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This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of church-state relations in the countries in the original European Union (EU). It then sets out the purpose of the book, which is to investigate church-state relations in the enlarged EU resulting from the acceptance of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Slovenia in 2004, and of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. The chapter addresses important questions such as: What are the broad patterns of church-state relations in these countries? How did these models grow historically, how were they reshaped by communist policies, and how have they evolved in the pre-accession stage? How significantly different are these models from church-state relations in established Western democracies? Will the new EU members' ability to consolidate democracy be hampered by their church-state relations? The religious make-up of these post-communist EU member states is also described.

This chapter reveals the complex and subtle relationship between Orthodox religion and communist regimes that sought either to destroy the church or to use it for their own purposes. The eventual failure of these regimes was due, at least in part, to their underestimation of the contributions made by Orthodoxy to the human security of its people. This chapter argues that religious communities form just one of the primary actors in securing the welfare, rights, and social desires of their constituents. It provides a broad background of the relationship of religion to the communist regimes, the ways in which the churches responded to these regimes, and a detailed account of how the Romanian church survived amid communist political powers. Indeed, the church's involvement in both domestic and foreign politics continues to create a primary source of human security in contemporary Eastern Europe more generally.

This chapter examines the issues and challenges still facing churches and religious associations in Eastern and Central Europe more than two decades after the overthrow of communist rule, and it looks at the lessons learned in the intervening period for the protection of religious freedom in emerging democracies. While some problems were inherited from the communist era and are common throughout the region, others have emerged under the impact of post-communist democratisation and pluralisation, and are specific to particular countries. The creation of stable institutions, backed by the rule of law and freedom of speech, gave a great boost to religious rights in this era. But the quest remains for an appropriate and dependable balance between the sacred and secular spheres, and between the often competing interests of state and individual, as illustrated by the chapter's comparative case studies in areas from church property rights and fiscal privileges to education and abortion.

The introductory chapter to Part III, which focuses on religious change in Eastern Europe, discusses general trends of religiosity in the region. Changes to the religious landscape in the post-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe have been marked in recent years by processes not only of revival, but also of decline. The introduction identifies three different trajectories in Eastern and Central Europe that will be dealt with: religious renaissance, religious decline, and slight decline against the background of widespread stability. This explains the choice of the three case studies to be analysed in the following chapters: Russia, East Germany, and Poland.

The most important conclusions of this summarizing chapter are the following: The religious landscape of Eastern Europe is more diverse than that of Western Europe. The cases of Poland and the GDR confirm the hypothesis that there is a link between the diffusion of functions and the growth in the importance of religion. The strong processes of biographical individualization that occurred in the post-communist states did not necessarily intensify individual religiosity. The economic market model cannot be confirmed for Eastern Europe. There is in Eastern and Central Europe a demonstrable link between economic prosperity and the loosening of religious and church ties. What can act as a bulwark against the eroding effects of modernization is church activity on the one hand, and the everyday proximity, visibility, and concreteness of religious practices and rituals, symbols, images, and objects on the other.