Religion in the Czech Republic

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Religion in the Czech Republic (2021)[1]

  No religion (47.8%)
  Catholicism (9.3%)
  Other Christians (2.4%)
  Believers without religion (9.6%)
  Other religions (1.2%)
  Undeclared (30.1%)
Saint Wenceslas' Cathedral in Olomouc

In the Czech Republic, 47.8% of population is

agnostic or other irreligious life stances), while 21.3% of the population are believers. The religious identity of the country has changed drastically since the first half of the 20th century, when more than 90% of Czechs were Christians.[1][2] As of 2021, 11.7% of the population identified with Christianity (almost entirely Catholicism) whilst 10.8% identified with other religious identities or beliefs.[1] According to sociologist Jan Spousta, not all the irreligious people are atheists; indeed, since the late 20th century there has been an increasing distancing from both Christian dogmatism and atheism, and at the same time ideas and non-institutional models similar to those of Eastern religions have become widespread through movements started by various gurus, and hermetic and mystical paths.[3]

The

Utraquists were the two major Hussite factions. During the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century, the Utraquists sided with the Catholic Church, and following the joint Utraquist—Catholic victory, Utraquism was accepted by the Catholic Church as a legitimate doctrine to be practised in the Kingdom of Bohemia, while all the other Hussite movements were prohibited. Jewish minorities were also present in the country.[4]

After the

anti-Catholic stance while some of the defeated Hussite factions (notably the Taborites) were revived. The defeat of Bohemians estates by the Habsburg monarchy in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 affected the religious sentiments of the Czechs, as the Habsburgs endorsed a Counter-Reformation to forcibly reconvert all Czechs, even Utraquist Hussites, back to the Catholic Church.[4]

Since the Battle of White Mountain, widespread

Marxist-Leninist period of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1960–1990), and has continued to decline in the contemporary epoch after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 restored liberal democracy in Czechoslovakia.[7] Protestantism did not recover immediately after the Habsburg Counter-Reformation; it regained some ground when the Habsburg monarchy disintegrated in the early 20th century (in 1950 about 17% of the Czechs were Protestants, mostly Hussites), although after the 1950s it declined again and today it is a very small minority (around 1%).[1]

According to the official censuses conducted by the

Paganism, Hinduism, Judaism, and others.[1] In the census of 2021, 47.8% of the Czechs declared that they did not believe in any religion, while 30.1% did not respond.[1]

Demographics

Census statistics, 1921–2021

Religious affiliations in the Czech Republic, census 1921–2021[1]
Religion 1921 1930 1950 1991 2001 2011 2021
Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number %
Christianity 9,150,872 91.5 9,691,392 90.8 8,332,458 93.7 4,518,512 43.9 3,094,227 30.2 1,379,802 13.2 1,241,214 11.7
—Catholicism 8,210,771 82.1 8,390,228 78.6 6,824,908 76.7 4,028,415 39.1 2,748,455 26.9 1,092,346 10.5 985,318 9.3
——Roman Catholic Church 8,201,464 82.0 8,378,079 78.5 6,792,046 76.3 4,021,385 39.0 2,740,780 26.8 1,082,463 10.4 741,175 7.0
——Catholics without church – – – – – – – – – – – – 235,834 2.2
——Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church 9,307 0.1 12,149 0.1 32,862 0.4 7,030 0.1 7,675 0.1 9,883 0.1 8,309 0.1
—Eastern Orthodox Church (majority Czech and Slovak) 9,221 0.1 24,488 0.2 50,365 0.6 19,354 0.2 22,968 0.2 26,370 0.2 41,178 0.4
—Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren 231,199 2.3 290,994 2.7 401,729 4.5 203,996 2.0 117,212 1.1 51,858 0.5 32,577 0.3
—Czechoslovak Hussite Church 523,232 5.2 779,672 7.3 946,813 10.6 178,036 1.7 99,103 1.0 39,229 0.4 23,610 0.2
—Jehovah's Witnesses – – – – – – 14,575 0.1 23,162 0.2 13,069 0.1 13,298 0.1
—Augsburg Confession Lutheran churches (majority Silesian) 150,687 1.5 52,485 0.5 80,144 0.9 37,281 0.4 34,317 0.3 17,379 0.2 11,047 0.1
—German Evangelical Church in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia – – 130,981 1.2 6,401 0.1 – – – – – – – –
—Old Catholic Church of the Czech Republic 20,103 0.2 22,544 0.2 – – 2,725 0.03 1,605 0.02 1,730 0.02 672 0.01
—Other Christians[α] 14,966 0.1 31,033 0.3 22,098 0.2 34,130 0.3 47,405 0.5 137,821 1.3 133,514 1.3
Jediism – – – – – – – – – – 15,070 0.1 21,539 0.2
Buddhism – – – – – – – – 6,817 0.07 6,101 0.06 5,757 0.05
Islam – – – – – – 495 0.0 3,699 0.04 3,358 0.03 5,244 0.05
Paganism
 – – – – – – – – – – 863 0.01 2,953 0.03
Pastafarianism
 – – – – – – – – – – – – 2,696 0.03
Hinduism – – – – – – – – 1,061 0.01 2,408 0.02 2,024 0.02
Judaism 125,083 1.3 117,551 1.1 8,038 0.1 1,292 0.01 1,515 0.01 1,474 0.01 1,901 0.02
Biotronics
 – – – – – – – – – – – – 1,053 0.01
Other religion 2,393 0.02 266 0.002 12,786 0.1 35,651 0.3 180,769 1.8 628 0.01 89,254 0.8
Believers without religion – – – – – – – – – – 760,316 7.3 1,005,788 9.6
No religion 716,515 7.2 834,144 7.8 519,962 5.8 4,112,864 39.9 6,039,991 59.0 3,604,095 34.5 5,027,794 47.8
Not stated 10,871 0.1 31,033 0.3 22,889 0.3 1,665,617 16.2 901,981 8.8 4,662,455 44.7 3,162,540 30.1
Total population 10,005,734 10,674,386 8,896,133 10,302,215 10,230,060 10,436,560 10,524,167

