Religious Studies: A Global View

In 2005 the University of Szeged in Hungary, together with West Virginia

University, launched the electronic journal Religion and Society in Central and

Eastern Europe(http://rs.as.wvu.edu). In Budapest Mihály Hoppál and Ádám

Molnár edit Shaman, the official organ of the International Society for

Shamanistic Research, founded in 1993. Another noteworthy institutional step

was the establishment of the Culianu Lectures on Religion, established at the

Central European University in Budapest in 2005. The first lectures were

delivered by Moshe Idel from Hebrew University of Jerusalem (born 1947 in

Moldavia). Presidents of some scholarly organizations in the region are reputed,

versatile scholars and essayists, such as Bretislav Horyna (b. 1959) or Andrei

Ois,teanu (b. 1948) (Ois,teanu 1999). Finally, that indispensable sign of a sense

of national identity has begun to appear, the national history, namely, A History

of Religion of Ukraine, a ten-volume collective enterprise begun in 1996

(Filipovych and Kolodny 2004: 91).

Emerging issues

Perhaps the largest issue facing religious studies in Eastern Europe at the

moment is simply to further the work of building that has been underway

since the end of the Soviet era. There are large differences among the countries

of Eastern Europe in terms of religious identity and expectations for the social

role of the Church(es). For example, in Romania 74.7 percent of the people

identify with the Churches, as compared with only 36.4 percent in the Czech

Republic (large-scale European Values Study of 1999, cf. Bogomilova Todorova

2003/2004). Nevertheless, these differences are notreflected in the scholarly

commitments of various cultures, a fact that attests the almost complete post-

Communist emancipation of religious studies from the old, religiously

dominated framework (see also Messner 2002, only for Bulgaria, Cyprus, the

Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Turkey).

The end of the Soviet era brought freer connections with scholars from

outside the region. (Interaction between Eastern European scholars from

different countries was less frequent.) Reputed scholars from abroad delivered

lectures in Bucharest, for example, and Kraków. In return, a panel on ‘Religion

in Socialist Countries’ was organized by Jan Szmyd for the 17th Congress of

the IAHR held in Mexico City in 1995.

The task of building religious studies has benefited from philanthropic

activity. George Soros and his Open Society Foundation were instrumental in

reinvigorating religious studies in countries such as Estonia, Hungary, and

Romania. In 2001, the Austrian Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft founded,

within the framework of the New Europe Foundation in Bucharest, a new

institute that ‘focuses on the extremely sensitive issue of religions related

problems in the Balkans (and beyond) from the viewpoint of the EU

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EUGEN CIURTIN