An Arrested Dialectic: The National Past and (Post-)Dissident Catholic Moral Reasoning in Slovakia

Abstract

During the 1980s, Catholic dissidents in Slovakia constructed divergent modes of moral reasoning. While national democratic Catholic dissidents looked to universal Catholic morality, nationalist Catholic dissidents anchored their moral reasoning in nationalized ethics. Their respective modes of moral reasoning were crucially formed in the making of national Catholic memory. If both appreciated Slovak sovereignty, the former prioritized democracy, human rights, and dialogue across religious and ethnic divides, the latter national independence over democracy. This in turn determined how and when they pursued Slovak cultural and political sovereignty across the boundary of 1989.