Religion in Europe is...highly diverse and in need for explication

As far as the socio-cultural concepts of religion are concerned, Europe is highly diverse. Statistical data from the ‘Religion Monitor’ and/or the ‘Swiss Metadatabase of religious Affiliation in Europe (SMRE)’ clearly document the very versatile concepts of religion that dominate different national or regional contexts in Europe.

And this very observation holds within particular national or regional context, too. If we have a closer look at the Austrian situation, we approach an implicit concept of religion that is very much dominated by the traditional ideas of the Roman-Catholic Church – with hierarchical institutional structures, a parochial concept of day-to-day practices and more or less clearly defined sets of beliefs (Lehmann / Reiss 2022; Zulehner 2020; Vocelka 2013). This becomes particularly obvious with regards to the two forms of legal status religions can apply for – the status of ‘Gesetzlich anerkannte Kirchen und Religionsgesellschaften / Legally recognized religious Churches and Societies‘ as well as the status of ‘Staatlich anerkannte religiöse Bekenntnisgemeinschaften / State-recognized religious Denominations’. These two forms of legal status provide different degrees of access to a subsidiary system of religious services in Austrian society.

Right at this moment, the above system of official state-recognition is, however, moving towards a point of significant change. Throughout the last two years we have seen (a) the first successful attempt to establish two distinct religious institution within the context of a non-Christian religious tradition (the ‘Alevitisch Glaubensgemeinschaft / The Alevi Denomination’ as well as the ‘Frei Aleviten / Free Alevis) as well as (b) the very first attempt of an atheist organization (the Atheistische Religionsgemeinschaft / Atheist religious Society) to apply for the status of ‘Staatlich anerkannte religiöse Bekenntnisgemeinschafte / State-recognized religious Denomination’. This fundamentally challenges the present system of state recognition in Austria.

In my presentation I want to argue that this change will also challenge the implicit concepts of religion in Austria up to a point where they will no longer be applicable in day-to-day use. In the near future there will be a need to further explicate the concept of religion in Austria. It will be interesting to see at the roundtable discussion whether there are similar processes taking place in other parts of Europe and to what an extent these processes differ within those national and/or regional contexts.