Analiza društvenog stanja u Bosni i Hercegovini kao osnova za pastoralno planiranje
An analysis of social realities in Bosnia and Hercegovina as a basis for pastoral planning

Summary/Abstract: Faith, understood as a person’s response to God revealing himself to him or her, is not a totally private reality and nor is it directed exclusively toward eternal life. On the contrary, faith is lived within a community and includes the struggle to build a more humane world. Since the world is not a static reality but a reality that, similar to an organism, is constantly developing and changing, there is a need to understand contemporary man and woman as well as the world in which they live in order to proclaim the Good News in an appropriate way. Taking into consideration the variety of different circumstances in the world, every Christian community should analyze the social realities in its own country and judge these in the light of the Gospel and the principles of the social teaching of the Church. This process of analyzing and judging is presented in this article as a “pastoral circle” consisting of four phases: identification, social analysis, theological reflection, and pastoral planning. The presentation of the “pastoral circle” contains an explanation of why the social analysis has been undertaken. After placing the social analysis in the pastoral context, the authorpresents a concise general overview of the social situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina based to a great extent on statistical data. Since statistical data cannot of itself serve as the basis for pastoral planning, the author seeks to explain, through historical and structural analysis, the causes of the present crisis, taking into consideration three major areas: political life, economics, and cultural life.

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