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Religiosity and Political Values in Central and Eastern Europe

  • Chapter
Transformations of Religiosity

Abstract

It has been more than twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginnings of the democratic transition in Eastern European post-socialist countries. These twenty years make a time span allowing for examining the changes in these societies through aspects that are less instable by their nature. In this essay we shall seek to answer the question of how the impact of religion-related positions on certain political attitudes has changed. It seems obvious that this question, in turn, cannot be separated from that of how the situation of religion and religiosity has changed in the countries examined. Central and Eastern Europe shows a rather heterogeneous picture in this aspect. There are a variety of reasons underlying to the different religious changes. Diverse religious and confessional traditions, the role of religion in terms of national identity, the stages of social modernisation, the success of the socialist oppression of religions and the behaviour of the churches towards the socialist regime all play some role in this, as well as the social processes which started after the democratic transition (Pollack/Borowik/Jagodzinski 1998; Tomka/Zulehner 1999; Zulehner/Naletova/Tomka 2008; Pickel/Müller 2009).

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Authors
  1. Gergely Rosta
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Gert Pickel  & Kornelia Sammet  & 

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Rosta, G. (2012). Religiosity and Political Values in Central and Eastern Europe. In: Pickel, G., Sammet, K. (eds) Transformations of Religiosity. Veröffentlichungen der Sektion Religionssoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-93326-9_6

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