Front cover image for Faith-based organizations and social welfare : associational life and religion in contemporary Eastern Europe

Faith-based organizations and social welfare : associational life and religion in contemporary Eastern Europe

This volume seeks to understand the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening associational life through the provision of social services, thereby legitimizing a new role for faith in the formerly secular public sphere. Specifically, we explore how a church in a postcommunist setting, during periods of economic growth and recession in the wake of transitions to capitalism, and with varied numbers of adherents, might contribute to welfare services in a new political regime with freedom of religion. Put another way, what new pressures would be placed on the secular welfare state if religious organizations (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, others) simply stopped offering their services? By examining public perceptions of the church, changing dynamics of religiosity, and church-state-civil society relations, the volume places these issues in context. Miguel Glatzer is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Leadership and Global Understanding Program at La Salle University, USA. Paul Christopher Manuel is the Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer and distinguished scholar in residence in the Department of Government in the School of Public Affairs at American University, USA
eBook, English, 2020
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, 2020
1 online resource
9783030447076, 3030447073
1187217820
1. Religion, Faith-Based Organizations and Welfare Delivery in Contemporary Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the Volume
2. Religion, Civil Society, and the State: Dynamics in Eastern Europe
3. Faith-Based Welfare Provision in Russia
4. The Place of Church in the Romanian Public Sphere: From Charitable Entrepreneur to Political Agent
5. In Times of Crisis: Faith-based Social Engagement and Religious Contestations in Ukraine since Maidan 2013-2014
6. God's Backyard: Politics and the Catholic Church in Poland
7. Church and the Welfare State in Croatia
8. Religion, Civil Society, and Charitable Activity in Slovenia
9. Faith-Based Organizations in Hungary
10. Religion and Welfare in a Secular Society: The Case of Estonia
11. Irreplaceable Church Welfare in the Least Religious Country: The Case of the Czech Republic
Includes index