Overview
- Includes contributors based in the Eastern European regions covered in the volume
- Challenges social scientists to nuance their understanding of how secularization is changing Europe
- Provides a complement to the editors' previous project Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare: Associational Life and Religion in Contemporary Western Europe with a new focus on Eastern Europe
- Searches for larger political, sociological, cultural and religious patterns that bind and differentiate the Eastern European countries
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy (PSRPP)
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Majority Roman Catholic Countries
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Front Matter
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Countries with Large Numbers of Religiously Unaffiliated
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- faith-based organizations
- faith-based welfare
- faith-based social engagement
- post-communist society
- post-communist Eastern Europe
- (neo) secularization theory
- welfare service
- secular democracy
- secular society
- social advocacy
- social services
- social welfare
- civil society
- European associational life
- church welfare
- contemporary Eastern Europe
- religiously unaffiliated
- Catholic
- Protestant
- Evangelical
About this book
This volume seeks to understand the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening associational life through the provision of social services, thereby legitimizing a new role for faith in the formerly secular public sphere. Specifically, we explore how a church in a postcommunist setting, during periods of economic growth and recession in the wake of transitions to capitalism, and with varied numbers of adherents, might contribute to welfare services in a new political regime with freedom of religion. Put another way, what new pressures would be placed on the secular welfare state if religious organizations (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, others) simply stopped offering their services? By examining public perceptions of the church, changing dynamics of religiosity, and church-state-civil society relations, the volume places these issues in context.
Reviews
“I welcome a further volume from Miguel Glatzer and Paul Manuel on religion and welfare in Europe. The emphasis this time is on a range of post-communist countries: some Orthodox, some Catholic and some markedly secular. What contributions do the churches make to the delivery of welfare in these very varied contexts? And—more profoundly—what does this tell us about the evolving place of religion in this part of the world?”
—Grace Davie, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Exeter, UK
“Following their focus on Western Europe in an earlier volume, Glatzer and Manuel turn their attention to Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe. This fascinating and illuminating volume brings together both country and theoretical experts, providing a comprehensive examination of how religious organizations can contribute to welfare services under novel political regimes which, at least theoretically, provide much greater freedom of religion than in the immediate past. A must-read for anyone interested in the current roles of religion and civil society in post-Communist Europe.”
—Jeffrey Haynes, Professor & Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion, Conflict and Cooperation, London Metropolitan University, UK
“An excellent volume that not only deals with faith-based organizations and their role in society, but challenges deep-seated assumptions about secularization, including by showing how Eastern European churches became more involved in the shaping of local democracies than their Western counterparts.”
—Lucian Turcescu, Professor and Graduate Program Director, Department of Theological Studies,
Concordia University, Canada
“This authoritative text is of great importance as it explores key issues, offers insights and opens avenues for further research on the provision of social welfare services by faith-based organizations in post-communist Eastern Europe. This part of the world tends to be examined through a lens that is derived from Western European experiences and notions of secularization, modernization and democratization. The editors and authors of the volume explore the relationships between religion, democracy and social welfare during Eastern Europe's unique historical, political and socioeconomic trajectories in its multifaceted transition to a capitalist market-based system. Their insights make important contributions on topics of even greater significance, including the intertwined relationships between religion, democracy, the welfare state and social policy, and the economic marketplace.”
—Lina Molokotos-Liederman, Research Fellow, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK & Affiliated Researcher, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, UK
“Where previous work on religion in Eastern Europe often emphasized conflict and competition between the mainline Church or Churches and the secular state, this volume, ably edited by Miguel Glatzer and Paul Manuel, offers something new, placing its stress rather on the engagement of Churches in charity, including collaboration with state authorities in joint social programs. Coverage includes both Orthodox societies (Russia, Ukraine, Romania) and predominantly Catholic societies (such as Poland and Croatia, among others), as well as societies with large numbers of religiously unaffiliated (specifically Estonia and the Czech Republic). There is much to learn from this innovative book, which any serious university library should acquire.”
—Sabrina P. Ramet, Professor of Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
“The book is a significant contribution to political science analyses of religion and social welfare. It casts a wide net over the entangled dynamics of religion and social welfare in nine East-Central-European countries in a manner that resists generalization. Drawing on analyses of the way religious organizations address various forms of social distress, this fine collection of articles underscores the pressing issue of social welfare in such an intricate religious landscape.”
—Detelina Tocheva, Research Fellow, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France
“By looking at the role of religion for the provision of welfare and associational life, the volume addresses crucial topics in contemporary Eastern Europe in great detail. The authors in the volume train their eyes on emphasizing the nuances between the states and religions in Eastern Europe. To sum up, it is fair to say that the volume contributes substantially to our understanding of religion in its relation to politics and society in these societies.”
—Tobias Köllner, University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany
“This volume is outstanding in its contribution to the debate on religion in politics. Focusing on the institutional power of faith-based organizations that provide welfare services, the volume analyses a major but understudied factor of the public role of religion. In contrast to the secularization and differentiation thesis, religion still matters in providing for basic social needs. The editors bring together a theoretically sound collection with a wide range of case studies from post-communist Eastern Europe. The individual chapters shed light on the variations the return and resilience of religion can show. This excellent contribution is a must-read for all scholars and students with an interest in comparative politics, religion and politics, social policy, and Eastern Europe. It sets a new bench mark in the field.”
—Mariano P. Barbato, Professor of Political Science at the University of Passau, Germany, and DFG Heisenberg Fellow at the Center for Religion and Modernity at the University of Munster, Germany
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Paul Christopher Manuel is the Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer and distinguished scholar in residence in the Department of Government in the School of Public Affairs at American University, USA. His research interests address comparative democratization, comparative public policy, and the relationship between religion and politics.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare
Book Subtitle: Associational Life and Religion in Contemporary Eastern Europe
Editors: Miguel Glatzer, Paul Christopher Manuel
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44707-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-44706-9Published: 19 August 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-44709-0Published: 19 August 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-44707-6Published: 18 August 2020
Series ISSN: 2731-6769
Series E-ISSN: 2731-6777
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXVIII, 239
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 24 illustrations in colour
Topics: Politics and Religion, Religion and Society, European Politics