Protestant Minorities in European States and Nations
National Identities, Vol. 11 No. 1
17 Pages Posted: 24 Jul 2012
Date Written: July 23, 2008
Abstract
Little attention has been paid in the recent scholarly literature to Europe’s old religious conflicts, in particular those that stem from the reformation. Yet for long religiously informed conflict was the principal source of internal state division and the major perceived threat to state stability and security. This paper looks at the institutional changes and cultural renegotiations which allowed traditional religious oppositions, rivalries and conflicts to fade in most contemporary European societies. Focussing on the Czech, French and Irish cases, it argues that neither modernisation, democratisation nor secularisation were enough to resolve deep-set tensions. The long-term resolutions involved a restructuring of polity and nation in a way consistent with minority as well as majority culture. In the past – and perhaps also in the present – such opportunities were rare and demanded choice, strategy and political fortune.
Keywords: religious conflicts, reformation divisions, states, democratisation, minority-majority relations
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