This volume represents an attempt in integrating a wide range of theoretically relevant issues into the identification and analysis of church-state patterns. Confessional heritage, national identity, the embeddedness of churches in civil society, formal and informal aspects of state religious neutrality (and its limits), secularization, the religious appeals of parties, and public policy formation in sensitive areas constitute the major contextural variables. Each chapter, in addition to discussing recent developments in a particular country or region of Europe, focuses on the analysis of one...

EU enlargement - to countries in Central and Eastern Europe in 2004, the inclusion of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, and increasing debates on Turkey's membership - has dramatically transformed the European Union into a multi-religious space. Religious communities are not only shaping identities but are also influential factors in political discourse. This edited volume examines the activities of religious actors in the context of supranational European institutions and the ways in which they have responded to the idea of Europe at local and international levels. By bringing together scholars...