Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion

Volume 15 (Forthcoming 2024)

Change and Its Discontents: Religious Organizations and Religious Life in Central and Eastern Europe

Edited by Olga Breskaya, University of Padova, and Siniša Zrinščak, University of Zagreb

The pivotal role of religion in the social transformation of Central and Eastern European societies has been well established in the social scientific study of religion. As influential public actors not controlled by the Communist authorities, religions became primary channels of change, epitomized by the overall post-1989 social transformation. The process of liberalization of religious life enabled religions to enter various dimensions of public life as an agent of deprivatization of normative systems and a source for individual and collective identities. The symbolic and cultural power of religion became an influential source of meaning in the public sphere and effervescence of collective forms of life. Growth and diversification of religious communities, the public role of religion, and the increasing significance of religious institutions have been demonstrative in the majority, if not all, post-communist societies in the region. Still, the social transformation of former communist societies has faced numerous challenges, recently well demonstrated by the democracy crisis, the rise of populist movements, and various constraints to individual liberties, including violence and wars. However, while religion has remained a strong basis for public involvement of many religious people and religiously-backed civil society organizations, which attract scholarly interest, the role of religion in private life has been less observed and researched. The dynamics between the debated and contested public role of religious organizations and negotiating role of religion as a source and normative guidance in private circles of life/everyday experience has yet to be adequately addressed. Against this background, this volume aims to focus on religious and social change in multiple and controversial ways, as demonstrated by the social transformation of Central and Eastern European societies since 1989. In particular, we invite papers dealing with the following issues:

• Theories of social and religious change
• Conditions of religious revival and social transformation
• Integrative and disintegrative role of religions in various socio-political context
• Religion and identity-building at the local, regional, and national scale
• Religions, norm-making, and the formation of values
• Freedom of/from religion: its reception and regulation
• Forms of religious diversity and social innovation

Please send proposals (400 words) and a brief bio to Siniša Zrinščak (sinisa.zrinscak@pravo.hr)

Deadline Submission of proposals: July 31, 2022

Deadline Notification of acceptance: September 30, 2022 Deadline completed manuscripts (7,000 words): April 30, 2023