Re-Thinking Religious Diversity: Diversities and Governance of Diversities in “Post-Societies”

Abstract

The chapter focuses on religious diversity in Croatia and other post-communist countries. Its main argument is that the notions usually used in the literature, such as “post-communist”, “post-conflict”, “post-secular”, etc. are not of much use and can indeed point to a wrong conclusion on how diversity is governed in a particular country. By examining in particular the public recognition (i.e. a favourable position) of Islam in Croatia and, in contrast, difficulties that a few Protestant communities have in regulating their relations with the state, the chapter seeks to understand numerous social factors which influence the variations of recognition of different religions. It also draws on the concept of “collectivist religions” and shows in which way they can (and cannot) contribute to the recognition of other. Extending the analysis to other post-communist European countries, the chapter finds similarities among them (such as establishment of cooperationist model or existence of two phases of Church-state relations), but also some important differences, or rather great variations in the way they deal with religious diversity. In the concluding part the chapter reflects on a future research agenda on diversity in sociology of religion in general.