Gândirea

Gândirea (The Thought) was a Romanian interwar literary-cultural magazine and intellectual current that played a major role in shaping Romanian cultural life in the 1920s–1940s. Founded as a forum for a traditionalist, Orthodox-oriented, nationalist conception of Romanian culture, it advocated a synthesis of spirituality, folklore, and classical tradition as a counterpoint to Western modernism and liberal democracy. The publication became the leading organ of what is commonly referred to as the Gândirism movement, centered on Nichifor Crainic and a circle of writers and theologians. Its program combined elements of Romanian Orthodoxy, national mysticism, and a renewed interest in folk culture, rural values, and the premodern past. It stressed the idea of a unique spiritual nation and argued for social and cultural renewal through religious moralism and cultural conservation. The magazine published literary criticism, essays, sermons, and poetry, and engaged in polemics with liberal and modernist currents and with other ideological and cultural currents of the period.

The Gândirist movement influenced Romanian cultural debates and left a lasting imprint on the interwar right-wing intellectual milieu, contributing to the broader movement toward nationalist and Orthodox-inspired cultural policy in Romania. Its influence waned with the turn of World War II, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and the postwar establishment of the communist regime, which suppressed or marginalized such currents. Today, Gândirea is studied as a key expression of traditionalist-nationalist thought in Romania, illustrating the tensions between modernity, Orthodoxy, and national identity in interwar Eastern Europe.