Without losing my religion: The dilemmas of EU integration in Poland

[First paragraph] The role of religion in public life has mainly been examined in social studies, with contributions that pointed to the process of secularization in the 1960s and 1970s. Peter Berger, author of The Sacred Canopy (1990), stressed later that these analyses have mistakenly confused the process of pluralization and secularization. He noted that the impact of modernization does not necessarily lead to secularization, but may change how we believe in God, and affect formations of values and attitudes. Modernization impacts on varying choices and the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe had a similar influence across the region. As Jose Casanova (2006) underlines, the impact of secularization provides the Churches opportunities to emerge and enter the social and political discourse. The same Churches found opportunities within the fall of Communism and the process of democratization in the region.