In Central and Eastern Europe religion is an important factor of public sphere. We argue that these societies develop their own social model of religion, which seem to be based on cultural religion, national churches and historical legacies. The latter is specifically observed in the perception of religious pluralism.

The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere represents a rare opportunity to experience a diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one pervasive contemporary concern: what role does or should religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, Judith Butler explores the potential of religious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while Jürgen Habermas, best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, thinks through the ambiguous legacy of the concept of "the political" in contemporary theory. Charles Taylor argues for a radical redefinition of secularism, and Cornel West defends civil disobedience and emancipatory theology. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen detail the immense contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an afterword by Craig Calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both religion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics.

Author Juraj Buzalka analyses the interplay between religion, politics and memory in the context of postsocialist transformations in south-east Poland. He shows that two Catholic churches play a crucial role in commemorations of the warfare and ethnic cleansings that took place here during and after the Second World War: while the Roman Catholic Church claims a privileged status for the Polish nation, the Greek Catholic Church does the same for the Ukrainian minority. Central to Buzalka's analysis are changing forms of tolerance and multiculturalism, and the emergence of "post-peasant populism", a political culture rooted in rural social structures, ideologies and narratives, and saturated with religion. Buzalka's work is an innovative contribution to political anthropology and his findings will also be of interest to political scientists, social historians and sociologists.

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.

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.

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.

Assumptions of increasing secularization have been called into question across the globe but under the socialist variants of modernity traditional forms of religious belief and practice were subject to quite specific forms of repression in favour of 'scientific atheism'. What is the legacy of this socialist experience for the postsocialist era? How is religion mobilized in the public sphere to support assertions of ethnic identity and the building of nations and states? In the private sphere, how does religion help persons to cope with uncertainty and dislocation? What has been the impact of external influences, including pressures to implement religious human rights as well as the missionising efforts of modernist, 'universalizing' faiths, both Christian and Muslim? This book explores new configurations of local, national and global religious communities through ethnographic studies from two regions, Central Asia and East-Central Europe. The main focus is on the consequences of changes in the sphere of religion for generalized civility, which is understood minimally as the acceptance of diverse beliefs and practices in everyday social life.