Church, State, and Democracy in Expanding Europe
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu
Abstract
This book studies the relationship between religion and politics in ten former communist Eastern European countries. Challenging widespread theories of increasing secularization, this book argues that in most of these countries, the populations have shown themselves to remain religious even as they embrace modernization and democratization. Church-state relations in the new EU member states can be seen in political representation for church leaders, governmental subsidies, registration of religions by the state, religious views on sexuality, and religious instruction in public schools. The boo ... More
This book studies the relationship between religion and politics in ten former communist Eastern European countries. Challenging widespread theories of increasing secularization, this book argues that in most of these countries, the populations have shown themselves to remain religious even as they embrace modernization and democratization. Church-state relations in the new EU member states can be seen in political representation for church leaders, governmental subsidies, registration of religions by the state, religious views on sexuality, and religious instruction in public schools. The book outlines three major models: the Czech church-state separation model, in which religion is private and the government secular; the pluralist model of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Latvia, which views society as a group of complementary but autonomous spheres—for example, education, the family, and religion—each of which is worthy of recognition and support from the state; and the dominant religion model that exists in Poland, Romania, Estonia, and Lithuania, in which the government maintains informal ties to the religious majority.
Keywords:
religion,
politics,
Eastern Europe,
secularization,
modernization,
democratization,
church-state relations,
Czech church-state separation model,
pluralist model,
dominant religion model
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195337105 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195337105.001.0001 |
