Catholic church

500th Anniversary of the Reformation: Ecumenism as Church and Public Phenomenon in Today’s Germany

The 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 was held in Ger‑ many for the first time as an ecumenical event. Within its framework, a number of important official church documents about rethinking the history of the Reformation were adopted, common worship services held, and a large number of projects implemented at the region‑ al, national and international levels.

“Everson”, “McCollum”, “Zorach”: The Supreme Court and the Debate on Church-State Relations in the United States in the Late 1940s — Early 1950s

This article studies the situation in church‑state relations in the United States in the late 1940s — early 1950s. The Supreme Court’s decisions in the Everson (1947), McCollum (1948) and Zorach (1952) cases concerned the majority of U. S. religious bodies. These decisions provoked debates on the issues of the secularization of American society and cooperation between church and state in various fields. Interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was an important subject of the polemics too.

How to Accept the Unacceptable: Blasphemy and Atheism in the Judicial Practice of the Roman Inquisition in the Seventeenth Century

It is not possible to write the history of blasphemy, anticlericalism and religious scepticism in the Early Modern period without taking into consideration the variety of their different manifestations (not only words but also gestures), as well as the lexibility of the boundary separating blasphemy as an emotional outburst from blasphemy as a conscious act of rebellion against the Church as an institution and God as an idea. The author investigates these issues by looking at materials of the Republic of Venice in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

“It’s Time to Quit with Religion of Small Comforts!”: Body and Text in the Extreme Way of the Cross

Polonia semper fidelis? National Mythology, Religion and Politics in Poland

Catholic Church in the People’s Republic of Poland (1944/45–1989): Forms of Co-Existence with the Regime and the Role of Ideological Opposition

Italy as a Secular State: Historical and Legal Sketch

Religion and Сonstructs of National Identities in Eastern Europe in the 20th Century: An Introduction

Introducing the main theme of the issue, the paper is trying to abandon commonplaces and clichés and to emphasize the subjects that were not in focus in earlier research. The papers of this volume show local complexities in how religious factor played in the history of Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. The thesis that some confessions are more engaged in the nation-building than others, seems to be a simplification, because Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants were equally involved in the process of constructing national identity.