CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY AS FACTORS OF NON-RELIGION. THE CASE OF THE CZECH BORDERLAND

• Authors: Václavík David
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The Czech Republic is considered one of the most atheistic countries globally. One of the reasons used to explain the high level of secularization of Czech society and the high level of distrust in religion and religious institutions is the specific historical conditions. In this context, the political anti-Catholicism of a large part of the Czech political elite during the period of the so-called First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) and the influence of the communist regime are mentioned in particular. In my paper, I will try to show that other factors probably played a key role, especially the significant socio-demographic changes associated with the displacement of the German population after the Second World War. World War II and the disruption of traditional ties in the Czech countryside as a result of the so-called collectivization of the countryside (the top-directed elimination of private agriculture and the dismantling of traditional rural structures). Along with this, I will try to show that most of the existing explanations overestimate the role of ideological arguments against religion and, on the contrary, underestimate the influence of factors such as the disruption of collective memory, the reduction of the public visibility of religion and the role of (non-) religious socialization.

Keywords

EN

RELIGION; MEMORY; CONTINUITY; DISCONTINUITY; SECULARITY; CZECH REPUBLIC

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenský národopis (Slovak Ethnology)
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 70
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 507 - 529

Contributors

author

Václavík David

• Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Arna Nováka 1/1, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5761-7445

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/SN.2022.4.40