Filip Fila published an article titled “Rethinking the Churches’ Place in Society: the Parliamentary Debate on Church Property Restitution in the Czech Republic”

Filip Fila published an article titled “Rethinking the Churches’ Place in Society: the Parliamentary Debate on Church Property Restitution in the Czech Republic” in the latest issue of the journal Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe (RASCEE).

The article analyzes the parliamentary debates on church property restitution in the Czech Republic that took place in 2012. By situating the topic within the broader framework of questions concerning the position of the church in society, as well as issues of secularization, the article shows that themes of religion and religiosity did not take precedence in the debates. Nevertheless, significant reflections were recorded on what the relationship between church and state should look like. The article concludes that members of parliament, overall, tended more toward secularization than desecularization, despite the fact that property restitution could have been perceived as beneficial to the churches.

The paper is available at the link.