Religious Communities and Civil Society in Europe

Analyses and Perspectives on a Complex Interplay

Rupert Graf Strachwitz

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783110641714
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Civismo y ciudadanía

The seemingly vitalizing impact of religiosity on civil society is a research topic that has been extensively looked into, not only in the USA, but increasingly also in a European context. What is missing is an evaluation of the role of institutionalized religious communities, and of circumstances that facilitate or impede their status as civil society organisations. This anthology in two volumes aims at closing this gap by providing case studies regarding political, legal and historical aspects in various European countries.

Vol. I provides an introduction and looks at cases in Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as chapters on legal issues and data, and comprehensive bibliography.

Maecenata Schriften

Previous publications:

Volume 14

Organisationskultur und Produktive Organisationale Energie.

Energiequellen in Nonprofit-Organisationen

Annegret Reisner, 2018

ISBN 978-3-11-055306-2, e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-055527-1,

e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-055319-2

Volume 13

Zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen ohne Jugend?

Eine organisationsbezogene Betrachtung zum Engagement junger Menschen

Mareike Alscher, 2017

ISBN 978-3-11-052655-4, e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-052907-4,

e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-052662-2

Volume 12

Lebenssinn und Erbe

Kai J. Jonas/Rupert Graf Strachwitz, 2015

ISBN 978-3-8282-0622-9, e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-049927-8

Volume 11

25 Years After. Mapping Civil Society in the Visegrád Countries

Christian Schreier (Ed.), 2015

ISBN 978-3-8282-0616-8, e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-050938-0

www.degruyter.com

Notes

1 Graf Strachwitz, R., Adloff, F., Schmidt, S., Schneider, M. (eds.) (2002): Kirche zwischen Staat und Zivilgesellschaft. Berlin.

2 (2018-11-05)

3 The case of Northern Ireland, where citizens see themselves as Catholics or Protestants first, is a tragic case in point.

4 Marx, R., Message, loc. cit., p. 7

5 Ibid.

6 as related orally to the author by Ralf Dahrendorf

7 See i.a. Dekker, P., Halman, L., Hart, J. (eds.) (2013): Religion and Civil Society in Europe. Dordrecht: Springer.

8 Habermas J. (2013): Im Sog der Technokratie. Kleine politische Schriften XII. Berlin: Suhrkamp: p. 13.

9 Viz. Graf Strachwitz, R. (2014): Achtung vor dem Bürger. Freiburg: Herder.

10 Salamon, L. M., Anheier, H. K., List, R., Toepler, S., Sokolowski, W. S. and Associates (2004): Global Civil Society Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 1999 / Lester M. Salamon and S. Wojciech Sokolowski (eds.), Global Civil Society Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector. Baltimore, vol. 2. Bloomfield CT: The Kumarian Press.

11 See i.a.: Jensen, M. C and Meckling, W. H. (1976): Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics 1976 (October), 3(4): 305–360.

12 Jaspers, K. (1953): The Origin and Goal of History. English: Yale University Press.

13 Armstrong, K. (2006): The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions. New York: Knopf.

14 Ferguson, A. (1996) An Essay on the History of Civil Society. Cambridge University Press.

15 The Great Transformation The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. New York: Random House 2001.

16 viz. Foucault, M. (ed.) (1986): english: Care of the Self. New York: Random House.

17 Perroux, F. (1960): Économie et société : contrainte, échange, don. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.

18 Hirshman, A. O. (1970): Exit, Voice and Loyalty. Responses to Decline in Firms, Organisations and States. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.

19 Cornuelle, R. (1965): Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Random House.

20 In Germany, where the established Christian Churches and the Jewish community enjoy a specific public status (Koerperschaft des oeffentlichen Rechts) under 1919/1949 constitutions, some Muslim communities have been lobbying to be granted the same status, while a number of smaller Christian communities and others are content in being registered as private civil law charitable organisations.

21 Pope Benedict XVI. was widely misunderstood – and was perhaps not absolutely clear in expressing what we meant to say, when remarking in a public speech in Freiburg in 2011: “In order to accomplish her mission, she [the Church] will need again and again to set herself apart from her surroundings, to become in a certain sense ‘unworldly’.” https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2011/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20110925_catholics-freiburg.html (2018-11-06) His remark may be seen as implying that Church should disassociate itself from the worldly powers, i.e. the State, and not, as he was interpreted as having said, from the world as such.

22 E.g., a bitter battle is being fought in Spain, formerly considered to be one of “the” Catholic countries, between the Catholic hierarchy and the national government over the issue of ownership of real estate. The Church is said to be the largest landowner in the country, and is accused of illegitimately having assumed ownership of buildings and land (including the famous Mezquita-Catedral of Cordoba, built as a Mosque in the 8th century and turned into a Christian church in the 12th, incidentally a profitable business due to the fess charged for entering the building as a visitor.)

23 Irineos Galanakis was born in Nerochori, Apokoronas, Chania, on 10 November 1911. He studied at the Teaching School of Crete and then at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Athens, from which he graduated in 1937. He worked as a professor of theology at schools in the prefecture of Chania during the period 1938–1945. In 1945, he was ordained as a monk at the monastery of the Holy Trinity in Chania and, one year later, made deacon and then archimandrite. In December 1957, he was elected Bishop of Kissamos and Selinou, and, on 16 December 1971, he was elected Bishop of the Metropolis of Germany by the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. For its pre-eminence, the Metropolitan of Germany was recognised as the third official Church in the country. He resigned in 1980. On 26 January 1981, Metropolitan Irineos reverted to the bishopric of Kissamos and Selinon, from which he submitted his resignation on 24 August 2005 for health reasons.

24 While ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Content
• Foreword
• Introduction
• From church diplomacy to civil society activism: the case of Bishop Irineos Galanakis in the framework of Greek–German relations during the Cold War
• In the shadow of the ‘prevailing’ religion: religious communities and civil society in Greece
• The Orthodox Church of Greece and civic activism in the context of the financial crisis
• “The Catholic Community and Civil Society in Italy”
• Religion and civic engagement: European patterns and digging deeper in the Netherlands
• Religiosity and civic engagement in late-modern Swedish society
• A Diversity of Roles The Actions Taken by Religious Communities in Sweden during the “Refugee Crisis” in 2015
• The Islamic community in the secular state: its organisation, role, position, and functioning – a case study of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Report on Faith-Based Organisations and Civic Engagement in Europe
• Relations Between the State and Religious Organisations in Europe From a Legal Perspective
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Back Matter