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This course aims at analyzing the web of multiple interconnections between religion(s) and power in Modern Hungary. After a brief conceptual introduction we will focus mainly but not exclusively on the Hungarian Roman and Greek Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities in their relationship against the different levels of power.
The following topics will be brought into discussion: Catholicism and power in the 19th and 20th century, the characteristics of the Protestant Liberalism and its role in the making of the Hungarian nationalism, the challenge of the Modernity for the Jewish community before WWI; the religious revival and the redefinition of the society in the interwar period (1920-1945); the churches and the Holocaust; the impact of the radical secularization and the suppression of religious freedom after 1948; the survival strategies of the different religious communities during the era of “goulash communism” (1956-1990). Finally within the frame of a comparative survey of in both Western and Eastern Europe we will analyze the present situation of religions in contemporary Hungarian society.
Papers: Graduates will be required to write a short essay of 5-8 pages on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor
Days and Time: Monday and Wednesday 2:30-3:45
Goodbody Hall 157 | 1011 East 3rd St. | Bloomington, IN 47405-7005 | Phone: (812) 855-2233 | Fax: (812) 855-7500 | ceus@indiana.edu