BIBLIOGRAPHY
Title | "Religion and Nation in Wartime Croatia: Reflections on the Ustaša Policy of Forced Religious Conversions, 1941–1942" |
Author | Biondich, Mark |
Publisher | SEER, Vol. 83, No. 1, January |
Annotation | This article by the example of Ustaša (Croatian fascist movement) policy of religious conversions in 1941-42 discusses an important issue of the role and place of Catholicism in the Ustaša political regime. In his analysis of the case-study Biondich takes into account long-term development of Croatian nationalism, which, according to the author, did not ascribe to religion great significance prior to the Interwar period. Biondich argues that “Ustaša motives and policy had little to do with Catholic piety or Catholic proselytism as ends in themselves” (113). The article attempts to locate Croatian fascism, without discussing the fascist nature of the regime though, in a comparative context and points out its fundamental differences from Slovakia, “which was genuinely Catholic and led by priests, and the Legion of the Archangel Michael in Romania, which employed religious mysticism and elaborate ritual in its ideology” (113). Overall this article tackles in a sophisticated way a complex issue of the relations between fascism as a secular political ideology and essentially modern phenomenon on the one hand, and religion on the other. |
Author of Annotation | Maria Falina |