Sociology of (Non)Religiosity in Post-Socialist Countries: Comparative Study between Croatia, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic

The most extensive sociological comparative empirical surveys (WWS, ISSP, EVS, ESS) have been showing differences in levels of religiosity between countries all over the world for years. Significant findings were and are changes in different levels of religiosity. However, these surveys also showed some countries with a high level of non-religiosity and atheism, particularly in Europe. Besides other insights, these data were the empirical basis for discussions among scholars about secularization theory. Sociological interest with the authority of its data and conclusions in a certain way becomes a tool that the organized (non)religious communities use for their purposes. Following Bourdieu (1971), who claimed that every academic or scientific production is basically political and tries to influence the determined structure of relations of symbolic dominance, Quack (2014) explicitly specified scientific studies of (non)religiosity as part of the nonreligious field. Using the comparative perspective between three post-socialist countries, Croatia, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic, which share some characteristics but still have unique historical and cultural contexts, this paper will analyze different socio-demographic and other characteristics of the nonreligious people as well as social expectations about the public role of religion among chosen countries. Following insights from our analysis, we discuss challenges of the impact of sociology of (non)religion in the post-socialist transformations of these countries.