Slovenian Studies on Religion

Four Slovenian sociologists discuss the connections of religion, politics, philosophy, and the modern state, mostly in a post-socialist, East and Central European context. While exploring the relationship between religion and the secularized modern state, Alesˇ Debeljak clarifies the boundaries between conservatism, traditionalism, and fundamentalism. Remaining on an abstract level, he seeks to identify the basic characteristics of fundamentalism as a religious-political activity. Mitja Velikonja draws attention to the role of the different religions and churches in the (re)creation of the different national myths in the post-socialist East and Central European states. Marjan Smrke approaches Slovenia’s religious past and present from a sociological perspective, and highlights distinct shifts in the religious sensibility of the people after the separation from the former Yugoslavia, with special attention to the strenghtening superstitiousness. Finally, Lev Kreft contemplates on the legacy of the Enlightenment: the guilty conscience of twentieth-century European intellectuals, and the spread of extremism that has found its rational foundation in the enlightened criticism of the Enlightenment.