Religion and Nation

The research problem of this subarea can be divided in two parts. One of them is the relation between religion and national identity and nationalism. This part can be mainly dealt with using discourse analysis. The second part is the relation between different nature of religiosity and national identity or pride. This part can elaborated based on statistical data like Aufbruch II and other national and international data bases. But the fundamental question is the same in both parts: what are the particular correlations between religion and nation in CEE and how can good policies be made concerning nation and religion for the better cohabitation in this region and in the Europe as a whole?

In some European societies nationalism defined as a political ideology gradually replaced religion, in other close relation of national and religious identities gave protections to both, religious commitment as well as to national attitudes. After oppression of secularist state ceased the mutual protection no longer has been necessary, consequently both, the nation and religious involvement should decrease. Many analyses of quantitative survey data are possible to relate nationalism and religion; however sociological study of relations will be carried out. The number of nationalistic references rapidly decreased in apostolic addresses of Catholic Church in Poland. In the same time religious and national identifications are still intertwined and salient. What will be described is the relation of state-related, nation-related, God-related and church related identifications.

The original and later changed idea of Bellah about civil religion saw the strong correlation between American nationalism and one particular kind of religion without nearness to Christian traditions and without belonging to the churches as well. In a different degree modernized and secularized cultural region as CEE the question is important: concerning nationalism the former function of religion in the transitional period or on the other hand can be asked what dimension of society will play the role of former nationalism and religion in the future of the region.