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In Hoc Signo Vinces: Religious Symbolism in the Balkan Wars 1991–1995

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Abstract

Symbols—as important and very persuasive elements of contemporary national and political mythologies and their iconography—are particulary exposed during critical periods of certain nations' history. Although the role and influences of religious organizations and hierarchies before and during the last wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were quite different, all belligerent sides also employed religious symbols in their nationalistic/political mobilizations and military efforts. The ambition of this paper is to show the spectrum of (mis)uses of religious symbolism in these wars: Orthodox on Serbian side, Roman Catholic on Croatian, and Muslim on Bosniak' side. Comparative and sociohistorical analytical approaches can to some degree elucidate how traditional religious symbols were renewed and the new “traditionalized” during that time; how they were “nationalized” and “politicized” which elements of the religious heritage were most often applied; and how these symbols were exploited in military actions and politics of ethnic/religious cleansing.

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  1. Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Mitja Velikonja

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  1. Mitja Velikonja
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Velikonja, M. In Hoc Signo Vinces: Religious Symbolism in the Balkan Wars 1991–1995. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 17, 25–40 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025332709069

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