Women in the Serbian Orthodox Church: Historical Overview and Contemporary Situation

Abstract

Research on the position of women in the Eastern Orthodox churches is still scarce. Some recent studies show differences among the various Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe regarding women’s issues. The position of the women in the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) was addressed as late as in the 1990s, but this is still an insufficiently examined field. Eastern Orthodox theologians have rarely discussed the problem of the position and role of women in the SOC. During the socialist era, they did not engage this topic, except in studies related to female monasticism. On the other hand, sociological and anthropological studies have only recently started to include the topic of women in religion and in the church in their research on religiosity in Serbia. However, serious empirical research is still insufficient.The aim of this contribution is to outline the position of women in Orthodox Christianity, to discuss the attitude of the SOC towards this issue and to summarize the changes related to it in the last 100 years