Non-institutionalised Lay Religious Communities in the Czech Republic and the Care for the Ill Strategy

Abstract

The objective of this study is to focus on how two non-institutionalised lay religious communities in the Czech Republic, selected for this research, apply an adaptation strategy called the care for the ill strategy. The aim is to demonstrate the way these communities view the phenomenon of health/illness and how it is reflected in their relationship to the Catholic Church. This paper is part of a larger ethnographic study that analyses activities carried out by non-institutionalised religious communities active in the Catholic environment. Keywords: Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, non-institutionalised communities, care for the ill strategy 1 Sociology of medicine points out that in late modern society health has become the central point of interest, turning at the same time into a consumer product and life style (see Nettleton, 2006: 33-35). 2 This ethnographic research was based on the assumption that running a community or joining one represents a significant biographical event and that studying this stage of a person's life helps provide an understanding of the metamorphosis of values, behaviour and interpretations in response both to processes inherent to the modern era and vehicles of modernisation processes. By describing strategies, I hope to help explain how actors perceive their community, the Church and modern times and how their perception has been repeatedly reassessed during the process of the building of the community. In order to to this, I have chosen to focus on the care for the ill strategy.

Religion and Politics in the Czech Republic: The Roman Catholic Church and the State

“…The authors also explore the historical reasons of "atheism" (animosity toward traditional, organized forms of religiosity) within modern Czech society. Jan Váně (2013) explores the topic of non-institutionalized lay religious communities, their views on the phenomena of illness and their relations to the Roman Catholic Church. In the introductory part of his paper, Vá ně (2013, pp.…”