Read more
The book provides an empirically based analysis of changes on how various political and denominational actors seek to influence the Church and state relationship, as well as how we understand the idea of the secular state. A set of case studies shows how and why changes in the coverage of the secular state and Church-state relations have followed the dynamics of media logic. By establishing a grounded theory based on media content, legal regulations and political party programs in the years 1989-2015 as well as a current survey, the author throws new light on the theory of mediatization. The book demonstrates that the disseminated idea of the secular state is largely a result of the adaptation of both political and religious representatives to a dynamically changing media logic.
"The book is the first study of this kind showing the Polish perspective. It is an interesting and important source of information for those who want to trace the media picture of relations between the Polish state and the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, representing the largest religious community in Poland."
Professor Dorota Piontek, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan
List of contents
State secularity in context - Notion of mediatization - Mediatization of religion and politics - Methodological background - Covering the secular and church-state relationship - Mediatization effect - Church-state issues seen through the prism of the mediatization theory
About the author
Damian Guzek is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Silesia in Katowice. He was a visiting fellow at the School of Humanities, Keele University and visiting fellow at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. In 2017, he conducted the Visby postdoctoral research project at the Centre for Religion and Society, Uppsala University.
