Religion within and beyond borders: the case of Croatia

The paper analyzes the religiosity in Croatia from the point of significant differences among its regions demonstrating an array of theoretical and methodological difficulties in interpreting religious changes in post-communism, particularly the revitalization of religion in some countries and contradict social role of religion in most countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Differences in religiosity of Croatian regions are connected to borders with countries of different religions, nations and/or languages and with the historical as well as recent social processes. Apart from the dominant paradigms of explanation (differences in historical processes and the trend of politicization of religion and “ religization” of politics in the transitional period) the paper suggests that the possible influence of politicization must be regarded in much longer historical period, that different patterns of socio-religious development have long-lasting consequences and that the role of religion as cultural resource for individuals and social groups must not be neglected