Sacred Geography of the Post-Socialist Balkans: Transformations of Religious Landscape and Pilgrimage

Abstract

This introductory text aims at presenting the dynamics in the development of religious life in the post-socialist Balkans and the trends in its research from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences.The topic has geographical as well as political and temporal limitations.The transformations in the political, economic, social and cultural development of the former socialist countries have been taking place hand in hand with significant changes in religious life as well.The officially imposed atheistic ideology and the restriction on religious practice during socialism have been followed by a manifestation of religious feelings, particularly in the 1990s.The different faiths traditional for the region have come alive in the public sphere.After 1989, the religious sphere became more pluralized in the countries of the Eastern bloc, and new religious movements such as neo-Protestantism, Eastern teachings, New Age ideas, etc. began to spread.The intensification of religious practice in post-socialist countries raises the question of defining the processes observed.The research corpus on the issue can be grouped into four major theses: on the revitalization of religion; on the important differences in the religiousness of different countries; on religion as an important identity framework for social processes; and on the role of religion in the new pluralistic social environment (Jerolomov, Zrinščak 2006: 280). Researchers of religion in Eastern Europe define the observed processesDownloaded from Brill.

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