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The church as a viable force in shaping Eastern European politics during the fall of communism: The cases of East Germany, Poland, and Romania
Abstract
By examining the role of the church in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, this dissertation suggests that the Christian church played a positive role in political events. The East German Kirchenbund churches and the Polish Catholic Church opposed their respective communist governments and contributed to the downfall of those governments. The Romanian Orthodox Church did not play a role in opposition to the government or in the fall of the regime. Methodologically, the factors used to organize the information (church history, recent political history, church organizational structure, influential individuals and factions in the church, and the role of the church in society and its attitude toward government) were shown to be important its the Polish and Romanian cases with the historical factor having an overriding significance. The factors of influential individuals and factions were somewhat dependent on the structural factor for their strength. The Polish Catholic Church, historically in opposition to any imposed government, opposed the communists and aided in their downfall. The Romanian Orthodox Church, historically in submission to the authorities, acquiesced to the control of the communists and did not participate in the overthrow of the government. The hierarchical structure of these two gave greater weight to the power of the churches' leadership and diffused factions within the churches which would have been in opposition to church leadership policies. The factors, however, were not as useful in the German case. Despite the German churches' history of submitting to the government and of being structurally fragmented they played an important role in uniting in opposition to the communist government and in opposing the regime. The variables here do not fully explain this. Suggested variables for further analysis include the influence of surrounding states and their leaders and the strength of minority churches.
Subject Area
Political science|European history|Religious congregations
Recommended Citation
Ediger, Ruth Marie, "The church as a viable force in shaping Eastern European politics during the fall of communism: The cases of East Germany, Poland, and Romania" (1996). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9614984.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9614984