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The role of religious identity in social communities has gained importance in the past few years, as many questions about individual and collective identity have been brought up in the fields of science and everyday life. Religion, despite the process of secularisation, remains an important component of human identity. Increasingly, religion is also becoming an object of political influence. This volume argues that religion actually determinates various phenomena in the political sphere today.
This book provides a concise historical outline of religion in Poland up until its entry into the European Union in 2004, together with a longer presentation of contemporary religious issues. Albeit largely mono-ethnic and overwhelmingly Catholic after the loss of its large Jewish population to the Holocaust, and subsequent post-World War II border shifts, traces of an historic diversity remain in Poland to date, playing a greater role than mere numbers would suggest. Poland's fairly robust religious life is affected by the country's continuing modernization and its various institutions, and this is discussed within a broad context. One of the unfortunate legacies of decades of communism is a stunted civil society; while at different levels there are conflicts involving religion, at the grassroots it is one of the few forces building much needed trust in present-day Polish society.
Denomination policy is an important part of the public life of the state. Central and local governments search for models that enable the shaping of relations between the state and denominational associations. This is also of significance in relation to the changes associated with migration and fluctuation of followers of various faiths. How is this search carried out? What does it lead to? The book analyzes the phenomenon of religious politics. In addition to concrete case studies, the volume includes contributions dealing with theoretical issues, such as methodological problems of research on religions and beliefs as a factor hindering the formation of religious politics, studies of religious politics as a component of research on religious politics, the search for regularities in the relationship between religious politics and geopolitics.
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From modest chapels to majestic cathedrals, and historic synagogues to modern mosques and Buddhist temples: this photo-filled, pocket-size guidebook presents 1,079 houses of worship in Manhattan and lays to rest the common perception that skyscrapers, bridges, and parks are the only defining moments in the architectural history of New York City. With his exhaustive research of the city's religious buildings, David W. Dunlap has revealed (and at times unearthed) an urban history that reinforces New York as a truly vibrant center of community and cultural diversity. Published in conjunction with a New-York Historical Society exhibition, From Abyssinian to Zion is a sometimes quirky, always int...