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Frontmatter (Volume 39, Issue 6), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Role Of Religion In The Western Balkans’ Societies - Full Text

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This is the entire volume of proceedings from the first regional conference on the role of religion in the western Balkans, held in Tirana, June 11-12, 2019, under the auspices of the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (http://idmalbania.org/).

Reproduced with permission.

Frontmatter (Volume 39, Issue 5), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Intertwining Of Religion And Nation: The Russian Administration’S Approach To Religious Life And National Identity, Beth Admiraal

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "The relationship between religion and nation that is promoted by a state will have tremendous effects on religious minority groups. For religious minorities in Russia, the forms that are most utilized by the state are exclusion and strong internalism. The former leads the state to cherry-pick troublesome religious groups for exclusion, for failing to be ‘Russian’ enough, leading to serious impairment for religious groups that are singled out by the state as threats to the nation. With regards to the latter formulation, the Russian Orthodox Church is the basis for a strong internalist mechanism, determining who is in and …

Is The East-West Political Bipolarity The Foundation Of The Ecumenical Movement? The Cold War As A Meta-Narrative Of The World Council Of Churches, Katharina Kunter

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "...the following remarks provide an overview of the role of churches during the Cold War. Very often, the role of churches will be represented by developments and discussions within the WCC, which can be understood as a sort of role model, because it provided the "bell" for similar developments in the Western and Northern European countries. Three topics were prioritized. First was the dilemma of an ecumenism between the East and West in the early phase of the Cold War during the late 1940s and 1950s, which accompanied the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Second, …

Nationalistic Smog Over Poland, Alfred Marek Wierzbicki

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "Nationalism poisons Christianity. It strips its universalism and humanism. Using a slogan from a church hymn “We want God” on nationalists’ banners should rouse objection. God cannot be appropriated by one nation. Besides that, what is the reason for elevating this slogan in a setting conducive to religious freedom? If this supposed to be a response to secularization of modern culture, then combining it with racial slogans of white civilization and clearly anti-Islamic slogans, is a primitive action grown out from a fear of what is different and foreign. Religion assimilating social and national fears is a pathological phenomenon …

Recent Protestant Developments In Ukraine And Russia, William Yoder

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Topics covered, with commentary, include:

Ukraine Baptist Union Breaks Its Ties with John MacArthur

Seminary Suspensions in Russia; Moscow’s Baptist Seminary is Back in Operation

New Inter-Confessional Body in Ukraine

Surviving Past–And Future–Blockades; A Russian Prayer Breakfast Met in St. Petersburg

Commentary: Franklin Graham in Moscow

A Bridgebuilder between East and West: Siegfried Springer Has Died

Evangelical Protestant Churches In The Republic Of Macedonia After World War Ii (1947-2017), Jovan Jonovski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The first Evangelical Protestant church in the territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia was established in Bitola (Monastir) in 1873, which became the Methodist Church in 1922. The second one is the Baptist Church established in 1928 in Skopje. After WWII, both Churches (denominations) faced difficulties from the socialist government, and the activities of the Church became restricted to the church building. The general situation changed at the end of the 1980s when, in 1987, a new wave arrived with the beginning of activities with two other churches: Christ’s Pentecostal (later Evangelical) Church and the Congregational Church. In the …

Frontmatter (Volume 39, Issue 2), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Moral Teachings In The Holy Books, The Bible And The Quran, About The Relationship Of The Human To Nature: A Macedonian Research Project, Ruzhica Cacanoska, Pande Lazarevski Phd, Margarita Matlievska Phd, Hanif Dauti, Vesna Zabijakin Chatleska, Phd, Gjoko Gjorgjevski Phd, Duca Zvrleska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The subject matter of this manuscript is the separation and actualization of the thematic areas of the holy books, the Bible and the Quran, in which the human-nature relationship is elaborated, indicated or specified. The emphasis is on the moral teachings contained in the holy books, the Bible and the Quran, which, refer to the human–nature relationship and their influence on the development of ecological awareness in that context, are supported by or grounded in the holy books. The empirical research point to the conclusion is that religion is an important source or basis of morality, and it determines the …

Adam Reinhold Schiewe---A Cross-Border Man Of Faith: A Baptist Trailblazer In Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, And Russia, Üllas Linder

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This study aimed at compiling a biography of the preacher Adam Reinhold Schiewe (1843–1930). Schiewe ministered in the territories of present-day Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, and Estonia. His historical significance lies primarily in the formal founding of the first Baptist congregation in Estonia. Schiewe wrote memoirs of his life and is featured in a large number of fragmentary, at times even contradictory, sources. The author pointed out the inaccuracies found therein and reconstructed a plausible biography. The study was originally written in Estonian and was supported by a single scholarship from the ESF programme DoRa activity 8.

Azerbaijan: Religious Freedom Survey, 2018, Felix Corley, John Kinahan

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Azerbaijan restricts freedom of religion and belief with interlinked freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. Forum 18’s survey analyzes violations including prisoners of conscience who were jailed and tortured for exercising freedom of religion and belief, strict state literature censorship, and regime claims of its “tolerance.” Forum 18's survey analysis documents Azerbaijan's violations of freedom of religion and belief, with interlinked freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. Serious violations include but are not limited to:

- a complex labyrinth of “legal” restrictions to prevent the exercise of freedom of religion, belief, and other fundamental freedoms;

-total state control of the …

Hundred Years Since Yugoslavia’S Birth: Lesson On Nationalism, Balkanization, And Religion In Europe’S Periphery, Vjekoslav Perica

