Preliminary communication
From Religious to National Identity and Back (The Example of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Ivan MARKEŠIĆ
orcid.org/0000-0002-5067-1676
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Abstract
In the paper the author analyses the importance of religion
in constituting national identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina as
well as the importance of national belonging in confirming
religious identity (Bosniak = Muslim, Croat = Catholic, Serb
= Orthodox). The discussion regarding the relationship
between the national and the religious and their mutual
permeation is positioned by the author within the framework
of contemporary debates on secularisation and the
“unexpected” return of religion into the field of secular, and
the national into the field of sacral, as well as contemporary
debates on nation and nationalism. The author gives special
attention to Bosnia and Herzegovina in which both processes
of mutual permeation and complementation of the religious
and national took and are taking place as well as the
processes of sacralisation of nation, but also nationalisation
of religion. The author includes in the discussion his thoughts
on political religion, its development and general
characteristics, its meanings in contemporary societies and especially its realisation in terms of content in contemporary
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Keywords
Bosnia and Herzegovina; religion; nation; secularisation; religious and national identity; political religion; sacralisation of nation; nationalisation of religion
Hrčak ID:
55459
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2010.
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