SERBIA IN THE 1980S: BETWEEN RELIGIOSITY AND ATHEISM

Abstract

The article analyses the resurgence of religiosity, i.e. the decline of atheism in Serbia during the 1980s, by examining its causes, with a particular emphasis on the social, political, and ideological background of this process. The research revealed that the resurgence of religiosity in Serbia in the last decade of the Cold War was directly connected with the decline of communism and the emergence of an ideological vacuum. Additionally, the research suggests that the process of revitalizing religiosity in Serbia was also driven by ethnic tensions in the former Yugoslavia, namely the revival and strengthening of ethnic identities in Yugoslavia. The research was based on the analysis of statistical data, scholarly articles, and newspaper texts published in the 1980s.