Laboratory of Secularisation
Church and Religion in the Czech Republic
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Nowhere in Europe is secularisation so far advanced as in the Czech Republic. It can be observed there, as in a laboratory, what it means when religion disappears from the public space and fewer and fewer people profess a faith. This loss of importance for religion cannot be explained alone by the Communist persecution of the church. The roots of secularisation go deeper. From the start, the Czech national movement defined Czech national identity by consciously dissociating from the Roman Catholic Church, which was understood in essence as instrument of Germanisation of the Austrian monarchy.
(Osteuropa 6/2009, pp. 93–100)