Line chart of the trends, 1921–2021

Census statistics 1921–2021:[1]

  
Catholicism
  Protestantism and other Christians
  Other beliefs
  No religion
  Not stated

Religions

Christianity

Archbishop of Prague
.
The decline of Christianity recorded throughout the censuses of 1991, 2001 and 2011.

The

Saints Cyril and Methodius, was the first ruler of Bohemia to adopt Christianity as the state religion. Since the late 19th century, and especially throughout the 20th century, Christianity was gradually abandoned by the majority of the Czechs and today it remains the religion of a minority.[8] From 1950 to 2021, the official censuses of the Czech Statistical Office recorded a decline of professed Christianity from about 94% to about 12% of the population of the Czech lands.[1]

The

Marxist-Leninist period of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1960–1990) certainly saw an oppression of Christianity, thus contributing to its decline, but also hampered the appearance of any alternatives in the area of religion, so that Christianity continued to have a monopolistic position in the religious interpretation of the world.[9] Only the restoration of liberal democracy after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 opened the country to the spread of non-Christian religions.[9] According to the scholar Jan Spousta, throughout the 20th century Christianity gradually lost its character as the Czechs' traditional religion, and was abandoned by most while turning into a religion of sincere choice for the minority who continues to identify itself with it and practise it.[10] Spousta also found that Christians in the early 21st century tended to be older and less educated than the general population, and females were far more likely than males to be believers.[8] Christianity remained relatively higher in percentage among the populations of the agrarian south-eastern regions of Moravia, while the percentages were already very low in the large cities and the north-western more industrialised regions of Bohemia.[11]

Roman Catholicism

Main article: Catholic Church in the Czech Republic

Hussitism; in 1920, Hussites split out of the Catholic Church with about 10% of the formerly Catholic clergy and established themselves as the Czechoslovak Hussite Church.[4]

From 1950 onwards, Marxist-Leninists gained power in Czechoslovakia, which from 1960 to 1989 became the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and while they fought all religions, Catholicism was targeted with particular aggressiveness.[6] After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the restoration of liberal democracy in the Czech lands, Catholicism, like other forms of Christianity, did not recover and continued to lose adherents.[6] The data from the national censuses show that Catholics decreased from 76.7% of the Czechs in 1950 prior to the Marxist-Leninist period, to 39.1% in 1991 after the fall of Marxism-Leninism, to 26.9% in 2001, to 10.5% in 2011, and to 9.3% in 2021.[1]

Protestantism

Church of Saint Nicholas, the main church of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church with the Jan Hus Memorial, in Prague. Jan Hus (1369–1415), a key figure of the Bohemian Reformation, inspired the Proto-Protestant movement of Hussitism.
See also:
Hussitism, Czechoslovak Hussite Church, Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, and Moravian Church

In the late 14th century, the religious and social reformer

Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther and his doctrine (Lutheranism).[4]

After 1526, Bohemia came increasingly under the control of the

Defenestration of Prague and the subsequent revolt against the Habsburgs in 1618 marked the start of the Thirty Years' War, which quickly spread throughout Central Europe. In 1620, the rebellion in Bohemia was crushed at the Battle of White Mountain, and the ties between Bohemia and the Habsburgs' hereditary lands in Austria were strengthened. The war had a devastating effect on the local population, and the people were forced to convert back to Catholicism under the Habsburgs' Counter-Reformation efforts.[4]

