L'ambivalence de la revitalisation religieuse dans les sociétés post-socialistes

The ambivalent nature of religion in disintegrating socialist systems is a consequence of an ambiguous relationship in these countries between modernization and socialism (the theory and the social reality). “Real” socialist systems tried to constitute and to reproduce themselves outside the traditional religions and churches. The traditional (and traditionalist) churches were deliberately pushed into an autonomous, modern social position outside the (socialist) system. The socialist systems themselves took on a non-modern form and structure: domination by the state and ideology over other subsystems and the system as a whole. The disintegration of the socialist systems precipitates a dilemma of choice between further modernization or restoring the traditional position of the churches.