Religion, Law, and COVID-19 in Europe investigates how the pandemic and the subsequent legal restrictions on collective activities influenced religious life in the region. The 19 in-depth country case studies combine legal and sociological analyses and reflect the plurality of religious and secular contexts. They detail how the pandemic curbed the collective aspects of religion and how the religious communities adapted, especially via innovations in online religion and new forms of religious leadership.
The volume looks at how ordinary devotees' religious behaviours changed during the pandemic and reveals shifts in religion-state interactions. In so doing, it shows how the pandemic challenged both religions and societies and how this was influenced by varying religious landscapes, political histories and legal cultures.
More broadly, this volume makes three important contributions to the extant literature. First, it presents a novel analytical framing for making sense of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected religion. Second, it provides an empirical account of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted religious groups across Europe. Third, it reveals the importance of sudden, large-scale events in understanding religious change in the modern world.
Brian Conway is assistant professor of sociology at Maynooth University, Ireland.
Lene Kühle is professor in sociology of religion at Aarhus University, Denmark.
Francesco Alicino is professor in law and religion at LUM University, Bari, Italy.
Gabriel Bîrsan is an independent scholar of the sociology of religion, canon law and church-state relations.
Alicino, Francesco: - Francesco Alicino is Full Professor in Law and Religion at the University of LUM (Casamassima, Bari, Italy), where he also teaches Constitutional Law, Law of the Third Sector, and Immigration Law. He is Vice Rector (Prorettore) for teachings activities and the Coordinator of the five-years Degree Course in Law (LMG /01) at the LUM University. He is a member of the International Consortium for Church&State Research. He is the Editor of the Italian first-class review Daimon-Annuario di diritto comparato delle religioni (Il Mulino). He has been a member of the Italian Council for the relationship with Muslim communities at the Italian Minister of the Interior. ORCiD: https: //orcid.org/0000-0002-3363-7484
Conway, Brian: - Assistant professor of sociology at Maynooth University / former editor of the Irish Journal of Sociology (2014-17) / author of Commemoration and Bloody Sunday: Pathways of Memory (Palgrave 2010) and co-author of Sociology of Ireland (Gill & Macmillan 2012). ORCiD: https: //orcid.org/0000-0001-6821-7829
Kühle, Lene: - Lene Kühle, PhD, is a professor in Sociology of Religion at the Department for the Study of Religion, Aarhus University. Her research interests include religious diversity, religion and law, Muslims in Europe and theory and method in sociology of religion. She has published in journals like Sociology of religion, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Nordic Journal of Religion and Society. ORCiD: https: //orcid.org/0000-0001-5097-0521
