Religion in Central and Eastern Europe

The Pew Research Center has released a lengthy report on religion in central and eastern Europe.  The report is much too long to require students in the class to read.  However, everyone should skim the overview page here.

Here are a few things that caught my eye.  First, religion is strong again despite decades of official atheism under communism.  Second, state-affiliated religious groups remain the most prominent groups in those countries.  Third, religiosity in central and eastern Europe appears can be described as "believing and belonging without behaving."  This last pattern is quite different from "believing without belonging" in western Europe and "behaving without believing or belonging" in east Asia.