Náboženská víra a vztah k historii – analýza existence vzájemného propojení

Abstract

The purpose of this text is to attempt to test the connection between people’s religiosity and their relationship to history, and also to provide some new knowledge about this relationship in the Czech Republic. According to theories, it is assumed that religion and history are somehow connected. This is why we are trying to obtain knowledge about the relationship between people’s religiosity and their historical consciousness. This knowledge should shed light on the role of religious memory. We assume that the process of how religious attitudes are justified by historical stories helps to form a relationship between people’s religiosity and their attitude towards history. We use data from the research entitled Sociologický výzkum historického vědomí 2010 (Sociological Research of Historical Consciousness). Linear regression and analysis of tables show that the examined relation is not as clear as we expected. Individuals with a different level of religious memory also have different attitudes towards historical consciousness. Practicing believers more often lean towards the category of historical consciousness called “positive affirmation” in contrast with non-believers, who have a tendency towards noetic instrumentalism and positive affirmation instead of historical nihilism as we expected. Furthermore, it was not proven that there is a causal relationship between believers and the scores from tests of historical knowledge. This relationship is mediated by cultural capital (education) and socio-economic status.