Hungary

Known as “the final fortress of Western Christianity” by its citizens, the central European country of Hungary has understood itself as a Christian country since 997 CE. Today, many Hungarians have left off direct involvement in religious institutions but remain informally bound to their local churches through life cycle rituals. Though large portions of the population claim no religion (and approximately half of the Hungarians surveyed in 2005 claimed to not believe in God), nearly 85% of the populace assert allegiance to a religion. Fifty-two percent of Hungarians identified as Roman Catholics, 16% as Hungarian Reform (a Calvinist denomination), 3% as Lutheran, 3% as Greek Orthodox, and less than 1% as Jewish, a significant change from the historic number of Jews in Hungary. There are ...