The religious and demographic profile of Europe is rapidly changing. The most obvious changes are closely linked to immigration, which has transformed many European countries to relatively diverse nations ethnically, culturally, and religiously. Other changes are also taking place in the area of religion. The Christian majority churches are experiencing decline and the number of people who are secular is growing. More people choose to remain outside any faith community, and the shift toward a culture of choice and subjectivity means that many forms of spirituality lie outside the churches and religious institutions altogether. The trends of blending of cultural ideas as well as a growing diversification and individualization in the area of religion are common features in most European countries today.
One implication of these changes is that long-standing ways of managing religious diversity face limitations and the question arises how to make sure that groups of people with different religious beliefs and practices are treated in fair ways that take into account individual freedoms and civic duties. Most European countries have developed their policies in contexts characterized by one or a few historically dominant Christian churches and small religious minorities, which often resulted in some form of privileged status of the majority churches . The changes during the past 3â4 decades have implied that questions of equal treatment of all religions have come to the forefront. A key issue concerns the scope and limits of public authorities in managing religious diversity. In most European countries, the question of the role of religion in the public sphere appears at the core of this debate (Davie 2015; Berg-SĂžrensen et al. 2014; Christoffersen et al. 2010; Ferrari and Pastorelli 2012; Hackett 2005a, b; Hjelm 2015; Woodhead and Catto 2012).
The debate on the public presence of religion includes the place of religious faith, practices, and various faith communities, including the majority churches , in liberal democracies. In the 1980s, several social scientists assumed that modern societies were primarily secular. The empirical research confirmed largely their views that secularization was increasing, in the sense that religion became more privatized and had little public significance. Indeed, research from the Nordic countries, led by Swedish sociologist Göran Gustafsson and conducted 3 decades ago, concluded that the major trend between 1930 and 1980 was a weakening in the official presence of religion, in the sense that the state protection of Christianity declined, the role of religion in the judicial system and public institutions diminished, and the influence of the Lutheran majority churches over the school system decreased (Gustafsson 1985, 263; 1994, 31â34). Gustafsson concluded that, âreligion and church are still present in the official sphere in all the Nordic countries and that this presence is tending to become less important with time.â By 1980, âreligion is only marginally present in the official arena of societyâ and âit belongs more to the private than to the public sphereâ (Gustafsson 1994, 45, 32). One exception was the media, where the presence of religion increased (1994, 45). At this time, the contours of religious diversity appeared on the horizon and the relatively homogeneous religious culture seemed to be slowly changing and weakening.
The 1990s and early 2000s witnessed a growing scholarly attention to religion in the public sphere . Some claimed that secularization theory had failed and that there was a return of religion in the public sphere (Berger 1999; Casanova 1994; Habermas 2006a). These debates took largely place within philosophy, theology, normative political philosophy, and sociology (see Kettell 2009; Köhrsen 2012). During the last decade, several large empirical research projects on religion have been conducted, where the public has been one of several topics. These projects have analyzed religion in public places in Europe (BÀckström et al. 2010, 2011; Ferrari and Pastorelli 2012; Woodhead and Catto 2012) and in Canada (Lefebvre and Beaman 2014). What is obvious from these and other studies (Byrnes and Katzenstein 2006; Cesari and McLoughlin 2005; Kettell 2009; Koenig 2008; Stolz et al. 2016) is that even if the public expressions of religion is at the center of debates in many countries, these expressions are also rooted in the history of each country. Religion is debated, contested, and managed within national states, and national and local traditions affect the ways in which religion is addressed and handled. The focus in this book is the northernmost region of Europe, the five Nordic countries. The main question we are posing is: How is religion implicated in the public sphere in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden? Has religion become more visible, and perhaps more contested, in public life in these five countries during the past 30 years? In order to answer these questions, we have studied religion and state, politics, media, and civil society.
1.1 Why the Nordic Countries?
What is special about the five Nordic countries that make a book on public religion in this region pertinent and important? Although all of Europe was more homogeneous religiously before the immigration flows began in the 1950s and 1960s, the Nordic countries were even more so than many neighbors. Historically, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland have had indigenous populations and old recognized national minorities for centuries, as for example Samis and Jews, but these minorities have been very small, and Iceland has had no such minorities (Kivisto and Wahlbeck 2013). The Nordic countries were largely religious monocultures until immigration grew 1â2 decades later than in most other European countries. Since then, immigration has changed the Nordic ethnic and religious landscapes and especially transformed Sweden, Norway, and Denmark into relatively diverse nations. While Finland and Iceland are more homogeneous, immigration also affects these countries. Today, there is a growing presence of a variety of faith communities in general and the Muslim population in particular. These changes pose questions of how to make sure groups of people with different religious beliefs and practices are treated, especially, when it comes to religious expressions in public. These issues are at the center of several debates.
All of Europe is affected by embedded Christian traditions and this is definitely the case for the Nordic countries. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the Lutheran majority churches were closely intertwined with the state (SchjĂžrring 2001). Religion and state were formally separated in Finland as early as 1919, but the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland continued to function in similar ways as the other Nordic Lutheran state churches . Since the late 1990s, there has been a growing distance between church and state in Iceland, Sweden, and Norway. In 2016, Denmark is the only Nordic country with a traditional state church system . Nevertheless, the Nordic welfare states continue to be involved in the area of religion, including the Lutheran majority churches . The relations between religion and state are changing, but if we were to generalize, the current situation lies between the British system of âestablishmentâ and the French system of lĂ€icitĂ©, and closer to the British system than the French one.
The growing distance between the Lutheran majority churches and the state can also be viewed in light of religious decline. During the last decades, studies show a growing secularization, which has led some scholars to claim that Nordic people are some of the least observant in all of Western Europe (Inglehart and Welzel 2005; Zuckerman 2008). There is also the growth of people without religious affiliation. In addition to religious decline, there are processes of individualization and a turn toward spirituality and bricolage. In many ways, there are two seemingly contradictory trends that are happing simultaneously in the Nordic countries: A decrease in religious beliefs and practices in the Nordic populations, alongside a growing visibility of religion in the public sphere . The same contradicting trends also appear in many other European countries (Davie 2015; Foblets 2012; Hjelm 2015; Stolz et al. 2016; Vilaca et al. 2014; Woodhead and Catto 2012).
Although the Nordic countries resemble other European countries in several ways, there are features that distinguish them. One important differentiating feature is their social democratic welfare regime , which stresses universalism, comprehensive risk coverage, generous benefit levels, and egalitarianism. Rights are attached to ind...