Religiosity in Slovakia: Structure, Dynamics and Spatial Diversification

Podolinská, Tatiana Zachar; Tížik, Miroslav; Majo, Juraj

doi:10.14712/25704893.2019.1

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…These attitudes of the media can, to some extent, be related to the diversified religious views and their geographical distribution as well as dependence on age. Such distribution is typical of Slovakia (Zachar Podolinská et al 2019;Podolinská et al 2013): the news and media companies are concentrated in the capital of the country, driven by the younger generation. Previous research into the nature of the media points to a typical framing of the church as an enemy of progress, democracy and tolerance, as well as efforts to illustrate the church as a marginal social institution (Contreras 2007, pp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…With respect to the Czech Republic, the prevalent understanding among scholars is that religion and the church are detached from political and social life (Lužný et al 2007), that they are squeezed out into the private sphere (Lužný and Navrátilová 2001), and the poor social and political relevance is supplemented by general discontent with the church across the board (Kratochvíl 2011). The situation in Slovakia is the opposite: it is felt that the church is a significant political player (Zachar Podolinská et al 2019), sometimes perceived as an anti-democratic force during the 1990s (Reban 2014). However, there are also voices pointing to gradual withdrawal of the church from public life (Majo 2013;Valčo 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some argue that in the Czech context, both believers and non-believers are rather 'unsettled' in their views since their anti-church, or for that matter, pro-church attitudes are often based on convention and tradition rather than some deeply rooted convictions (Nešpor 2010). The Slovak religiosity, on the other hand, is characterized by social conformity (Bunčák 2001, p. 68), significant spatial diversity (Zachar Podolinská et al 2019), and different degrees of ongoing transformation related to secularisation (Majo 2013). Both countries are affected by a long-term trend of secularisation (Kratochvíl 2011;Lužný et al 2007) since the 19th century as well as the latest short-term trends of de-secularisation, which, one the other hand, are characterized by the expansion of the definition of religion (Podolinská 2007), deviation from the idea of a personal God (Lužný et al 2007), and the re-interpretation of the institution of the church-all of which have been described by scholars by various terms such as 'individuation', 'de-traditionalisation', 'privatisation of faith' or 'liquid faith' (Václavík 2010).…”

Section: Introduction and The State Of The Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media

Rončáková

2021

Journalism and Media

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The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to the introduction of various epidemiological measures, including the ban on public worship. The problem of closed churches has become an intensely debated subject across several countries and a hotly debated question in recent media discourse. This paper provides an analysis of the arguments presented on the subject of closed churches by the media in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In addition to the detailed analysis of the argumentation used, it also presents a twofold comparison: arguments presented in liberal versus conservative media, and arguments presented in the Slovak media versus Czech media. Twenty-eight years ago, these two countries were part of one state and after the split, the countries became a model of a peaceful dissolution (the so-called ‘velvet divorce’). However, from a religious perspective, they are quite different: whereas Slovakia is one of the most Christian (Catholic) countries, the Czech Republic is one of the most atheist countries in Europe. Three research dimensions are presented as part of this study: (1) media argumentation on the problem of closed churches; (2) comparison of liberal versus conservative arguments; (3) comparison of the media coverage in a strongly Christian country versus a strongly atheist country.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and The State Of The Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media

Rončáková

2021

Journalism and Media

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“…After 1989, religion has regained significance within Czech, Slovak, and Polish societies. This resurgence has been accompanied increased heterogeneity (Bilska-Wodecka 2005;Havlíček, Hupková 2008;Havlíček, Hupková, Smržová 2009;Havlíček, Klingorová 2018;Zachar Podolinska, Tížik, Majo 2019). Along with the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, these three countries experienced a revival of religious life (Henkel 2014), which has found expressions in the religious landscape (not only) through the emergence of new sacral structures (Havlíček, Hupková 2013;Havlíček, Klingorová 2018).…”

Section: The Role Of Post-secularism and Religious Identity In The Pementioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s perceptions of local religious sites in rural central Europe: case studies in the Czech-Polish and Polish-Slovak borderland

Reeves

Havlíček

2019

FGSoE

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This study focuses on the local identities of children living in rural towns of Czechia, Poland and Slovakia. Cognitive maps, drawn by elementary school students in geographically proximate municipalities near international borders, provide a means of investigating the significance of local religious sites in the minds of young people. This research successfully examines everyday interactions between the subjects and their local landscape. It seeks to highlight religious elements of local identities. The methods employed in this research present a more humanistic and qualitative approach, shedding light on the daily experiences of children in rural settings. Recognizing the inclusion and even the placement and artistic details of a religious site in a child-drawn map is a powerful way to move research “beyond the ‘officially sacred’”. The methods also allow for a blending of both passive – including a religious site in a cognitive map – and active – ranking a religious site among the top three important places – declarations of a religious element within local, territorial identity. This study demonstrates how children use elements of the local religious landscape in constructing and re-constructing their community identity. The two Slovak municipalities showed the greatest affinity for religious elements among the expressions of local identity (children’s cognitive maps). Poland’s municipalities ranked in the middle and the two Czech municipalities scored lowest in terms of religious sites being considered important to the research participants.

