Nikolina Hazdovac Bajić

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the legal and sociological aspects of the pandemic that pertain to religion. The legal measures undertaken by the Croatian government have not been challenged via the judicial system; the use of the courts for this purpose was almost non-existent. Concerning the sociological aspects, we focus on varieties of (non)compliance with government-prescribed measures at various levels of the Catholic community (religious leadership, clergy, and believers), as well as on how this (non)compliance changed over time. We also describe anti-mask attitudes and conspiracy theories in the belief that these phenomena, though not directly relatable to religion, reveal the overall social climate as a framework in which the social role of religion during the pandemic can be traced. Our analysis shows that the close relationship between the state and the Catholic Church was also evident during the pandemic. Furthermore, public debates about public health measures related to COVID-19 (e.g. vaccines and COVID-19 passes) contributed to the politicisation of the disease, and religion played an important role in this process. Although there is an evident lack of data on religious phenomena during the pandemic in Croatia, this chapter uses a variety of sources, including legal texts, the documents of public officials and institutions, media reports, and existing scholarly studies.

This article analyzes the multilayered practices of homemaking among the seafarers from a theoretical perspective on the polysemic nature of home, space, and masculinity. In addition, distinction is made between involuntary and involuntary types of isolation at sea (whereby professional sailors belong to the former and adventurous sailors to the latter). The research is based on remote ethnography that included semi-structured interviews, virtual “walks”, informal conversations, and photos.

Croatian society is traditionally and dominantly religious (Catholic), and there are few organizations that gather together nonreligious people and atheists. Starting from three theoretical perspectives on organized nonreligiosity (identity theory, cultural approach to social movements theory, and mediatization theory) this article’s aim is to analyze various strategies these organizations employ in the context of their online activities. The observed strategies function inwardly (forming identity and strengthening the intragroup solidarity) and outwardly (trying to attract new members and sympathizers and to ‘demystify’ nonreligiosity and atheism). The study is based on the content analysis (deductive and inductive) that included materials posted on web pages and official Facebook pages of nonreligious and atheistic organizations in Croatia. In the first phase materials were analyzed with respect to four predetermined strategies (competitiveness/ cooperation, minority discourse, religious mimicry, exposing religion), while in the second phase inductive analysis revealed three additional strategies (inversion, reclaiming patriotism, and reclaiming spirituality).

Pitanje sekularnosti u posljednjih je nekoliko desetljeća u fokusu teoretičara iz različitih znanstvenih područja. Iako se Europa dugo smatrala sekularnim i sekulariziranim prostorom, ovakve se tvrdnje sve češće propituju u svjetlu događaja koji nast...

Catholicism in the Croatian context has been one of the most powerful sources of collective belonging for centuries. Since the fall of socialism, desecularization tendencies have manifested as homogenization, collectivization, and deprivatization of religion. (Non)religiosity became a contested issue, which not only implied belonging (ethnic, national, historical) but was also highly politicized. This paper aims to explore how living in a society with a dominant collective religion influences the experience of nonreligious people. The conducted research was based on 30 semi-structured interviews with people who self-identify as nonreligious, but at the same time are not members of nonreligious organizations. The obtained data show that some elements of collectivism can push individuals away from religion, but for some nonreligious people, religiosity remains an important identification framework. Keeping a connection with religion is achieved through conformist behaviors or “cherry-picking” elements of religiosity, which are then combined in individually-consistent worldviews. Nonreligious people sometimes feel “left out” and experience their nonreligiosity as lonely and isolating, which they often do not want to pass on to others. This creates a specific position for some nonreligious individuals that is simultaneously “in” and “out” of religion, and challenges the way nonreligiosity is often imagined.

Dubrovnik je važan kulturni i vjerski topos na nacionalnom ozemlju, grad na svojevrsnom raskršću uljudbenih sustava, koji je, uz vjerski i državni kult sv. Vlaha, prepoznat i kao najjužniji grad s urbanim svjetovnim kultom viteza Orlanda. Ovim gradskim vjerskim i svjetovnim kultovima u Domovinskom se ratu pridružio i treći – kult sv. Nikole. Na dan sv. Nikole 6. siječnja 1991. godine zbio se najteži napad srpsko-crnogorskih agresora na grad, pa je stoga taj dan proglašen i Danom branitelja Dubrovnika. Vjerski kult sv. Nikole od 1991. godine dobiva tako posve novu dimenziju i priključuje se drugim urbanim simbolima Grada. Sv. Nikola postaje u suvremenoj memoriji Grada kult sveca zaštitnika branitelja Domovinskog rata. Ovdje se radi o posve jedinstvenom fenomenu u razvoju kulta sv. Nikole u svjetskim razmjerima, koji postaje antiratni svetac i svetac obranitelj. Cilj je ovoga rada, na interdisciplinaran način, kombinirajući povijesnu i sociološku perspektivu, steći prvi znanstveni uvid u međusobni odnos koncepata religijskog simbola, identiteta i zajednice na primjeru razvoja, promjene i značenja kulta sv. Nikole u Dubrovniku kroz povijesni kontinuitet do suvremenih zbivanja.