Chrześcijaństwo, przesądy i niewiara we współczesnym społeczeństwie białoruskim
Christianity, superstition, and lack of belief in modern Belarusian society

Summary/Abstract: The spiritual and religious life of people living within the lands of modern Belarus in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been conditioned by the area’s centuries-old history of Christianity, by superstitions derived from the culture of the ancient Slavs, and by the materialistic and atheistic worldview and life of the Soviet Socialist regime. Current Belarusian legislation considers religious involvement to be a private interest of the individual, and thus there are no official statistics on the number of believers or their distribution by religion. The findings of various studies in this area differ considerably. In the context of the post-Soviet transformation of Belarusian society, some experts express the view that the role of religion has been increasing in the country; others speak of a reverse process. Still others write about demonstrations of the religiosity of Belarusians and still others believe that the spiritual dimension of Christianity in Belarus is often replaced by faithfulness to the traditions of Belarusians’ ancestors, and that a relatively large part of the population is far from true Christian piety. A general analysis of religious issues suggests that the phenomena are multifactorial, spiritual and social, and rather complex.

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