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“…Private statue of the Virgin (from Poland) in the bedroom of a Slovak Catholic woman, Beluša, Slovakia (photo byT. Zachar Podolinská, 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Travelling through the Battle Fields. The Cult of the Bogorodica in Serbian Tradition and Contemporary Times

Pavićević¹

2020

Traces of the Virgin Mary in Post-Communist Europe

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The chapter deals with the role of the Virgin Mary in the nation- state building process in Serbia. The beginning of the process of religious revival in Serbia coincided with the beginning of the social, economic and political crisis in the former Socialistic Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, which took place at the beginning of the 1990s. There was an urgent need to find new collective identity, since the earlier had been reduced to rubble. At the individual level, this process primarily implied increased participation in rites within the life cycle of an individual (baptism, wedding, and funeral), followed by popularisation of the practice of celebrating family's patron saint days and, only in the end and on the smallest scale, by an increase in the number of believers taking an active part in regular church services. On the collective level, the traditional closeness of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serb people and the state was the basic paradigm of such restructuring. The attempt to establish continuity with the tradition of the medieval Serb state, which implied active participation of the Church in both social and political matters, as well as the grafting of this relationship in the secular state and civil society in Serbia at the end of the second millennium, turned out to be a multi-tiered issue (Jevtić 1997). At mass celebrations, as well as at revolutionary street protest rallies (which were plentiful in the capital during the last dozen years or so) and at celebrations of the town's patron saint days and various festivities, the image of the ‘Bogorodica’ [Gr. ‘Theotokos’, i.e. The Mother of God]; appears. Leading the processional walks of the towns, it emerges as a symbol which manages to mobilise the nation with its fullness and multi-layered meaning. The main thesis of the chapter is to explain the historical roots of her cult and her embeddedness in the national history and identity in Serbia. The cult of the ‘Bogorodica’ has always had greater importance on the macro than on the micro level. This is corroborated by the fact that a relatively small number of families celebrated some of the ‘Bogorodica’ holidays as their Patron St Day, while a large number of monasteries and churches, as well as village Patron St Days were dedicated to one of them (Grujić 1985: 436). On the other hand, some authors believe that, with the acceptance of Christianity, it was the cult of the ‘Bogorodica’ which was the most developed among the Serb population, because her main and most widely recognisable epithet Baba, connected to giving birth, was directly associated with the powerful female pagan divinities such as the Great Mother, Grandmother etc. (Petrović 2001: 55; Čajkanović 1994a: 339). In the folk perception, the ‘Presveta Bogorodica’ [The Most Holy Mother of God] is unambiguously connected to the phenomenon and process of birth-giving and, that is why, barren women most frequently addressed the ‘Bogorodica’ for assistance. The observance of the image of the ‘Bogorodica’ was specifically connected with the so-called miracle icons, that is, her paintings linked to some miraculous event, either locally or generally. This was most frequently related to the icons which were famous for discharging myrrh, as well as icons which would ‘cry’ in certain situations, as well as those that changed the place of residence in a miraculous manner. The use of icons in wars, either those of conquest or defensive, appears to be a widely spread practice in the Orthodox world. It was noted that Serb noblemen carried standards with images of various saints to wars, and that the cities were frequently placed under the protection of certain icons. The author shows how, travelling through towns and battlefields, throughout the decades and centuries, the ‘Bogorodica’ appeared through its holy image at the end of the second millennium as the protectress, advocate, Pointer of the Way and foster mother of those who were, possibly more than ever, in need of miracles and waymarks.

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Religiosity in Slovakia: Structure, Dynamics and Spatial Diversification

Cited by 9 publications

References 1 publication

Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media

Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media

Children’s perceptions of local religious sites in rural central Europe: case studies in the Czech-Polish and Polish-Slovak borderland

Travelling through the Battle Fields. The Cult of the Bogorodica in Serbian Tradition and Contemporary Times

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