Overview

This book defines ‘blasphemy’ as a concept and delineates historically, primarily in sociological and anthropological terms, the political and social functions of accusing a culprit of it. The author explores the laws pertaining to freedom of speech and freedom of religion in EU member states, illustrated by examples of incidents and how they were legally resolved. The book includes a detailed discourse analysis of twelve ‘blasphemy’ incidents in the history of modern Serbia, contextualized politically and culturally, concluding with recommendations on how to approach ‘blasphemy’ in the postsecular world.

Full Product Details

9781666975291

Table of Contents

Reviews

The Sacred and Sacrilege in Postsecular Serbia offers a detailed analysis of the phenomenon of blasphemy accusations in the postsecular world, with a special focus on the intriguing case of Serbia. The analysis is firmly rooted in a precisely defined theoretical and historical framework, and presents an innovative elucidation of a topic which has only marginally been tackled in academic circles in the region, while consistently connecting the concrete cases to more universal issues. This manuscript therefore represents a significant academic contribution to the interdisciplinary study of religion, not only locally or historically, but in broader conceptual frameworks as well. * Mirko Blagojevic, Ph.D. Head of FOREL, Principal Research Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia * In this book, the sacred is critically approached with a genuine sense of respect for religious identity. Blasphemy, once seen as a relic of the past, now re-emerges as a powerful tool for drawing group identities boundaries often enforcing divisions within society, such as “us” vs. “them.” The book shows how religion is unfortunately often used to divide a society, especially when it is immersed in ethnic identity. A must-read for anyone seeking to navigate how issues of the sacred are transversal to questions of faith, politics, and other group identities and rights in the post-Yugoslav space and beyond. * Rastko Jovic, Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade *

Author Information

Danica Igrutinovic is associate professor in the department of media and communications at Singidunum University, Belgrade.

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