Central and Eastern Europe and desecularization

Pew Research indicated in a 2017 article entitled Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe:

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In many Central and Eastern European countries, religion and national identity are closely entwined. This is true in former communist states, such as the Russian Federation and Poland, where majorities say that being Orthodox or Catholic is important to being “truly Russian” or “truly Polish.” It is also the case in Greece, where the church played a central role in Greece’s successful struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire and where today three-quarters of the public (76%) says that being Orthodox is important to being “truly Greek.” Many people in the region embrace religion as an element of national belonging even though they are not highly observant. Relatively few Orthodox or Catholic adults in Central and Eastern Europe say they regularly attend worship services, pray often or consider religion central to their lives. For example, a median of just 10% of Orthodox Christians across the region say they go to church on a weekly basis. Indeed, compared with many populations Pew Research Center previously has surveyed – from the United States to Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa to Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa – Central and Eastern Europeans display relatively low levels of religious observance. Nonetheless, the comeback of religion in a region once dominated by atheist regimes is striking – particularly in some historically Orthodox countries, where levels of religious affiliation have risen substantially in recent decades.

”

In Eastern Europe, sharp rise in share of adults who describe themselves as Orthodox Christians

• Orthodox Christianity is on the rise in central and Eastern Europe, World Religion News, 2017

• In Eastern Europe, sharp rise in share of adults who describe themselves as Orthodox Christians, Pew Research, May 2017

• Eastern Europe's Christian reawakening, First Things, 2014

See also

• Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union

• Soviet atheism