Focus on Religion in Central and Eastern Europe

Focus on Religion in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: András Máté-Tóth
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2016-11-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 311039068X

Different religious groups in Central and Eastern Europe influenced societies in the region after the fall of Communism and continue to play a crucial role in culture, politics, social networks and value transformations. As part of the REVACERN (Religion and Values in Central and Eastern Europe Research Network) project – supported by the EU Sixth Framework Program – more than 70 researchers from 15 countries in the region analyzed and discussed the most important trends in values, religions and religious communities and presented their findings in a comparative way. They tested well-known theories of secularization, nationalism, democracy and pluralism in the colorful region Central and Eastern Europe. This book summarizes their most important findings in seven chapters, addressing religion and its entanglements with geography, values, nationalism, Orthodoxy, education, legal regulation, civil society, social networks, new religious movements and new forms of religiosity. Each chapter also provides a regional overview.

Spaces and Borders

Spaces and Borders
Author: András Máté-Tóth
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2011-09-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110228149

People observe and transgress religious borders when they relate with faith and other faiths, when they shape communities, when they make decisions. A group of researchers have joined an inquiry into the forces of religious closure and openness in present-day Central and Eastern Europe. The volume is a result of a research community constituted within the REVACERN project – Religion and Values in Central and Eastern Europe Research Network, supported by the 6th framework program of the European Union. Chapters are structured in three sections, focusing on individual experiences of religion and spirituality, on religious elites, and on the interaction of religion with politics. Sociology, political science and history are triangulated to render a clear understanding of the individual experiences of religion and secularity, and of the strategic choices of religious and political elites, taking readers along an exploration of religious identity and otherness.

Communicating Religion and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe

Communicating Religion and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: Jenny Vorpahl
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2020-05-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110547082

This book brings together case studies dealing with historical as well as recent phenomena in former socialist nations, which testify the transfer of knowledge about religion and atheism. The material is connected on a semantic level by the presence of a historical watershed before and after socialism as well as on a theoretical level by the sociology of knowledge. With its focus on Central and Eastern Europe this volume is an important contribution to the research on nonreligion and secularity. The collected volume deals with agents and media within specific cultural and historical contexts. Theoretical claims and conceptions by single agents and/or institutions in which the imparting of knowledge about religion and atheism was or is a central assignment, are analyzed. Additionally, procedures of transmitting knowledge about religion and atheism and of sustaining related institutionalized norms, interpretations, roles and practices are in the focus of interest. The book opens the perspective for the multidimensional and negotiating character of legitimation processes, being involved in the establishment or questioning of the institutionalized opposition between religion and atheism or religion and science.

Focus on Religion in Central and Eastern Europe

Focus on Religion in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: András Máté-Tóth
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2016-11-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110228122

Different religious groups in Central and Eastern Europe influenced societies in the region after the fall of Communism and continue to play a crucial role in culture, politics, social networks and value transformations. As part of the REVACERN (Religion and Values in Central and Eastern Europe Research Network) project – supported by the EU Sixth Framework Program – more than 70 researchers from 15 countries in the region analyzed and discussed the most important trends in values, religions and religious communities and presented their findings in a comparative way. They tested well-known theories of secularization, nationalism, democracy and pluralism in the colorful region Central and Eastern Europe. This book summarizes their most important findings in seven chapters, addressing religion and its entanglements with geography, values, nationalism, Orthodoxy, education, legal regulation, civil society, social networks, new religious movements and new forms of religiosity. Each chapter also provides a regional overview.

Metamorphoses of Religion and Spirituality in Central and Eastern Europe

Metamorphoses of Religion and Spirituality in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: Sławomir H. Zaręba
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2022-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 100057279X

This book offers a range of contemporary sociological reflections on new manifestations of religion, religiosity, and spirituality in Central and Eastern Europe, a region that has seen significant social and political transformation. It explores the development of cultural and religious trends, including secularisation, new spiritualit,y and a resurgence of religiosity outside of traditional structures. The theoretical and empirical contributions by established and emerging scholars address topics including: the experiences and values of young people, the role and influence of media, the relationship between public and private religion, and the position of state and institutions. The book will be of particular interest to sociologists of religion and others focused on contemporary Central and Eastern European societies.

Metamorphoses of Religion and Spirituality in Central and Eastern Europe

Metamorphoses of Religion and Spirituality in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: Taylor & Francis Group
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2022-04-08
Genre:
ISBN: 9781032197456

This book offers a range of contemporary sociological reflections on new manifestations of religion, religiosity and spirituality in Central and Eastern Europe, a region that has seen significant social and political transformation. It explores the development of cultural and religious trends, including secularization, new spirituality and a resurgence of religiosity outside of traditional structures. The theoretical and empirical contributions by established and emerging scholars address topics including: the experiences and values of young people, the role and influence of media, the relationship between public and private religion, and the position of state and institutions. The book will be of particular interest to sociologists of religion and others focused on contemporary Central and Eastern European societies.

Freethought and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe

Freethought and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: Tomáš Bubík
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2020-02-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000039838

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of atheism, secularity and non-religion in Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In contrast to scholarship that has focused on the ‘decline of religion’ and secularization theory, the book builds upon recent trends to focus on the ‘rise of non-religion’ itself. While the label of ‘post-communism’ might suggest a generalized perception of the region, this survey reveals that the precise developments in each country before, after and even during the communist era are surprisingly diverse. A multinational team of contributors provide interdisciplinary case studies covering Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. This approach utilises perspectives from social and intellectual history in combination with sociology of religion in order to cover the historical development of secularity and secular thought, complemented with sociological data. The study is framed by methodological and analytical chapters. Offering an important geographical perspective to the study of freethought, atheism, secularity and non-religion, this wide-ranging book will be of significant interest to scholars of twentieth-century social and intellectual history, sociology of religion and non-religion, cultural and religious studies, philosophy and theology.

Christianity and Modernity in Eastern Europe

Christianity and Modernity in Eastern Europe
Author: Bruce R. Berglund
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2010-05-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 6155211825

Religious history more generally has experienced an exciting revival over the past few years, with new methodological and theoretical approaches invigorating the field. The time has definitely come for this “new religious history” to arrive in Eastern Europe. This book explores the influence of the Christian churches in Eastern Europe's social, cultural, and political history. Drawing upon archival sources, the work fills a vacuum as few scholars have systematically explored the history of Christianity in the region. The result of a three-year project, this collective work challenges readers with questions like: Is secularization a useful concept in understanding the long-term dynamics of religiosity in Eastern Europe? Is the picture of oppression and resistance an accurate way to characterize religious life under communism, or did Christians and communists find ways to co-exist on the local level prior to 1989? And what role did Christians actually play in dissident movements under communism? Perhaps most important is the question: what does the study of Eastern Europe contribute to the broader study of modern Christian history, and what can we learn from the interpretative problems that arise, uniquely, from this region?

Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Opened

Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Opened
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2015-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004292780

Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Open. The Academic Study of Religion in Eastern Europe offers an account of the research focused on the origins, development and the current situation of the Study of Religions in the 20th century in countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, and Russia. Special attention is devoted to the ideological influences determining the interpretation of religion, especially connected with the rise of Marxist-Leninist criticism of religion.

Religion and the Conceptual Boundary in Central and Eastern Europe

Religion and the Conceptual Boundary in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: T. Bremer
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2015-12-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230590020

This volume concentrates on the 'conceptual boundary' through Europe which is determined by Western and Eastern Christianity. The chapters show that the boundary has never been a stable and defined division, but that it was also subject to change and development and a place of encounter and exchange between religions and cultures.