Vol.2, No 6, 1999 pp. 49 - 74
UDC: 316.6:322:241.1
BUT WHO'S GOING TO WIN?
NATIONAL AND MINORITY RELIGIONS IN POST-COMMUNIST SOCIETY
Eileen Barker
The London School of Economics and Political Science
Abstract. With the dramatic collapse of atheistic socialism at the end of the 1980s, it was widely assumed that religious freedom would immediately spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe and that new democratic and pluralistic states would replace the oppressive regimes of the past. Soon, however, it became apparent that neither democracy nor pluralism were without their own inherent difficulties, and that religious freedom was not as easy to implement ? or even, perhaps, as desirable as had once been thought.
This paper examines some of the problems that faced the Mother Churches of Eastern and Central Europe once they were allowed to function without State interference in their own societies, and how their problems were intensified by the competition from other religions that emerged in their own countries and, more particularly, came from the West. Especial attention will be paid to the characteristics of the wide variety of new religious movements or 'cults', and the reception that missionaries and converts have been receiving. One process to be examined is the extent to which the rhetoric of nationalism has become increasingly used to define heresy as treason. The paper will conclude with a brief discussion of the importance of objective research and scholarship as a contribution to the understanding of the new and alien religious movements if an extremely delicate situation is not to become exacerbated still further.
KO ĆE POBEDITI? NACIONALNE ILI RELIGIJE MANJINA U POSTKOMUNISTIČKOM DRUŠTVU
Sa dramatičnim padom ateističkog socijalizma krajem osamdesetih godina uveliko se pretpostavljalo da će se verska sloboda smesta proširiti čitavom srednjom i istočnom Evropom i da će nove demokratske i pluralističke zemlje zameniti represivne režime iz prošlosti. Međutim, ubrzo je postalo očigledno da ni demokratija ni pluralizam nisu bez svojih nasleđenih poteškoća i da nije lako ugraditi versku slobodu, a, možda, da to nije čak ni tako poželjno kao što se nekada mislilo.
Ovaj rad ispituje neke probleme sa kojima su se suočile glavne crkve istočne i srednje Evrope od trenutka kada im je dozvoljeno da funkcionišu bez mešanja države u svojim društvima; isto tako, rad razmatra način na koji su se njihovi problemi mnogo zaoštrili usled suparništva sa drugim verama koje su se javile u sopstvenim zemljama ili su, tačnije rečeno, stigle sa zapada. Posebna pažnja je posvećena karakteristikama širokog spektra novih verskih pokreta ili "kultova", kao i prijemu na koji nailaze misionari i preobraćenici. Jedan od procesa koji treba istražiti je stepen do koga se retorika nacionalizma sve više koristi da bi definisala herezu kao izdaju. Na kraju, u radu se daje kratko razmatranje značaja objektivnog istraživanja i naučnog metoda što je doprinos razumevanju novih i stranih verskih pokreta da se ne bi dalje pogoršavala jedna, ionako izuzetno delikatna, situacija.