This volume brings together leading scholars to examine how the Church has brought its values into the political sphere and, in the process, alienated some of the younger generation. Since the disintegration of the communist one-party state at the end of the 1980s, the Catholic Church has pushed its agenda to ban abortion, introduce religious instruction in the state schools, and protect Poland from secular influences emanating from the European Union. As one of the consequences, Polish society has become polarized along religious lines, with conservative forces such as Fr. Rydzyk¿s Radio Maryja seeking to counter the influence of the European Union and liberals on the left trying to protect secular values. This volume casts a wide net in topics, with chapters on Pope John Paul II, Radio Maryja, religious education, the Church¿s campaign against what it calls ¿genderism,¿ and the privatization of religious belief, among other topics.

The Strength of the Church - An Introduction .- Controversies in the social & political engagement of the Catholic Church in Poland since 1988 .- The Many Faces of John Paul II .- The Roman Catholic Church In Poland vis-à-vis Europe and the Processes of European integration: Three images of Europe .- Radio Maryja and Fr. Rydzyk as a creator of the National-Catholic ideology .- The war on gender? The Roman Catholic Church's discourse on gender in Poland .- The Politics of Religious Education in Poland after 1989 .- Religious minorities in contemporary Poland .- Religion in Poland between tradition and modernity, or religious continuity and change in conditions of transformation .- The Public Engagement of the Catholic Church in Polish Society .- Polish religious values as reflected in the European Values Study .- Religiosity, the Catholic Church, and Politics in Poland .- Visible Religion, Invisible Ethics .- Religion, politics and social attitudes in transforming Poland.

Sabrina P. Ramet is Professor of Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), in Trondheim, Norway. Born in London, England, she earned her PhD in political science at University of California, Los Angeles, USA in 1981. She is the author of 12 scholarly books and editor or co-editor of 32 previous books, including Religion and Politics in Central and Southeastern Europe: Challenges since 1989 (2014).

Irena Borowik is Professor of Sociology in the Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Poland. She earned her PhD in sociology at the Jagiellonian University in 1988. She is the author, editor, or co-editor of numerous books, including Religion, Churches, and Religiosity in Post-Communist Europe (2006).