Religious revival and ethnic mobilization in communist Yugoslavia, 1965-1991: A history of the Yugoslav religious question from the reform era to the civil war

This study in political history examines the politics of religious institutions and the role of religious elites in the history of nationalism in Yugoslav lands. It focuses on two major Yugoslav churches: the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The analysis highlights church-sponsored movements which aimed at promoting revitalization of religion as well as ethnic self-assertion. It also examines inter-confessional relations, use of history and religious symbols by religious nationalists, the roles of places of worship as symbols of identity and continuity, and religious festivals as tools of mass mobilization. The thesis argues that organized religion in Yugoslavia facilitated the formation of ethnic nations. As a result of church activities in the public sphere between the mid-sixties and the end of the 1980s, the communist regime collapsed and ethnic nationalists obtained popular support and appropriated political power. The analysis has also found that in pre-war years, the conflict between churches added fuel to the fire of growing ethnic tensions in the disintegrating Balkan country.;Research for this project was carried out in Yugoslavia between 1985 and 1991, and subsequently in the United States. Even though books on recent Yugoslav history make references to the religious factor, this is the first time that the interaction between religion and politics in the process of historical transformation is presented in a monographic study.