THE END OF CHRISTIANITY IN EUROPE

2016

Theoretically placeable within the framework of the secularization versus postsecularism debate, this research employs an aggregated religiosity index as an instrument to compare Western and former Communist Eastern Europe during the globalization era in terms of area trends in religiosity. Structured in eighteen differently weighted components corresponding to three core dimensions of religiosity, i.e. beliefs, practice, and affiliation, the index confirms that over the past decade, while in the West (and Central Europe as well) secularization trends have continued, albeit at different rates and content variations, globalization seems to have finally "stepped in" in the East, where the spectacular religious revival of the 1990s has been considerably slowed down, apparently entering a plateau phase, although the remarkable both denominational and religiosity diversity in the area urges to caution in any generalizing statements.

Journal of Church and State, 2014

Description: Engaging with some of the central issues in the sociology of religion, this volume investigates the role and significance of churches and religion in contemporary Western and Eastern Europe. Based on an extensive international research project, it offers case studies of various countries (including Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Hungary and Croatia), as well as cross-country comparisons. Researching more precisely the present social relevance of church and religion at different levels, The Social Significance of Religion in the Enlarged Europe raises and responds to both descriptive and explanatory questions: Can we observe tendencies of religious decline in the various Western and Eastern European countries? Are we witnessing trends of religious individualization? To what extent has there been a religious upswing in the last few years? And what are the factors causing the observed processes of religious change?

The Political Quarterly, 2000

The Quiet Continent: Religion and Politics in Europe CO L IN CR OUCH Compared with the other world regions discussed in this book, contemporary Europe seems religiously to be a very placid place. While large majorities of European populations still profess to basic beliefs in God, participation in public acts of worship has dropped to low levels in most countries. 1 In those where it remains relatively high (mainly Ireland, Italy and Poland), it is nevertheless declining rapidly. Behavioural adherence to church teachings also seems to have experienced a severe collapse; the fact that two of the most Catholic countries in Europe (Italy and Spain) now have lower birth rates than highly secular, post-Lutheran Scandinavia provides an eloquent indicator of this. With reference to the theme of principal interest to this volumeÐthe relationship between religion and politicsÐthere is a similar story of passivity and decline. From the 1970s onwards, the Catholic Church suered reversals on public policy issues close to its concernsÐdivorce, contraception and abortionÐin Germany, Italy, Spain and more recently Ireland, sometimes in popular referenda among nominally Catholic populations. Meanwhile mainstream Protestant churches long ago gave up trying to exercise much political muscle. The main political achievements of 20th century European Christianity, the Christian democratic parties, were during the 1990s beset with ®nancial and other moral scandals in Italy, Germany and Belgium. While socialist and other parties often shared these problems, they have struck fundamental blows at Christian democracy's claim to moral status. European Christianity shows few signs of the fundamentalist enthusiasm aecting Christianity in both the USA and many parts of Latin America, a fact which currently leads American Christianity more closely to resemble Islam or Hinduism than its European sister. 2 It is also notable that European Christian quietude extends to both eastern and western parts of the continent. A widely anticipated revival of religion in Eastern Europe following the fall of communism has failed to materialise. While this might have been expected in Orthodox lands, where national churches had come to terms with the Soviet state in the same way that they had for centuries with previous regimes, it has been more surprising in former Catholic countries. This is particularly so in Poland, virtually the most Catholic country in Europe, where the Church had played a major role in organising opposition to the communist regime through its support of the Solidarnosc movement, and through the work of Karol Woytila, the Polish Pope John Paul II. This inability of the east European Christian churches to take advantage of the collapse of communism

Political Theology, 2006

Church leaders in Europe frequently lament that the environment is nonreligious and unchristian. Reflecting on how the European countries which fell under Communist domination have adjusted to the post-Communist era, the paper advances the view that the situation should be characterized differently. European Christianity stands on the threshold of another of its historical metamorphoses. The continent is not simply unchristian or nonreligious, but neither is not religious in a Christian way. Christianity is not the religion of present-day Europe, and at the same time European Christianity can no longer be seen as a "religion.

Suomen Antropologi, vol. 4, pp. 34–50, 1994

History of the study of religion Phenomenology of religion Religion and public education Religion in Europe a b s t r a c t This essay discusses main features and developments of the study of religion(s) in Western Europe. It attempts a historical, geographical, and thematic synthesis. Part III outlines post-World War II developments with regard to journals, textbooks, and survey works. It looks at national figureheads, disciplinary boundaries and the changing fortunes of the phenomenology of religion. The series concludes by addressing selected key areas of scholarly work and current issues and concerns.

2004

On 31 May, 1973, Professor Bohdan Bociprkiw of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, delivered a London University lecture, entitled "Church-State relations in Communist Eastern Europe", at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In his introduction he observed that the position of organized religion in Eastern Europe had been fundamentally affected when communist political systems emerged in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania. For the first tim~ the churches were faced by regimes which aimed at eradicating religion from society. The churches, claiming that their internal autonomy was an essential part of religious freedom and that the dissemination of the faith was an intrinsic function of the church, could not but clash with the totalitarian aspirations of the East European regimes. Unlike the latter, which could refer to Marxist-Leninist doctrine and the Soviet model of church-state relations, the chur...