Changes in the Romanian Rural Communities. A Socio-Theological Perspective

Sociological studies emphasize the influence of religion on human communities in general and on rural societies, in particular. In this paper, we intend to analyze the main aspects that determine modernization, rural religiosity, social changes in rural areas of Romania, highlighting the importance of the priest in these communities. Rural religiosity expresses the specific relation with the sacred. The village is “purposely placed around the Church and cemetery, namely around God and the dead”- Lucian Blaga. Rural religiosity is concrete and practical, not theoretical speculation. In the second part of the paper we have defined the Church as a sanctuary and community of believers and we have presented its main features as Symbol of Faith- “one, holy and apostolic”. We presented the Church’s involvement in the life of rural community, especially through its local representative – the priest, pointing out that the religious institution interacts with people and supports them in their integration into social life. Over the decades, the Church, by its specific teachings, encouraged the people to love their fellow human beings, to belong to a group and to a society. The Church gives solutions to the social problems that have arisen in people’s lives. The Church’s involvement in the rural society tends to become normal, considering the fact that it was banned during the communist regime, but its visibility depends also on other institutions like the Mayor, local and central political government and so on.