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Fras, Maksymilian Zbigniew
(2013).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000f129
Abstract
This thesis examines the relationship between religion and politics in post-communist Poland. Its focus is on how religion continues to maintain high salience and visibility in Polish public life despite falling individual religiosity. The study draws on theories of secularisation and republicisation, and aims to assess their applicability to the Polish case study. Based on an analysis of the relationship between religion and politics in Poland, this thesis argues that the continued public presence of religion is due to historical factors, notably the legacy of the communist era, which enabled the institutionalisation of a position of influence for the Polish Roman Catholic Church that was consolidated during the early post-communist period (1989-1993). It is the historical legacy of the Catholic Church acting as a critic of the government and a symbolic representative of the nation as well as institutional interests of both the Church and key political actors that preserve the status quo. The research material that this thesis analyses consists of Polish sources concerning the Church, religion and politics in Poland, including primary sources such as Church and government documents and press, as well as secondary sources such as academic journals and interviews with key Polish academics. The main aim of the research is to investigate the connections between the communist-era past and contemporary institutional interests and the links between religious and political groups in modern democratic Poland.
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