Abstract

An important church body complementing the religious face of Slovakia is the Lutheran Church. It is the second largest church according to the 2001 census, a community with intensive intergenerational secularisation of its adherents. Ageing and a significant overall decline in believers during socialism are the most typical signs of this church. This paper briefly describes these typical signs with geographical nuances, a comparison with surrounding countries and with the largest church body in Slovakia - Roman Catholics. At the beginning of the new millennium, the Lutheran Church of Slovakia had reached its peak in the stabile period considering the slight renewal of church life after 1990. Due to known processes, new times will bring a progressive decrease in adherents. And Lutherans, as the first church in Slovakia, seem to approach and adopt western patterns of churches succumbing to secularisation