Synopsis "Church, State, and Democracy in Expanding Europe"
In this carefully researched and elegantly written book, Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu examine the relationship between religion and politics in ten former communist Eastern European countries based on extensive fieldwork carried out in that region over the past decade. Contrary to widespread theories of increasing secularization, Stan and Turcescu argue that in most of these countries the populations have shown themselves to remain religious even as they embrace modernization and democratization.Church-state relations in the new EU member states can be seen in political representation for church leaders, governmental subsidies, registration of religions by the state authorities, and religious instruction in public schools. Stan and Turcescu outline three major models of interaction between the religious and political spheres: the Czech church-state separation model, in which religion is private and the government secular; the pluralist model of Hungary, Bulgaria and Latvia, which views society as a group of complementary but autonomous spheres - for example, education, the family, and religion - each of which is worthy of recognition and support from the state; and the dominant religion model that exists in Poland, Romania, Estonia, and Lithuania, in which the government maintains informal ties to the religious majority.Church, State, and Democracy in Expanding Europe offers critical tools for understanding church-state relations in an increasingly modern and democratic Eastern Europe. It is a book designed for both careful observers of post-communist realities in the new European Union member states and the members of the general public who are curious about the place of religion in countries that, for decades, were governed by self-avowed atheistic regimes.
