The article provides a historical overview of the presence of the Catholic Church
in social and political life from the first encyclical Rerum Novarum until today, with particular
reference to the Slovenian geographical space. From the very definition of the Church's social
doctrine as a special theological discipline, it is clear that this sphere of research has been
subject to historical changes, as presented in the first chapter of this articles. The diversity
of views on the relationship between religion, society and politics has resonated visibly across
Slovenian social circles. Between the two world wars, Slovenia was wholly comparable to the
neighboring, especially Western European countries in terms of the Slovenians’ active role
as Christians in the society. The most important actors in this were Janez Evangelist Krek,
Andrej Gosar and Edvard Kocbek, whose socially active role is presented in the following
two chapters. The progress of this process was blocked for half a century with the communist
revolution in the period during and after the second world war, which is presented in the fourth chapter. After the Second Vatican Council, the Church's social doctrine was subject
to some significant changes, and Slovenians adapted to them fairly well. Due to the powerful
pressures exerted by the laicist and secularist culture in the Slovenian environment, both
society and the state lag significantly behind other European countries in terms of relations
between faith and reason, between the laymen and the Christian culture, between the church
and the state. The Catholic Church's vision of the presence of Christians in modern society
is relatively clear and has been reshaped under the last few popes, which is the subject of the
final chapter of the article.
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