Imaginea preotului în mentalul românesc: între defecte şi calităţi [Articol]

Abstract

The article describes the image of the priest under fixed structures of the Romanian language. Double approach proves existence of this reality in the life of Romanians. One – marked positive – reflected purely religious contexts. Another one – marked negatively reflected in the popular mind (proverbs, anecdotes, legends). This way, the Romanian language selects two terms to designate servant church – priest and clergyman – the last being ridiculed and exploited to the full picture and seem popular narrative. Popa is characterized more negative traits – is immoral, cunning thief, bad (illiterate), drunkard, liar, ruthless with his subjects, charlatan, hypocrite, businessman, greedy etc. This dual aspect of the priest's image is proven by Romanian community and associative experiment, where the stimulus clergyman were selected equally marked positive and negative reactions.