connected to a vibrant intellectual community after offering me a generous Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2016. Over the years, friends, family, and religious communities offered valu- able encouragement as I pushed ahead with this text and also pursued ix x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS public scholarship: István Cziegler, Kate Y. DeConinck, Robert and Nóra Ferencz, Chris and Regina Walton, Nicolie Loustau, Sarah Langer and Rachel Fichtenbaum, Nathan and Amira Shulman, Abraham and Jaclyn Miller-Barbarow, the members of the Minns Lectures Steering Committee, King’s Chapel and First Church in Boston for the gift of their pulpit and faithful guidance, Stephen and Liz Kendrick, Johannes, Leena, Devendra, and Anvidha Loustau, Kate Dugan, Kate and Ethan Handelman, Linda and Tom Dickey, Frank Karioris, Ezgican Özdemir, Alice Horning, Anne Loustau, Cayla Saret, Julia Hamilton and Adam Shive, Ari Shapiro, Erick Verran, Dan McKanan, James Bielo, Sara Williams, the editorial staff at America: The Jesuit Review, Allan Oliveira, Leah Varsano, Ariela Lovett, Cathy Wanner, Joel Robbins, Elizabeth and Jim Epstein, Sherill Stroschein, Zsuzsa Csergő, Frank Clooney, Valentina Napolitano, John Brooks and Laura Brooks Partain, Ben Legg, Emil Moldovan, Nándor Bárdi, Stefano Bottoni, Dénes Kiss, Seth and Amy Izen, and Deborah McConnell. I am deeply indebted to the people I met in Transylvania and at the Our Lady of Csíksomlyó shrine. My wife, Amy Loustau, once coined the phrase “book bonanza” to describe one of my marathon writing sessions. According to my diction- ary, a bonanza is also a sudden increase in good fortune. That is an accu- rate description of what happened to me the first time we met. My father, John A. Loustau, took such pride in the books he published at the end of his life. May his memory be a blessing. Praise for Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania “In this intimate ethnographic account of the inner lives of Catholic thinkers and practitioners among the Hungarian-speaking minority of Romania, Marc Loustau humanizes theology for a discipline that has often treated it with suspicion. He sympathetically examines these local intellectuals’ ethical and pedagogical dilem- mas after the demise of state socialism and the uneven rise of consumerism on both sides of a culturally and ideologically conflicted border. This is a rich account of the sufferings and satisfactions, the rewards and reversals, of religious vocation under unending, shape-shifting siege.” —Michael Herzfeld, Ernest E. Monrad Research Professor of the Social Sciences emeritus, Harvard University, USA “This is an exciting book. Loustau has given us a sustained exploration of the lives of engaged Catholic theologians who lead important educational and charitable projects among the Hungarian minority population of Romania. The first full length ethnography to take the intellectual life and practice of important Christian thinkers as its focus, the book is a milestone in the growing conversation between anthropology and theology. Along the way, the book also speaks powerfully to those interested in issues of volunteerism and right wing populism, both subjects appearing in fresh ways under Loustau’s superb ethnographic eye. Written with great energy, this book should find a wide audience.” —Joel Robbins, Sigrid Rausing Professor of Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK “This exceptional study of Hungarian Catholics in Transylvania looks at how a minority’s intellectual tradition is forged and transformed in the long 20th century. Bringing back ‘intellectuals’ as key actors in the relationship between state, church and minority politics it contributes to broader discussions about civic cultivation/ education, Christianity and nationhood in Central and Eastern Europe, and sheds light on the roots of contemporary Hungarian right-wing populism. Loustau’s study of theologians and pedagogical institutions bridges historical analysis with a rich ethnography of Catholic devotionalism, provoking anthropologists to rethink their engagement with Christianity and theology in a more radical manner.” —Vlad Naumescu, Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University, Austria

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