Thomas Bremer, Jennifer Wasmuth
God and the world
Church and religion in eastern Europe
The religious communities of East Central and Eastern Europe show similarities. They have to do with their comparable historical experi-ences under Communism. After Communist rule, religion awoke to new life. The social position of churches changed. Everywhere, religious communities play a role in the creation of national and state identity. The limits of their influence determine not only whether they find them-selves in the majority or the minority. Their internal condition and creeds are important to determining the place of religious communities in society and their relationship with the world of politics.

Detlef Pollack
A renaissance of religion?
Findings of social research
In East Central and Eastern Europe, the individual and social position of religion has changed. Immediately after the collapse of state Socialism, religion and church experienced an upswing. In several countries, this trend has come to an end or even turned around. The importance that people attach to faith and religious practices now varies considerably from country to country. Secularisation and individuali-sation play an important role.

Evert van der Zweerde
Permanent asymmetry
Church and state, state and church
After a secularist period in the 20th century, religion is again playing an important role in politics. The relationship between politics and religion, state and church is complex and asymmetrical. The tension between the two dimensions and institutions can be disengaged only tentatively. A special case of this tense relationship is expressed in the basic prin-ciples of political theology in the Eastern church, such as Caesaropap-ism and Symphonia. From the Orthodox point of view, these principles are opposites, but they both exclude society as an independent third realm between state and church; therefore, they stand run counter to Western tradition.

Alfons Brüning
State of tension
Orthodox values and human rights
The Orthodox Church has been discussing human rights for several years. Official documents or positions of leading representatives of the church have from time to time caused irritation among Western observ-ers. Upon closer examination of the sociological, historical, and theo-logical backgrounds to these positions, the seemingly sharp contrast between East and West begins to dissolve. The Orthodox churches still lack a definite position, but they very well indeed have the potential for a well-grounded position of their own on human rights.

Vasilios N. Makrides
The Orthodox churches and Europe
Positions on the EU and European integration
With Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus, there are four Orthodox countries participating in European integration. This represents a chal-lenge for these churches. They categorically reject the West European path of development. Now the Orthodox camp has been set in motion. In terms of ideal types, three currents can be discerned: Most official churches support the European Union with reservation; Orthodox think-ing picks up on the Slavophiles and sees European integration as in-compatible with Orthodox thinking; Orthodox fundamentalists and rigor-ists who roundly vilify Europe, the EU, and the West.

Petr Fiala
Laboratory of secularisation
Church and religion in the Czech Republic
Nowhere in Europe is secularisation so far advanced as in the Czech Republic. It can be observed there, as in a laboratory, what it means when religion disappears from the public space and fewer and fewer people profess a faith. This loss of importance for religion cannot be explained alone by the Communist persecution of the church. The roots of secularisation go deeper. From the start, the Czech national move-ment defined Czech national identity by consciously dissociating from the Roman Catholic Church, which was understood in essence as in-strument of Germanisation of the Austrian monarchy.

Dieter Bingen
Wojtylas legacy
Church and politics in Poland
In the decades of Communist rule, the Roman Catholic Church gained a central place in Polish society that not even the ruling party chal-lenged. John Paul II, the Polish pope, had considerable influence on the political break with Communism. In Poland, he has become the object of almost mythic veneration. But after his death, "his" church has conveyed the impression that it lacks orientation. Despondent and in-secure, it is searching for its place in a pluralistic society.

Robert Zurek
For church and nation!
The Radio Maryja movement in today's Poland
Since 1991, the arch-conservative broadcaster Radio Maryja has caused a stir with its reporting. Father Tadeusz Rydzyk has built up a media empire that can mobilise hundreds of thousands. The followers of this movement share a simple view of the world. According to it, there is an eternal struggle between good and evil: Hostile powers are trying to destroy Poland, the bastion of Roman Catholicism. The en-emies are liberals, the European Union, Free Masons, Jews, but also liberal Catholics. The Polish episcopate confronts the Radio Maryja movement only half-heartedly. But the political influence of Radio Maryja is limited. The movement has passed its zenith.

Tomasz Królak
Remembrance, reconciliation, witness
Church lustration in free Poland
The Catholic Church enjoyed considerable respect in the People's Re-public of Poland. In the dispute with Communism, the church emerged as victor. But after 1989, trust in the church eroded. The unclear role that it actually played encountered criticism. Individual members of the church, such as Archbishop Wielgus, were linked to the secret service. Calls to take responsibility grew loud. The Polish media get wind of headlines and call for employees of the security service to be revealed. Through lustration and a public examination of its conscience, the church is seeking reconciliation.

