International Journal of Social Science Studies Vol.1, No. 2; October 2013 ISSN 2324-8033 E-ISSN 2324-8041 Published by Redfame Publishing URL: http://ijsss.redfame.com Religion and Politics in the Czech Republic: The Roman Catholic Church and the State Jakub Havlíček1 & Dušan Luţný1 1Department of Sociology, Andragogy and Cultural Anthropology, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic Correspondence: Jakub Havlicek, Department of Sociology, Andragogy and Cultural Anthropology, Palacký University, Krizkovskeho 10, Olomouc, 77180, Czech Republic. E-mail:
[email protected] Received: May 22, 2013 Accepted: July 29, 2013 Available online: August 6, 2013 doi:10.11114/ijsss.v1i2.145 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.11114/ijsss.v1i2.145 Abstract The objective of this paper consists in describing and analyzing the position of organized, institutionalized religions in the Czech Republic. It focuses on the role of organized religion in the public sphere of the Czech society, and it pays particular attention to the role of the Roman Catholic Church. The principal aim of this paper consists in describing the secularization in the Czech society, both on the micro (individual level of secularization), and the macro level (societal level of secularization). The juxtaposition of the two levels reveals a discrepancy: the individual level of secularization may be considered relatively high, whereas religion persists on the societal level and comes to be publically discussed on several occasions. The juxtaposition of the two levels of secularization is based on the theory by Karel Dobbelaere. It is based on Dobbelaere‟s thesis on the need to distinguish the diversity of the processes connected to secularization on various levels of the society.