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In 2018, historians were marking the one hundredth anniversary of the foundation of a nation-state in southeastern Europe remembered as Yugoslavia–the country of Southern Slavs. The multi-ethnic nation used to connect several European ethnic groups of the shared Slavonic ancestry yet were divided by three major religions and mutually exclusive ethnic nationalist ideologies. The Yugoslav national project lasted seven decades under various regime types in a sensitive balance often disturbed by wars. In the 20th century alone, the territory of the former Yugoslavia saw six major wars, three cycles of ethnic cleansing and genocide, and about fifteen various states and …

Supporting A Canadian Proposal To Declare Srebrenica Genocide Denial Illegal, Rusmir Mahmutćehajić,

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A letter written by the author, Dr. Rusmir Mahmutćehajić, at the request of Professor Ramić in support of a petition currently before the Canadian federal parliament to make denial of the genocide at Srebrenica illegal

Frontmatter (Volume 39, Issue 1), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Theological Effort Of Hafiz Ali Of Korcha, Ismail Bardhi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Hafiz Ali Korcha's work and activities in the fields of theology, literature, and education can be viewed, from the historical-theological perspective, as a reflection of his theological effort. This is the central category, containing as it does all of Korcha's cognitive-theoretical, axiological, and cultural-theological speculations, as well as his views on science, literature, cultural policy, and religion. In his entire theological opus, one feels the fragrance of the Qur'an and of the life of Prophet Muhammad a.s. Theological effort, as understood by Korcha, differs from theology in that it is the source of theologizing and is a primordial tendency of …

Survey Report Albania, Leonie Vrugtman, Dior Angjeli

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In April and May 2019, more than one hundred surveys were distributed amongst influential figures in Albania. The survey aimed to gather their views on the role of religion in Albania and the Western Balkans.

Europe With(Out) A Heart And A Soul?, András Máté-Tóth

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"You don't know what kind of spirit you are," Jesus said to his disciples, James and John, as they wanted to condemn a Samaritan village because it didn’t want to receive him (Luke 9:55). I would like to start my article by transforming Jesus' statement and by using it for Europe: “Europe – Jesus could say today – You don't know of what kind of spirit you are.” But Europe has many answers to Jesus' statement. Europe is not without a soul, it was never an empty body and it is not one today

Country Snapshot Kosovo, Leonie Vrugtman, Diori Angjeli

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A brief summary of the history and current status of religion in Kosovo.

Human Rights And Religion In Central And Eastern Europe, András Máté-Tóth, Kitti Sándor

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In this article we try to delineate the mutual relationship between human rights and religion in the cultural region of Central and Eastern Europe (hereafter CEE).1 We will do it by using the theoretical framework "wounded collective identity" elaborated in recent years by András Máté-Tóth.

Country Snapshot Serbia, Belgrade Open School

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A brief summary of the history and current status of religion in Serbia.

Elite Survey Reports - Introduction

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Interfaith Council For Social Cohesion In The Western Balkans, Ylli H. Doci

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

With the demise of the communist governments in the Balkan region in the early 1990s, we have entered a phase in which serious religiously related issues challenging the social cohesion of our societies need serious analysis and action at different levels. Interfaith councils as a way of engaging the different religious communities in one society are not new and not the same. Nor are they unquestionably accepted or easily dismissed as ineffective in addressing challenges of peacebuilding and social cohesion in a religiously pluralistic society. There are political, cultural, ethnic and national considerations beside religious and educational ones which figure …

Forewords And Frontmatter To Role Of Religion In The Western Balkans’ Societies, Sotiraq Hroni, Guusje Korthals Altes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Country Snapshot Albania, Leonie Vrugtman

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A brief summary of the history and current status of religion in Albania.

Country Snapshot Bosnia And Herzegovina, Lejla Hodžić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A brief summary of the history and current status of religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Survey Report Serbia, Nenad Zekavica

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

During March and April 2019, a survey was conducted as part of a regional project which deals with the role of religion in the Western Balkan countries. The survey was conducted as the research part of the project and it was conducted among members of cultural and political elite members of society. Its purpose is to give a sketch of the religious topography of different societies in the Western Balkans.

Survey Report North Macedonia, Viktorija Borovska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

One of the activities of the project ‘Role of Religion in Western Balkan Societies’ was an elite survey that enabled us to gain an insight into views and perceptions on issues related to religiosity, the role and influence of religion, threats and opportunities of religious diversity and suggestions on how religion can contribute to the different social aspects of the various countries of the region.

The Struggle Of Kosovo Policymakers To Upgrade The Law On Religious Affairs, Jeton Mehmeti

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Apart from guarantees over freedom of religion, in the last two decades, authorities in Kosovo have made little progress in advancing its legal framework to accommodate the emerging needs of religious communities. The only law that regulates religious affairs in Kosovo is the 2006 Law on Freedom of Religion. The law is framed in very broad terms, and has received a lot of criticism for failing to properly regulate the status of religious communities. Representatives of these communities have consistently asked for changes to legislation that would grant them the status of legal entities. Without legal entity status, religious communities …

The Hungarian Religious Leaders' Statements On The Migration From 2016 And 2017, Krisztina Barcsa, Sára Heidl, Kitti Sándor

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper is about the statements of Hungarian religious leaders concerning the issue of migration. The article is a continuation of a previous study in which we summarized articles and opinions published in the period from 2015 to the beginning of 2016. The statements that have been made since then are contained in this article. Different opinions can be found from the leaders of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist churches, Jewish and Islamic leaders, and the Congregation of Faith and the Evangelical Brotherhood of Hungary. In addition to migration issues, cultural, ethnic, religious and moral differences and questions arise …