Church And Religion In Contemporary Europe

This volume represents an attempt in integrating a wide range of theoretically relevant issues into the identification and analysis of church-state patterns. Each chapter focuses on the analysis of a particular theme and its role in shaping, and/or being shaped by, church-state relations.

In this volume, leading academic authorities on the social analysis of religion examine its contemporary role in Europe. The book traces the shifting shape of European religion and reviews the interaction of theology and politics in shaping European cultural identity.

This volume offers a European overview of the management of religious diversity in prisons and provides readers with rich empirical material and a comparative perspective. The chapters combine both legal and sociological approaches. Coverage for each country includes historical background, current penitentiary organization, and recent changes or trends. In their exploration of legal aspects, the contributors look at such factors as the status of prison chaplains and regulations concerning religious practice and religious freedom. These include meals, prayers, and visits. The sociological analysis examines religious discrimination in prison, church-prison relations, conversion and proselytism, and more. The European coverage includes countries for which such information is seldom available. The book offers readers a better understanding of governance of religion in prisons. This text appeals to students, researchers and professionals in the field.

Religion in Modern Europe examines religion as a form of collective memory. This is a memory held in place by Europe's institutional churches, educational systems, and the mass media - all of which are themselves responding to rapid social and economic change. Europe's religious memory is approached in the following ways: as vicarious-a particularly European characteristic, as precarious-especially among young people, and as it is portrayed by the media. The memory may fragment, be disputed, and in extreme cases, disappear. Alternatives may emerge. The challenge for European societies is to affirm healthy mutations in religious memory and discourage others. The book also examines the increasing diversity of Europe's religious life. European Societies Series Series Editor: Colin Crouch Very few of the existing sociological texts which compare different European societies on specific topics are accessible to a broad range of scholars and students. The European Societies series will help fill this gap in the literature, and attempt to answer questions such as: Is there really such a thing as a 'European model' of society? Do the economic and political integration processes of the European Union also imply convergence in more general aspects of social life, like family or religious behaviour? What do the societies of Western Europe have in common with those further to the east? This series will cover the main social institutions, although not every author will cover the full range of European countries. As well as surveying existing knowledge in a way that will be useful to students, each book will also seek to contribute to our growing knowledge of what remains in many respects a sociologically unknown continent.

Current scholarship continues to emphasise both the importance and the sheer diversity of religious beliefs within early modern societies. Furthermore, it continues to show that, despite the wishes of secular and religious leaders, confessional uniformity was in many cases impossible to enforce. As the essays in this collection make clear, many people in Reformation Europe were forced to confront the reality of divided religious loyalties, and this raised issues such as the means of accommodating religious minorities who refused to conform and the methods of living in communion with those of different faiths. Drawing together a number of case studies from diverse parts of Europe, Living with Religious Diversity in Early Modern Europe explores the processes involved when groups of differing confessions had to live in close proximity - sometimes grudgingly, but often with a benign pragmatism that stood in opposition to the will of their rulers. By focussing on these themes, the volume bridges the gap between our understanding of the confessional developments as they were conceived as normative visions and religious culture at the level of implementation. The contributions thus measure the religious policies articulated by secular and ecclesiastical elites against the 'lived experience' of people going about their daily business. In doing this, the collection shows how people perceived and experienced the religious upheavals of the confessional age and how they were able to assimilate these changes within the framework of their lives.

This volume provides a coherent critical examination of current issues related to the religious roots of contemporary, i.e. post-1990 European identity. This book has taken a multi and interdisciplinary approach, analysing the religious roots of Europe's identity today, with a focus on the secular context of religious communities. This will serve the readers to perceive their own identity in a wider context of shared values, reaching beyond a particular faith or non-religious framework.

Essays on the church and religion in contemporary Europe.