engleski

Religious Distance in Croatia

The paper investigate attitudes of respondents belonging to different confessional, religious, socio-demographic, socio-structural and socio-cultural strata within the dominant Catholic population towards „ religious others“ – members of other main branches of the same religion in Croatia (Catholic/Orthodox/Protestant), members of other religions (Islam, Judaism), members of „ sects“ or New Religious Movements, and non-religious people – through the use of Bogardus' social distance scale. The question about social distance towards different religious groups was included in the questionnaire of ISSP survey „ The Role of Government“ , conducted by the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb in 2006 on a representative national sample (N=1200) of the Croatian adult population aged 18 years or more. The results showed the general social distance towards all religious others besides Catholics, and specifically the greater social distance toward religious communities which are new or which have not been present in this area for more than one century. Also, social distance is smaller towards non-religious than towards „ the religious other“ . Religiously affiliated respondents express greater social distance towards all religious groups and towards non-religious respondents than do those without religious affiliation. More religious respondents and religious practitioners express greater distance. Different socio- structural and socio-cultural characteristics of respondents also effects social distance, the predictor of greater distance being lower education, rural residential status and belonging to certain region (Lika and Banovina, Dalmatia).

religious distance, Croatia

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