Religious Diversity in Post-Soviet Society

Rezensionen / Stimmen

'Lithuania is normally, and correctly, thought of as a majority Catholic country, but this volume reveals the hitherto unacknowledged richness of its religious landscape. The Catholic Church is having to come to terms not only with its Soviet past but also with the contemporary scene in which it has to co-exist with Lithuania's minority traditional religions (Greek Catholics; Russian Orthodox; Old Believers; Judaism; Karaism; Islam; Lutheran and Reformed Churches) but also with new (to Lithuania) religions including Baptists; Buddhists, ISKCON; Unificationists; New Agers, Pagans and, perhaps most challenging of all, the Word of Life and Jehovah's Witnesses. This interesting, informative and invaluable volume not only charts the religious scene in this small Baltic country, but also provides a template with which we can compare the situation in which other Central and Eastern European countries find themselves two decades after the collapse of atheistic socialism. It is a book that should be on the shelves of all those with an interest in religion, social change and, particularly, but by no means only, the New Europe.' Eileen Barker, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics, UK 'Poised between the low levels of religiosity which characterise its Baltic, ex-Soviet neighbours and the high levels of Catholic Poland, Lithuania provides a fascinating window through which to examine processes of religious reconfiguration after socialism. The "birthright" Roman Catholic Church exercises a diffuse hegemony, especially in rural areas, but the contributors document an astonishing variety of beliefs and practices. This volume will be read with pleasure and profit by all concerned with the complex interdependence of the religious and the secular in modern Europe.' Chris Hann, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany '... an in-depth look at the relation of the once-predominant Roman Catholicism in Lithuania to the new pluralism that has emerged in the small