This book provides the first comprehensive overview of atheism, secularity and non-religion in Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and builds upon recent trends to focus on the ‘rise of non-religion’ itself.
This book provides the first comprehensive overview of atheism, secularity and non-religion in Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In contrast to scholarship that has focused on the ‘decline of religion’ and secularization theory, the book builds upon recent trends to focus on the ‘rise of non-religion’ itself. While the label of ‘post-communism’ might suggest a generalized perception of the region, this survey reveals that the precise developments in each country before, after and even during the communist era are surprisingly diverse.
A multinational team of contributors provide interdisciplinary case studies covering Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. This approach utilises perspectives from social and intellectual history in combination with sociology of religion in order to cover the historical development of secularity and secular thought, complemented with sociological data. The study is framed by methodological and analytical chapters.
Offering an important geographical perspective to the study of freethought, atheism, secularity and non-religion, this wide-ranging book will be of significant interest to scholars of twentieth-century social and intellectual history, sociology of religion and non-religion, cultural and religious studies, philosophy and theology.
1 Studying Freethought and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe: An
Introduction-Atko Remmel, David Václavík and Tomá Bubík; 2 Bulgaria:
Freethought and Atheism in the Shadow of Ethnophyletism-Dimitar Denkov,
Georgi Vulchev and Valentina Gueorguieva; 3 Anticlericalism, Nonreligiosity
and Atheism in Croatia
Nikolina Hazdovac Baji, Dinka Marinovi Jerolimov and Branko Ani; 4
Freethinkers and Atheists in the Czech Lands in the Twentieth Century-Tomá
Bubík and David Václavík; 5 Atheism and Freethought in Estonian Culture-Atko
Remmel and Meelis Friedenthal; 6 Freethought, Atheism and Anticlericalism in
Twentieth-Century Hungary-Margit Balogh and András Fejérdy; 7 The
Trajectories of Atheism and Secularization in Latvia: From the German
Enlightenment to Contemporary Secularity- Mra Kiope, Inese Runce and Anita
Stasulane; 8 The Social History of Irreligion in Lithuania (from the
Nineteenth Century to the Present): Between Marginalization, Monopoly and
Disregard? -Milda Aliauskien; 9 Secularist Social Movements in Poland:
History, Institutionalization, Repertoire of Actions-Henryk Hoffmann and
Radosaw Tyraa; 10 Romania: Between Freethought, Atheism and Religion-
Lucian Turcescu; 11 Atheisms Peaks and Valleys in Russia- Elena Stepanova;
12 Slovakia as a Country without Atheism but with a History of Atheization-
Miroslav Tíik; 13 Atheism in the Context of the Secularization and
Desecularization of Ukraine in the Twentieth Century-Anna Mariya Basauri
Ziuzina and Oleg Kyselov; 14 Nonreligion in the CEE Region: Some
Remarks-Tomá Bubík, David Václavík and Atko Remmel
Tomá Bubík is Associate Professor at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic
Atko Remmel is a senior research fellow at Tartu University, Estonia, and research fellow at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic
David Vaclavik is an Associate professor of religious studies at Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno and Faculty of Education of Technical University in Liberec, Czech Republic
