Church and Civil Society/Theology and Civil Religion
The member of the cTPM Tim Noble has just published a new article in a theological journal Ökumenische Rundschau. The paper is called Church and Civil Society/Theology and Civil Religion, and it deals with the theme in relation to peculiar conditions of Czech society, in which Churches suffered under communism, and till today they are generally regarded with suspicion. You can read the English version of the text here.
Noble, T. (2017). Church and Civil Society/Theology and Civil Religion. Ökumenische Rundschau, 2, 222–236.
Abstract
Although a new country, the territory of today’s Czech Republic has a long history, in which religion, for good or ill, has played an integral part. Today the country is marked by low levels of institutionalised religiosity. What effect does this low level of religious participation have on the relationship between church and civil society, and how is the socio-religious dimension of communal national life articulated in terms of civil religion in a country where there is very little private religion? In order to answer that question, we must first consider civil society and civil religion.