Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5559/di.26.1.02
The Role of Religiosity During Situations of Social Crisis. Example of the Homeland War in Vukovar
Ivana Bendra
orcid.org/0000-0002-6592-1308
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar – Regional Center Vukovar, Vukovar
Abstract
War, as the most severe form of social crisis, leads to
numerous changes in the personal and social aspects of the
lives of individuals who are involved in it. The aim of this
research is to determine the role and significance of
religiosity for the individual, along with the social behavior of
Vukovar’s Catholic population while they managed the war
crisis situation (Homeland War in 1991). The research was
conducted with the application of qualitative methodology:
grounded theory methodology (paradigmatic model of
Strauss and Corbin), in-depth interviews (12) and narrative
analysis (72 publications from the collection of books about
the Homeland War in Vukovar). The results, however,
indicate that among the population, which primarily belongs
to traditional church religiosity, a special form of personal,
beyond the ritual, religiosity occurred, conditioned by the
specific circumstances which the people found themselves in.
Based on the developed substantive grounded theory, it is
evident that people primarily practiced an individual
personal relationship with a Transcendent being (God),
which had a positive role in the population’s confrontation
with the new circumstances, thus strongly affecting their
personal and social behavior. Practicing such a relationship
enabled them to achieve secondary control over their lives,
as a substitute for the inability of primary control, thus
developing spiritual strength to ease and cope with the social
crisis/war situation.
Keywords
traditional religiosity; personal religiosity; religious experience; religious practice; grounded theory paradigmatic model; Homeland War in Vukovar
Hrčak ID:
178509
URI
Publication date:
28.3.2017.
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