From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States
(
ISBN
0-19-517429-1
) is a book by
Vjekoslav Perica
. It was first published in 2002 by
Oxford University Press
.
The book explores the political roles of different religious organisations in the republics of the
former Yugoslavia
.
Balkan Idols
was described as a significant work in several reviews in academic journals.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Reception
[
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]
Balkan Idols
was praised by Josip Mocnik in
Contemporary Church History Quarterly
as "masterfully written and extensively researched".
[6]
Writing for the
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
, Franke Wilmer described the book as a "remarkably balanced" work that shows "how socially and politically destructive the volatile interplay between fundamentalism and the magnification of unresolved or unreconciled narratives of victimization
... can be."
[3]
Peter Korchnak of the
Global Review of Ethnopolitics
wrote that "[the] merging of national and religious identity defines the objective of Perica’s monograph: rather than attempting to explain the dissolution of Yugoslavia by factors related to religion, the aim is to trace the influence of religious institutions on nation-formation and political legitimacy in Yugoslavia."
[5]
References
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edit
]
- ^
A review by Nicholas J. Miller.
Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States by Vjekoslav Perica
.
Slavic Review
, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 169-170; Quote: "Although most treatments of Yugoslavia's collapse take for granted that religion was an important factor in that event, relatively little has been written in English on the subject. This book helps remedy that situation.
Balkan Idols
describes the politics of organized religion in Yugoslavia, focusing primarily on the Serbian Orthodox, Croatian Catholic, and Bosnian Muslim churches. [...] Perica conducted primary and secondary research using a variety of sources, most important the reports of state and local commissions on religious affairs since the late 1960s. He writes assertively, and the book includes not only well-founded analysis but also telling anecdotes and vital historical and demographic details.
Balkan Idols
will be read with satisfaction by academics, their students, and possibly a wider public."
- ^
Dejan Jovi?
. Review of:
Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States by Vjekoslav Perica
. Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Aug 2003, Vol. 5 Issue 2, pp. 262-263; Quote:"This is a very useful, well-written and challenging book, highly recommended for everyone studying collapse of Yugoslavia and relations between religion, nationalism and states in former Yugoslavia and its successors. [...] It is an exciting, well-researched and enormously useful contribution to?by now already very large?body of literature on the roots of the problems which resulted in disintegration of Yugoslavia."
- ^
a
b
Franke Wilmer. Review of:
Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States by Vjekoslav Perica
. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2004, Vol. 72, Issue 4, pp. 1059-1061
- ^
Shay Wood.
Review of:
Vjekoslav Perica. Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States
.
Archived
2008-07-25 at the
Wayback Machine
Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Volume 2, 2006. Quote: "Perica has composed a well-written and well-documented book which fills an important gap in the historiography not only of Yugoslavia but of religion as well. [...] With the objective to stamp out the “popular misconception” of religion’s role in conflict, Perica’s book should appeal to a broad public audience and not solely to scholars and students of the Yugoslav states. Religious scholars should also benefit from this nuanced discussion about the place of religious institutions in politics and society. Readers will encounter many editorial and typing errors, transpositions, and misspelled Serbo-Croatian words, but this should detract no one from poring over this valuable study. Perica’s study will hopefully stimulate new research into religious institutions among Slovenes, Albanians and the region’s religious minorities, as well as the role of religious institutions in conflicts worldwide."
- ^
a
b
Peter Korchnak.
Review Essay: 'Images of Yugoslavia: Past and Present'.
Archived
2007-08-02 at the
Wayback Machine
Global Review of Ethnopolitics, Vol. 3, no. 3-4, March?June 2004, pp. 82-87
- ^
"Book Reviews"
.
Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletter
.
IX
(8). August 2003
. Retrieved
2015-06-13
.
External links
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