Pouring New Wine in Old Wineskins? The Post‐Communist Evolution of (Neo‐)Fascist Ideas in the Fundamentalist Milieus of the Romanian Orthodox Church

ABSTRACT This article examines the contemporary resilience and influence of interwar fascist ideas within the Romanian Orthodox Church's fundamentalist groups. Through the postwar survival of legionaries who entered the Orthodox clergy and rose through its ranks, religious fascism permeated subcultures within the Orthodox milieu, expressed as a distorted veneration of Iron Guard martyrs to be regarded as Orthodox saints. Building on previous scholarship, the article addresses why the persistence of fascist ideas and the promotion of canonizing legionaries who perished under communism have fueled dissent toward the Romanian state and its pro‐European and pro‐Atlantic orientations. It further traces the evolution of Orthodox neo‐fascism from its interwar Iron Guard roots to a more populist form attuned to contemporary challenges, particularly those posed by de‐Christianization, Westernization, and societal modernization. In this vision, Orthodox neo‐fascism fosters an ethnocentric fundamentalist landscape that rejects the authority of modern medicine, privileges Orthodox conservative morality over human rights extended to sexual minorities, and supports the neo‐fascist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) as a political vehicle for its anti‐Western and Orthodox fundamentalist agenda.