RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AND TOLERANCE – THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES OF DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

Zoran Matevski

Zoran Matevski University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

At the beginning we’ll emphasize doubtless fact that religion and nation are two powerful forms of identifi cation. These are strong mechanisms through which each person seeks for its identity. Great numbers of sociological examinations, which refer to this subject, indicate an interesting data. Believe it or not, they show that religion and nation do not have logical connection. Additionally, here is the fact that religion is national and universal category. But, besides these strong facts, these social phenomena are in an unbreakable psychological connection and secret union! Only in such cases, certain identifi cation of nation and religion that is diffi cult to understand appears. That’s not the case in the rest of “peaceful” times. In this direction, it’s interesting to search for answer on the question: Whether Macedonian Orthodox Church and Islamic Religious Community calm down or sharpen ethnic confl icts and problems.

Keywords: Macedonian Orthodox Church; political tolerance; national church; national frames; religious tolerance; Islamic religious community in Macedonia; Islam believers; Orthodox Christians; reserved attitude; oscillation; practices religious tolerance; dosed tolerance; causing anger; believers; ethnic confl icts; responsibility; religious organization; religious language; social-political moment; collective language; ethnocentrism

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