Balkan Idols

Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States (ISBN 0-19-517429-1) is a book by Vjekoslav Perica. It was first published in 2002 by Oxford University Press.

The text explores the political roles of religious organizations in the republics of the former Yugoslavia. The notion that a "clash of civilizations" played a central role in creating aggression is rejected by the author. The book was described as a significant work in several reviews in academic journals.[1][2][3][4][5]

Reviews

"Vjekoslav Perica brilliantly recounts the role of religious narratives, institutions, organizations, and, most importantly, church or religious authorities both in constituting the three dominant identities of Yugoslavs and, in turn, in appropriating those narratives and identities for the destruction of the Yugoslav state and the possibility of civic and civil life in it... Fundamentalism is the enemy of all that makes democracies functional and civility possible, whether in secular, religious, nationalist, patriotic, or ethnic clothing. Perica's contribution to our understanding of this phenomenon is immense." ––Journal of the American Academy of Religion.[3]

"Vjekoslav Perica's masterfully written and extensively researched book fills an important gap in the historical scholarship on twentieth century southeastern Europe." ––Association of Contemporary Church Historians[6]

"[The] merging of national and religious identity defines the objective of Perica’s monograph: rather than attempting to explain the dissolution of Yugoslavia by factors related to religion, the aim is to trace the influence of religious institutions on nation-formation and political legitimacy in Yugoslavia." ––Peter Korchnak, in: The Global Review of Ethnopolitics [5]

References
  1. A review by Nicholas J. Miller. Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States by Vjekoslav Perica. Slavic Review, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 169-170; Quote: "Although most treatments of Yugoslavia's collapse take for granted that religion was an important factor in that event, relatively little has been written in English on the subject. This book helps remedy that situation. Balkan Idols describes the politics of organized religion in Yugoslavia, focusing primarily on the Serbian Orthodox, Croatian Catholic, and Bosnian Muslim churches. [...] Perica conducted primary and secondary research using a variety of sources, most important the reports of state and local commissions on religious affairs since the late 1960s. He writes assertively, and the book includes not only well-founded analysis but also telling anecdotes and vital historical and demographic details. Balkan Idols will be read with satisfaction by academics, their students, and possibly a wider public."
  2. Dejan Jović. Review of: Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States by Vjekoslav Perica. Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Aug 2003, Vol. 5 Issue 2, pp. 262-263; Quote:"This is a very useful, well-written and challenging book, highly recommended for everyone studying collapse of Yugoslavia and relations between religion, nationalism and states in former Yugoslavia and its successors. [...] It is an exciting, well-researched and enormously useful contribution to—by now already very large—body of literature on the roots of the problems which resulted in disintegration of Yugoslavia."
  3. Franke Wilmer. Review of: Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States by Vjekoslav Perica. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2004, Vol. 72, Issue 4, pp. 1059-1061
  4. Shay Wood. Review of: Vjekoslav Perica. Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States. Archived 2008-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Volume 2, 2006. Quote: "Perica has composed a well-written and well-documented book which fills an important gap in the historiography not only of Yugoslavia but of religion as well. [...] With the objective to stamp out the “popular misconception” of religion’s role in conflict, Perica’s book should appeal to a broad public audience and not solely to scholars and students of the Yugoslav states. Religious scholars should also benefit from this nuanced discussion about the place of religious institutions in politics and society. Readers will encounter many editorial and typing errors, transpositions, and misspelled Serbo-Croatian words, but this should detract no one from poring over this valuable study. Perica’s study will hopefully stimulate new research into religious institutions among Slovenes, Albanians and the region’s religious minorities, as well as the role of religious institutions in conflicts worldwide."
  5. Peter Korchnak. Review Essay: 'Images of Yugoslavia: Past and Present'. Archived 2007-08-02 at the Wayback Machine Global Review of Ethnopolitics, Vol. 3, no. 3-4, March–June 2004, pp. 82-87
  6. "Book Reviews". Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletter. IX (8). August 2003. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
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