Politics and Religion in Eastern Europe: Catholicism in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia

This book examines the contemporary position of the Catholic Church in three Eastern European Communist countries - Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary - in the late 1980s. The author is concerned to explore the tensions that exists between Communist states and organized forms of religion. He argues that the effects of the Catholic Church in these countries has been profound, not least in helping individuals to overcome their sense of alienation. The book begins by examining the relationship between church and state in each country. It goes on to explain the general social and political effects of Catholocism, and the ways in which this faith has served as a bulwark of resistance.