The social history of irreligion in Lithuania (from the 19th century to the present)

This chapter analyzes the social history of irreligion – freethinking, nonbelief and atheism – in Lithuania from the 19th century to the present day. It aims to disclose how the phenomenon of irreligion is manifested in the religious field of Lithuania dominated by Roman Catholicism. The chapter covers three periods of the country’s history: the First Republic of Lithuania (1918–1938), the Second World War and Soviet period (1939–1989) and the second Republic of Lithuania (1989 to the present) and is structured accordingly. The author argues that the position of the phenomenon of irreligion in Lithuania differed under various political regimes. During the periods of independence of the Republic of Lithuania, irreligion was marginalized and/or disregarded due to the dominant position of Roman Catholicism. Throughout the Soviet period, irreligion in the form of scientific atheism was provided as the main system of meaning for the country’s population, in parallel to the limitations of freedom and rights of other religious beliefs and practices. Social research demonstrates that in contemporary Lithuania irreligion is considered to be on the outskirts of public and religious life, atheism being associated with Communism and considered a threat to the Catholic majority.