Dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism brought a radical change in the position of religion in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The legal position of the Churches changed to a model recognizing freedom of religion as a basic human right. Under these conditions in Eastern Europe, where the dominant religion was Orthodoxy, people moved towards that religion. The number of those who declared their belief in God and their adherence to the Orthodox tradition rose as dramatically as the number of atheists under communist persecution of religion. However, the nature of this religious revival, and the meaning of the “return” to Orthodoxy and being Orthodox, are unclear because the religiosity of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians also includes elements of New Age spirituality. Commitment to the Church, and the level of religious practice, are as low as in the most secularized Western European societies. Thus the author claims that, paradoxically, the picture of religiosity in countries where atheism was imposed for so many years is quite similar to that in countries where secularization has developed spontaneously.

Before the democratic changes started in Poland in 1989, the Catholic Church was a very important element of dualistic societal structure: “bad” communists, associated with the Communist Party and its apparatus; and “good” Poles, patriots, associated with the Roman Catholic Church. Opposition to political totalitarianism was strongly supported by the Church, identified with Polish national identity, freedom, and defence of human rights and democracy. The Church entered the period of transformation with this historical heritage and with the exceptionally high respect of society for its role as political actor and co-creator of civil society. Ten years of transformation brought significant changes: in the political system (from totalitarianism to democracy); in economics (from a controlled to the free market); in the orientation of the state (from locality to globality); in the restructuring of society (from dualism to pluralism); and in differentiation of worldviews. The author describes how the Catholic Church and its hierarchy are adapting to the changing situation.

Attitudes about religion in Polish society have scarcely changed since 1989, in spite of radical political and economic transformation over the past 20 years, as survey data show. The question is why? In the following article, the author develops five alternative hypotheses to explain this phenomenon. Each of the hypotheses relates to some function of religion that is relevant in contemporary times. Among other things, historical circumstances, the role of Catholicism as a civil religion, security, and hidden privatization form the context in which one may explain the continuing vitality of religion in Poland.

English In focusing on transformations in the religious institutions of Eastern Orthodox Europe and on the functions of Orthodoxy in the new social order that has arisen after the collapse of Communism and the Soviet empire, the author centres on the Russian Orthodox Church as the largest Eastern European Church and as the most ambitious in seeking to determine the role of Orthodoxy in the world. In this context, the analysis examines the ambiguous but close historical relation between Church and state in predominantly Orthodox countries, the inevitable role of Orthodoxy in shaping post-Communist state-political and national identities and yet the practical difficulties that Orthodox churches face in terms of resources, internal divisions, and adjustment to a religiously pluralist environment. The author concludes by stressing both the different and similar contexts in which Christian Churches in the two halves of Europe find themselves. French En prêtant attention aux transformations des institutions religieuses de l'Europe centrale orthodoxe et aux fonctions de l'orthodoxie dans le nouvel ordre social qui a émergé après la chute du communisme et de l'empire soviétique, l'auteure étudie l'Eglise russe orthodoxe en tant qu'Eglise d'Europe centrale la plus répandue et la plus ambitieuse dans sa volonté de déterminer le rôle de l'orthodoxie dans le monde. Dans ce contexte, l'auteure examine la relation historique, certes ambiguë mais proche, entre l'Eglise et l'Etat dans les pays majoritairement orthodoxes, le rôle inévitable de l'orthodoxie dans la formation des identités nationales, étatiques et politiques dans l'ère post-communiste et, en même temps, les difficultés pratiques auxquelles les Eglises sont confrontées en termes de ressources, de divisions internes et d'ajustement à un environnement religieux pluriel. Elle insiste enfin sur les similarités et les différences entre les contextes des parties orientale et occidentale de l'Europe dans lesquels se trouvent les Eglises chrétiennes.

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