Czechs Value Religion More Than You Think

Churches, public life, and morality — a view from a secular society

22 December 2021

Jiří Schneider

Senior Fellow

Are We Leaving Religion For The Wolves?

Modernisation and secularisation notwithstanding religion — as an explicit or implicit point of reference — has not disappeared completely from the public sphere in politics and media in contemporary Europe.

Let us enquire whether this stands even in the Czech Republic, almost the most secular country in Europe where only 21 per cent agree with the importance of religion. [1]   Traditional churches rank among the least trusted institutions in opinion polls.  Some politicians and media are tempted to instrumentalise religion in negative terms.

Editor’s Pick: Religion’s Divisive Re-Emergence in Our Public Space

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Jiří Schneider

Senior Fellow

Visegrad Insight Senior Fellow. A former diplomat, in May 2021 was elected Synodal Curator (Lay Moderator) of The Evangelical Church of The Czech Brethren. Following the democratic changes in 1989, he was elected to the Czechoslovak Parliament in 1990 and 1992. After the split of Czechoslovakia, he joined the Foreign Ministry as the head of policy planning. He also served as the Czech Ambassador to Israel (1995-1998) and most prominently as the First Deputy Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic (2010-2014). He took direct part in the development of think-tanks and NGO platforms as a Program Director at the Prague Security Studies Institute (2005-2010) and as the Executive Director of Aspen Institute Central Europe (2016-2020).

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