The Social Significance of Religion in the Enlarged Europe

Abstract

This publication consists of studies from nine countries in “the enlarged Europe”—the Europe we experience after the fall of the iron curtain. The former eastern bloc is represented by Poland, Russia, Estonia, Hungary, and Croatia and the west by Finland, Ireland, and Portugal. Furthermore there is the special case of today's Germany which is the result of a reunion of a western democracy and an earlier eastern socialist regime. The investigated countries are chosen according to socio-economic states of development and religious traditions, with the aim to cover the diversity of the enlarged Europe. The case studies are all structured in a similar way. Religion (religiosity) is first described on the societal, then on the organizational, and finally on the individual level. The descriptions and analyses of the single countries are surrounded by an introductory chapter and a final chapter in which the whole of the results are discussed and analyzed. Both chapters are written by the editors. Since it is impossible to present all the cases in a fair way, the focus here will be on these two chapters.