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Turning prayers into protests : religious-based activism and its challenge to state power in socialist Slovakia and East Germany / David Doellinger.
LIBRA BX1582.4 .D64 2013
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Doellinger, David, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Catholic Church--Slovakia--History--20th century.
- Catholic Church.
- Church and state--Slovakia--History--20th century.
- Church and state.
- Lutheran Church--Germany (East)--History--20th century.
- Lutheran Church.
- Church and state--Germany (East)--History--20th century.
- History.
- Germany (East).
- Slovakia.
- Genre:
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xii, 288 pages; 25 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Budapest : Central European University Press, 2013.
- Summary:
- Turning Prayers into Protests is comparative study of religious-based oppositional activity in Slovakia and East Germany prior to 1989. Religion was a central arena for culture, thought, social organization, in the societies that became communist after the Second World War. It was thus a primary concern for communist regimes. The author examines the various and divergent grass-roots activism of the secret Catholic Church in Slovakia and the Lutheran Church in East Germany that confronted state socialist rule and contributed to its eventual dismantling. He compares the two cases in terms of the political power, influence and affect that these Churches had in regard to state repression or cooptation, vividly demonstrating that religion could provide a space for independence beyond state control as well as a foundation for resistance. Book jacket.
- Contents:
- 1 Catholics, Protestants, and the State 17
- Czechoslovakia: Repression of the Catholic Church 20
- German Democratic Republic: Autonomy in the Evangelical Church 25
- Summary 30
- 2 Finding a Space to Think and Act Freely 35
- The Slovak Secret Church 35
- Constructing Peace and Pursuing Reconciliation in the GDR 48
- Aktion Sühnezeichen 49
- Bausoldaten: Unarmed Military Service 58
- Summary 72
- 3 Independent Publishing and Communication Networks 79
- The Secret Church's Samizdat Network 81
- Church Publications in the GDR 89
- Summary 96
- 4 Constructing New Public Spaces 101
- The Polish Pope: John Paul II 102
- The 1985 Velehrad Pilgrimage 104
- Slovak Pilgrimages: A New Public Space 110
- East Germany: Carving out a Public Space in Leipzig 116
- Summary 141
- 5 From Prayers to Protests 145
- Petitions for Religious Freedom 146
- The Good Friday Demonstration: March 25, 1988 158
- Tentative Steps out of the Church's Protective Cover in East Germany 165
- AG Friedensdienst: Between Church Support and Conflict 167
- Summary 179
- 6 Archipelagos of Grassroots Activism 185
- Streams of Independent Activity in Slovakia 186
- The Movement for Civic Freedom: A New Strategy of Opposition 193
- The Bratislava Five 197
- Archipelagos of Activity in the GDR 201
- Prayer-for-Peace Services and New Tensions between Grassroots Groups and the Church 206
- Summary 211
- 7 The Revolutions of 1989 215
- Public Against Violence: From the Telephones to the Streets 217
- Church and Revolution 220
- Leipzig: An Epicenter of the East German Revolution 224
- Summary 227.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9786155225789
- 6155225788
- OCLC:
- 846544078
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