Pawel Bortkiewicz
Unborn life
The position of the Catholic church in Poland
The Polish episcopate has intervened repeatedly in the public debate over the protection of unborn life. Since the start of the 1990s, the church has vehemently campaigned against the liberalisation of abor-tion. In the debate over the consequences of prenatal diagnostics, the bishops also take the position that unborn life is to be protected under all circumstances. In 2008, plans for a law on in-vitro fertilisation prompted the episcopate to appeal to parliamentarians to stand up for a complete ban of this method.

Natal'ia Kochan
The clash of churches
Politics and religion in Ukraine
Ukraine is an ecclesiastical-political mosaic. Since independence, three Orthodox churches as well as the Greek Catholic Church have been competing for the status of a national church. Furthermore, interde-nominational conflicts have repeatedly flared over questions of owner-ship. All of this makes the churches susceptible to political instrumen-talisation and alienates them from the faithful. What is positive about this is that this plurality of churches prevents the establishment of an Orthodox state church along the lines of the Russian model.

Liliia Berezhnaia
Kievan church quarrel
National "sites of remembrance" of the confessions
Kiev's shrines have shaped the history of Ukraine and Russia. The churches in Ukraine are claiming the country's cathedrals, places, or persons of ecclesiastical remembrance for themselves. Every confes-sion describes itself as the "canonical" or "national" church, in order to boost the legitimacy of its own claims. These conflicts are more than a struggle between churches. They concern Ukraine's historical memo-ry.

Veniamin Simonov
Religion and religiosity in Russia
"And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed"
A representative poll by the Levada Centre on the Church and faith in Russia offers unknown insights into the religious life of believers. The faithful provide information on their values, their treatment of the sacraments and dogma, and their religious practices. The Church op-erates freely, and the people can live their faith. But the formation of a religious ideology is not yet complete. Believers have not internalised key tenets of faith. Faith is accompanied by superstitious practices. Neither believers, nor the church are using Russia's religious potenti-al.

Gerd Stricker
Martyrs and saints
The canonisation of Nikolai II – a didactic play
In Muscovy and the Russian Empire, the relationship between State and Church was determined by the Byzantine model of Symphonia, according to which emperor and patriarch were co-equals and both spheres of life were tightly interwoven. Among the Orthodox saints are many rulers, such as St. Prince Aleksandr Nevskii, who were canonised for political reasons. In 2000, the Moscow Patriarchate canonised the last tsar, Nikolai II, and hundreds of martyrs of the Soviet regime. This decision was also not free of political motives.

Joachim Willems
Church and army
Religion and politics in Russia
The relationship between religious communities and military exemplifies the relationship between religion and politics. This also applies to Rus-sia. The attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to war and the military is ambivalent. On the one hand, it categorically condemns war. On the other hand, it places itself in the tradition of the church doctrine on just war, according to which war is legitimate and unavoidable under certain conditions. The church has built up a system of spiritual guidance in the Russian military. Some within the church have made the case for a symbiosis of church and army. But they are unrepresentative. Their real influence on politics is extremely slight.

Regina Elsner
(Dis)organised charity
Church social work in Russia
The break with Communism in Russia after 1991 led to serious social problems that exist to this day. The state's social system is not in a position to solve them. Numerous non-state organisations try to fill the vacuum in the social realm. Churches play an important role. The Rus-sian Orthodox Church has enormous social and political influence but little experience in social work. It lacks system and structure. The Ro-man Catholic Church by contrast is structured and professional in its social work, but it has to struggle with its dependency on foreign donors and its uncertain position on Russian territory.

Ulrich Schmid
The religious office of writer
Heresies in Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy
Russian authors from the 19th century demonstrate a strong impetus of social criticism. Many literary sketches of society have religious under-pinnings, but recommend unorthodox ways for the realisation of the national community: Gogol preached asceticism and self-mortification; Dostoevsky calls for a brotherhood of all men under Russian aegis; and Tolstoy rejects all forms of hierarchy and seeks to eradicate evil by means of a radical pacifism. These religious programs hide various confessional affinities: In his emphasis on the apocalypse, Gogol feeds on Catholicism; Dostoevsky's furore shows parallels to Protestantism; and Tolstoy's rejection of a personal god and his quietism point to a spiritual closeness to Buddhism.

Dorothea Redepenning
Musica sacra russica
Orthodox ties and post-modern spirituality
At the end of the 19th century, the music of the Orthodox Church flour-ished around the world. In the atheist Soviet Union, there could be no talk of religious music. Nonetheless, there apppeared, especially in the late 1960s, instrumental compositions that showed themselves to be religiously inspired, whether through their titles, musical quotes, or dis-creet programmes. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, an outright fashionable trend in religiously inspired compositions has come into existence.

Published 2009-06-30