In 1918, when the Habsburg monarchy disintegrated and independent Czechoslovakia emerged, most of the Czechs professed formal affiliation to Catholicism; anti-Catholic sentiments spread quickly as Catholicism was viewed as the religion re-imposed by the Habsburg, so that in 1920 the

Calvinist and Hussite traditions) represented another 4.5% of the population, and another 1% were members of Lutheran churches of the Augsburg Confession (mostly of the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession).[1]

During the Marxist-Leninist years of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic all religions were discouraged by the government; the Czech Protestant churches lost many members (the Czechoslovak Church lost 80% of its adherents), and they continued to decline after the restoration of liberal democracy after 1989.[6] Protestantism today constitutes a small minority of around 1% of the population; according to the 2021 census, only 0.2% of the Czechs (23,610) adhered to the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, 0.3% (32,577) adhered to the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, and 0.1% (11,047) were Lutherans of the Augsburg Confession (still mostly Silesian).[1] The Moravian Church, historically tied to the region of Moravia, was still present with a very small number of adherents, about 1,257.[1] Other Protestant minorities include Anglicans, Adventists, Apostolic Pentecostals, Baptists, Brethren, Methodists, and nondenominational Evangelicals.[1]

Orthodox Christianity, Jehovah's Witnesses and other Christians

See also: Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia

In the 2021 census, 41,178 Czechs (0.4% of the population) identified themselves as adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church, almost all of them members of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia and only a few hundreds of the Czech branch of the Russian Orthodox Church.[1] In the same census, 13,298 (0.1%) identified themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses, and very small minorities as Mormons of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, adherents of the Unification Church, and of other minor Christian churches.[1] 71,089 Czechs (0.7%) identified themselves simply as "Christians".[1]

Buddhism

Main article: Buddhism in the Czech Republic

In the 2021 census, 5,257 Czechs declared themselves adherents of

Diamond Way founded by the Danish lama Ole Nydahl.[12]

Paganism

Statue of the Slavic god Radegast on Mount Radhošť, made by the sculptor Albin Polasek. It is object of pilgrimage and worship for local Rodnovers, who also believe that its temporary removal for restoration in 2002 caused the flood which hit Moravia that year.[13]

The entire Pagan community in the Czech Republic, including

Slavic Rodnovery (Czech: Rodnověří) as well as other Pagan religions, was described by scholars of religion as small in 2013.[14] In the 2021 census, 2,953 Czechs identified themselves as Pagans (including 189 Druids).[1] The first Pagan groups to emerge in the Czech Republic in the 1990s were oriented towards Germanic Heathenry and Celtic Druidry,[15] while modern Slavic Rodnovery began to develop around 1995–1996 with the foundation of two groups, the National Front of the Castists and Radhoŝť, which in 2000 were merged to form the Community of Native Faith (Společenství Rodná Víra).[16] There are also adherents of the Rodnover denomination of Ynglism; the Civic Association Tartaria (Občanské sdružení Tartaria), headquartered in Slovakia, also caters to Czech Ynglists.[17] Besides Slavic Rodnovers, Germanic Heathens and Celtic Druids, in the Czech Republic there are also Wiccan followers,[18] and one Kemetic organisation, Per Kemet.[19]

The Community of Native Faith was among the government-recognised religious entities until 2010, when it was unregistered and became an informal association due to ideological disagreements between the Castists and other subgroups about whether Slavic religion was Indo-European hierarchic worship (supported by the Castists), Neolithic mother goddess worship, or neither.[20] The leader of the organisation since 2007 has been Richard Bigl (Khotebud), and it is today devoted to the celebration of annual holidays and individual rites of passage, to the restoration of sacred sites associated with Slavic deities, and to the dissemination of knowledge about Slavic spirituality in Czech society.[21] While the contemporary association is completely adogmatic and apolitical,[22] and refuses to "introduce a solid religious or organisational order" because of the past internal conflicts,[23] between 2000 and 2010 it had a complex structure,[22] and redacted a Code of Native Faith defining a precise doctrine for Czech Rodnovery (which firmly rejected the Book of Veles).[24] Though Rodná Víra no longer maintains structured territorial groups, it is supported by individual adherents scattered throughout the Czech Republic.[25]

  • Rodnover idols in Břeclav, South Moravian Region
    Rodnover idols in Břeclav, South Moravian Region
  • Rodnover idol at a park in Kovářov, South Bohemian Region
    Rodnover idol at a park in Kovářov, South Bohemian Region
  • Altar dedicated to the god Thoth by a Czech practitioner of Kemetism
    Altar dedicated to the god Thoth by a Czech practitioner of Kemetism

