Anca Sincan

anca.sincan@gmail.com
Articles by Anca Sincan

Romanian Secret Police Archives and the Women of the Religious Underground

In the process of surveilling church leadership, clergy, and church elders, the Secret Police unwittingly uncovered the new roles that women took on in religious life during a time when the totalitarian state was trying to control—and eventually altogether do away with—religion.

Continue reading...

Ethical Questions in Researching the Religious Underground in Romania’s Secret Police Archives, Part II

Several immediately identifiable problems arose in our talks: the problem of questioning the authority of the canonical historical narrative of the church elders based on documents that were created by the enemies of the church; the problem of the “truth” of the archives, of their already accepted narrative; the issues related to what is private and how much of it we should have access to; the moral issue, the judgment of the action of their elders; the religious issue – attendance to the canons and practices of the church.

Continue reading...

Ethical Questions in Researching the Religious Underground in Romania’s Secret Police Archives, Part I

In their effort to curtail the clandestine practice of religion, the secret police produced a thorough database of names, places, biographies, activities, and networks. It created one of the most important extant collections of religious literature — in many cases, that literature is only preserved in these archives. Since documents on these minorities were rarely collected in other state archives, the secret police became an inadvertent producer of history.

Continue reading...