Abstract

This international and interdisciplinary project will explore the complex and dynamic relationship between religion and politics and the misuse of religion in the four post-communist countries of Central Europe: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary and create a sustainable platform for building resilience.

Although certainly a more universal trend, the exploitation of religious traditions for political ends has acquired a distinct flavor in these countries due to their specific history and context. It is closely related to an ideological vacuum that emerged after the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the communist empire. Typically – and, indeed, inadvertently – collective identity in the post-communist countries came to be reinforced through nationalism and a “return” to cultural-religious roots (of the pre-communist era). Religion and nation emerged as the two most powerful symbolic sources of collective identity to design a framework for a shared “us,” only too often – sadly – negotiated over against a certain “them.” Recently, this process has been intensified by the intertwined processes of globalization, migration, and “euro-integration,” implying a sense of uncertainty and a perceived threat allegedly posed by such phenomena as migration, the “decadent West,” and Brussels’ “bureaucratic machinery.” This has resulted in “liquid fear” and liquid resentment. Although notoriously difficult to pinpoint, this tendency is by and large nourished by religious sentiments and resources. As such, religious rhetoric, and the religious capital in general, is exploited to fan and reinforce nationalism, fundamentalism, xenophobia, and a lack of trust in the West, the European Union, and liberal democracy.

The project will focus on exploring and comparing the extent of as well as the internal and external reasons for these tendencies in the V4 countries. For this purpose, cooperation with experts in critical disinformation studies will be pursued. Furthermore, the project will also benefit from close cooperation with public opinion makers, politicians, and young future leaders. Based on research findings and practical input, and in close collaboration with an international research team including members from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the USA, the project will seek to formulate theoretical pillars and – importantly – practical strategies to build resilience against these negative influences. In particular, the project will aim at searching for ways to employ the ethical potential of religious traditions to develop long-term and solid democratic culture and to deepen European integration and transatlantic cooperation.

The goal will be to establish a central European communicational and educational platform connecting people from various fields of public life and to propose strategies for overcoming the aforementioned negative tendencies, on the one hand, and fostering efficient international cooperation, on the other hand.

Project objectives and outputs

• Create a sustainable platform/network for cooperation between public leaders, opinion makers, journalists, religious leaders, and scholars in overcoming and eliminating destructive pseudo-religious expressions and motifs in public life
• Build resilience through PR campaigns and public discussions
• Generate a varied body of educational tools and other resources (papers, video materials, media outputs, etc.) accessible to the general public
• Produce materials that could be further used to prepare educational programs for young people as well as adults with the aim of preventing extremization and fundamentalism
• Provide churches and religious communities with resources to immunize them against the attempts to misuse religion
• Explore ways how churches and religious communities can become a constructive agent in the common pursuit toward open, democratic, and inclusive society