Citation

Sells M. Sociol. Relig. 2003; 64(3): 309-331.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Association for the Sociology of Religion)

DOI

10.2307/3712487

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The role of religion in the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina has been both obvious and invisible. It was obvious in that both perpetrators and victims of organized atrocities were identified by their religious tradition. It was invisible in that the religious manifestations were viewed either as incidental or as masks for deeper social, political, and economic issues; or else categorized exclusively as aspects of ethnicity.This essay examines the role of religion in the ideology of those carrying out "ethnic cleansing," as manifested in the literature of the religious nationalists and, particularly in the case of Catholic religious nationalism, in the language of destruction and construction of shrines. Juxtaposed to the shrine texts of religious nationalism is a vision of shrine preservation and reconstruction. The reconstruction efforts are viewed by their advocates as central to the construction of a pluriform Bosnia-Hercegovina in which all religions historically integral to Bosnian civilization will be viewed as equal and equally important elements of the national identity. By examining the struggle between these two visions of sacral monuments, we can better understand and evaluate the agency of religious institutions, leaders, and symbols in the Bosnian drama.