engleski

Economic aspects of Church-State relations as a challenge for the sociology of religion

As it has already been argued by different scholars, the issue of Church-State relations is principally a domain of jurists or historians, rather than sociologists, and if it falls under the scope of a sociological interest, it is studied from the point of view of an (un)equal position of different (minority) religions. The paper does not question this approach but argues that the so far neglected aspects of Church-State relations can shed more light on studying the public position and role of churches. In order to demonstrate this, the paper will give an overview of the financial aspects of Church-State relations in countries of Central and Eastern Europe and will analyze the public opinion about attitudes towards the Church’s ownership of social institutions and their financing by the Church, as well as the ethical aspects of the public role of churches. Furthermore, the paper will analyze the connection between religiosity indicators and the economic aspects of Church-State relations, and will discuss the findings related to current debates about the public role of the religion in a secularizing Europe.

Church-state relations; financing religions; economics aspects; sociology of religion

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