“Smuggling Bibles”: Everyday life of Baptist Serbs in Romania

Abstract

Various neo-Protestant religious communities, such as Adventists, Pentecostals, Baptists, Nazarenes, Christian Brethren, and others, played an important role in the religious life of different ethnic groups in Romania, not only in the post-communist period, but also during communism. The establishment of the communist regime in Romania particularly influenced the position of minority religious communities, their rights of religious association, education, and employment.This paper seeks to present everyday life experiences of Baptist Serbs in Romania during the specific historical period of communism. It is based on field research conducted in August 2010 within Serbian Baptist communities located in the region of the Danube Gorge of western Romania (Rom. Clisura Dunãrii).Special interest is paid to the connections between Serbs from Romania and Yugoslavia, various missionary activities, and religious experiences of the born-again Christians during communism.