Churches and Identity in Central and Eastern Europe
The post-socialist transformation of Eastern and Central Europe challenges the identity of their Christian Churches as well. Despite decades of state-led marginalization of religion, when many people now search for meaning, they seek it mostly in the traditional Churches. At the same time, new demands by the states on Churches, a hitherto unknown religious diversity, and the growing pluralization of the societies, call for clear and theologically substantiated answers. Although the Churches have developed different strategies for coping with this new situation, all are characterized by the search for their own ecclesial identity within their respective historical, theological, and political experiences.
This conference, the biennial convention of the “Study of Religion” section of the German Association for East European Studies, will address the search of the Christian Churches in Central and Eastern Europe for identity in times of a massive social transformation. Case studies of single countries will analyze the commonalities and differences of the respective Christian traditions and of the different post-socialist contexts. The resulting variegated composite picture of the Christian identities in the region will provide an important contribution for a better understanding of the role of the Churches in current societal and political developments.
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The conference is organised jointly by the German Association for East European Studies and the Centre for East European and International Studies.
Veranstaltungsprogramm
Program (PDF, 163 kB)