POLITICS AND FOLK RELIGION: CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMS

Barna, Gábor (2001) POLITICS AND FOLK RELIGION: CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMS. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 46 (1-2). pp. 9-21. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

The paper deals basically with the mutual interference of politics and religion. It gives a short historical overview based on European and Hungarian examples and tries to shape the dominance of them in different ages and fields (heretic movements, Reformation, Counter-Reformation, spiritual movements, Christian politics, political Catholicism, etc.). It describes how religious symbols or quasi-religious symbols can be/are used in politics as expressions for social and power efforts. It is dealing with the role of religion in nation-building in the past and present, with the role and formation of religious parties, of national and political myths. Politics has an important role in the re-christianization of Europe in the last decades, which can be observed not only in the post-communist countries, but elsewhere in Europe, too. Politics, political movements and ideologies (e.g. feminism) influence the everyday life of churches, causing debates and conflicts in governing church institutions. Religious movements can express and symbolise new ambitions and interests of given social strata and they can institutionalize, handle and conduct social conflicts (e.g. veneration of Jesus Heart). Religions and churches play an important role in the post-revolutional transition of Eastern Europe. Religion can legitimize social effort, can express national(istic) thoughts, conflicts (e.g. former Yugoslavia, Armenia, today Romania, Northern Ireland, Scotland) or social tolerance (Switzerland, today Hungary, etc.). Religion has played an important role in colonialization, having built new traditions, protecting given efforts and interest. But religion played an important role also in decolonialization. Religion can be a basis of social pillarization also in the age of secularization. Secularization processes in the late 20th century politics are no de-sacralization processes at the same time. Secular movements, because they need legitimation, use signs, symbols which often can be found in religious symbolism (communist movements and parties, neo-pagan movements, etc.). The paper tries to interpret the secularization process. In my interpretation it is a privatization process of religion(s) and as result of the process emerges an individual/invisible religiosity.

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