Other religions

The deep changes in the religious sensibility of the Czechs since the early 20th century, and the loss of religious monopoly and decline of Christianity, opened a space for the growth of new forms of religiousness,[9] including ideas and non-institutional, diffuse models similar to those of Eastern religions,[26] with the spread of movements centred around various gurus, and hermetic and mystical paths.[11]

In the 2021 census, 21,539 Czechs (0.2% of the population) identified themselves as adherents of

Biotronics (incorporated as the Society of Josef Zezulka[28]), and 89,254 (0.8% of the population) as adherents of other minority religions.[1] Another 9.6% of the Czechs declared themselves as having some belief but not identifiable with any specific religion.[1]

Irreligious people

Main article: Irreligion in the Czech Republic
Age composition of irreligious Czechs according to the 2011 census.

In the 2021 census, 5,027,794 Czechs, corresponding to 47.8% of the total population of the Czech Republic, identified themselves as irreligious, including atheism, agnosticism and other irreligious life stances.[1] Some Czech atheists have organised themselves in the Civic Association of Atheists (Občanské sdružení ateistů), which is a member of the Atheist Alliance International.[29] Not all irreligious Czechs are atheists; a number of non-religious people believe or practise unorganised forms of spirituality which do not require strict adherence or identification, similar to Eastern religions.[26]

Freedom of religion

In 2023, the country was scored 3 out of 4 for religious freedom.[30]

See also

Media related to Religion in the Czech Republic at Wikimedia Commons

Notes

  1. ^ "Other Christians" in the census include people who declared themselves simply "Christians" without denomination, as well as Anglicans, Adventists, Apostolic Pentecostals, Baptists, Brethren, Methodists, Mormons, Moravian Hussites, Unificationists, and nondenominational Evangelicals.

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Official census data from the Czech Statistical Office:
    • "Obyvatelstvo podle náboženského vyznání a pohlaví podle výsledků sčítání lidu v letech 1921, 1930, 1950, 1991 a 2001" [Population by denomination and sex: as measured by 1921, 1930, 1950, 1991 and 2001 censuses] (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2011.
    • "Obyvatelstvo podle náboženské víry a pohlaví podle výsledků sčítání lidu v letech 1921, 1930, 1950, 1991, 2001 a 2011" [Population by religious belief and sex by 1921, 1930, 1950, 1991, 2001 and 2011 censuses]. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022.
    • "Obyvatelstvo podle náboženské víry v letech 1991 až 2021" [Population by religious beliefs from 1991 to 2021]. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022.
  2. ^ Spousta 2002, pp. 345, 362.
  3. ^ Spousta 2002, pp. 345–346, 348, 358.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Spousta 2002, p. 346.
  5. ^ Staar 1982, p. 90.
  6. ^ a b c d Spousta 2002, p. 347.
  7. ^ Spousta 2002, pp. 346–347.
  8. ^ a b c Spousta 2002, p. 345.
  9. ^ a b c Spousta 2002, p. 350.
  10. ^ Spousta 2002, p. 355.
  11. ^ a b Spousta 2002, p. 348.
  12. ^ "World Buddhist Directory – Czech Republic". Buddhanet. Archived from the original on 26 January 2022.
  13. ^ Mačuda 2014, p. 102, note 3.
  14. ^ Dostálová 2013, p. 179.
  15. ^ Mačuda 2014, p. 101.
  16. ^ Mačuda 2014, p. 102.
  17. ^ "Občanské sdružení Tartaria". Archived from the original on 28 August 2021.
  18. ^ "Wicca.cz – Tradiční iniciační Wicca v České republice". Archived from the original on 23 January 2022.
  19. ^ "Per Kemet – stránki o Kemetismu". Archived from the original on 24 May 2021.
  20. ^ Mačuda 2014, p. 103; Maiello 2015, p. 86; Maiello 2018, passim.
  21. ^ Mačuda 2014, p. 103.
  22. ^ a b Mačuda 2014, p. 104.
  23. ^ Mačuda 2014, p. 107.
  24. ^ Mačuda 2014, p. 106.
  25. ^ Mačuda 2014, p. 105.
  26. ^ a b Spousta 2002, pp. 345–346, 358, 362.
  27. ^ "Jediismus.cz". Archived from the original on 27 March 2021.
  28. ^ "Společenství Josefa Zezulky". Archived from the original on 23 January 2022.
  29. ^ "Ateisté ČR". Archived from the original on 17 December 2021.
  30. ^ Freedom House website, retrieved 2023-08-08

Sources
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