Presuming religious congruence? The nonreligious and Catholicism in Poland

Abstract

This article contributes to the understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the nonreligious and the religious in religiously homogeneous cultures. Specifically, it examines the centrality of the religious congruence fallacy in the narratives of nonreligious people. Based on 60 qualitative interviews with Polish nones, I chart the ways in which they make sense of the dominant model of Polish-Catholic religiosity, commonly referred to as the ‘Polak-Katolik’. The findings demonstrate that nonreligious Poles equate Polish Catholicism with hypocrisy, conformity, and an implicit fear of ostracism. In conclusion, I suggest that it is vital that scholars of nonreligion flesh out the complexities of the relationship between the nones and the religiously homogeneous cultures within which they exist.