Department of Ethics, Vilnius Pedagogical University

Title and Précis:

Christianity in Lithuania: Between the Totalitarian Experience and the Contemporary Democracy

     Christianity in post-totalitarian Lithuania faces a number of new issues which deal with the marginalization and exclusion of Christianity from public discourse. Whether in Parliament or daily life, Christian beliefs are now understood to be private, personal, and not related to democracy. This project will explore Christianity in relation to Lithuanian democracy in order to diagnose the current situation. From this it will be asked whether contemporary Lithuanian Christians in general and Catholics in particular should take responsibility for the state of democracy or protect themselves from democratic public life.

Biography:

     Dr. Nerija Putinaite is on the Faculty of Ethics at Vilnius Pedagogical University and the Vice-Minister for Education and Science in the Republic of Lithuania. Dr. Putinaite earned her Doctoral degree from the Lithuanian Institute for Philosophy and Sociology in 2000. Dr. Putinaite has authored or edited a number of books and articles on a variety of topics, such as Kant's philosophy, Lithuanian culture, ethics and philosophy of culture.