"The book's main target audience is probably international scholars with an interest in the Nordic situation, but it will also be suitable for Nordic scholars and students ... . the book will surely be a reference work for years to come." (Andreas Häger, Temenos, Issue 1, 2019)
List of Tables
Preface
Foreword
Craig Calhoun
1 Introduction
Inger Furseth
1.1 Why the Nordic Countries?
1.2 Concepts
1.3 Religious Complexity
1.4 The Presence and Visibility of Religion in the Public Sphere
1.5 This Book
References
2 Changing Religious Landscapes in the Nordic Countries
Inger Furseth, Lars Ahlin, Kimmo Ketola, Annette Leis-Peters, and Bjarni Randver
Sigurvinsson
2.1 Stable Democracies and Changing Welfare States
2.2 Religious Changes
2.3 Declining Lutheran Majority Churches
2.4 Religious Minorities
2.5 Holistic Spirituality
2.6 Religious Faith and Practices in the Populations
2.7 Religious Complexity
Notes
References
3 Religion and State: Complexity in Change
Lene Kühle, Ulla Schmidt, Brian Arly Jacobsen, and Per Pettersson
3.1 Law and Religion: A Specific Nordic Way?
3.2 Public Rituals: Opening of Parliaments as an Example
3.3 Religion in Public Institutions
3.4 Religion in Public Schools
3.5 Religious Complexity and State-Religion Relations
Notes
References
4 Religion on the Political Agenda
Mia Lövheim, Jonas Lindberg, Pål Ketil Botvar, Henrik Reintoft Christensen, Kati
Niemelä, and Anders Bäckström
4.1 Religion and Politics in the Nordic Countries
4.2 Political and Religious Views
4.3 Religion in Political Party Platforms
4.4 Religion in Parliamentary Debates
4.5 The Majority Churches in Nordic Parliamentary Debates on Same-Sex Unions
4.6 Religious Complexity in Nordic Political Life
Notes
References
5 Religion and the Media: Continuity, Complexity, and Mediatization
Knut Lundby, Henrik Reintoft Christensen, Ann Kristin Gresaker, Mia Lövheim, Kati
Niemelä, and Sofia Sjö – with Marcus Moberg and Árni Svanur Daníelsson
5.1 The Nordic Media System and its Transformations
5.2 Implications of the Media Changes: Mediatization of Religion
5.3 Journalism on Religion in the Daily Press
5.4 Popular Religion: Film and Lifestyle Magazines
5.5 Religious Media: Broadcasting and the Internet
5.6 Islam in Nordic Media
5.7 Media Contributions to Religious Complexity
Notes
References
6 Faith and Worldview Communities and their Leaders – Inward or Outward Looking?
Inger Furseth, Lars Ahlin, Kimmo Ketola, Annette Leis-Peters, Pål Repstad, Bjarni Randver
Sigurvinsson, and Sivert Skålvoll Urstad
6.1 Faith and Worldview Communities as Part of Civil Society
6.2 The Development of Interfaith Infrastructures
6.3 Leaders of Faith and Worldview Communities in Norway
6.4 Growing Visibility of Religion in Civil Society
Notes
References
7 Secularization, Deprivatization or Religious Complexity?
Inger Furseth
7.1 Religious Complexity in the Nordic Countries
7.2 The Public Presence of Good, Bad, and Feelgood Religion
7.3 Gender – at the Center of Controversy
7.4 Interpreting and Explaining the Findings
References
Appendix: Methodology
Index
Notes on Contributors
Inger Furseth is Professor of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Norway, and adjunct professor at KIFO Centre for Church Research, Norway. Some of her books include A Comparative Study of Social and Religious Movements in Norway, 1780s-1905 (2002), From Quest for Truth to Being Oneself (2006), and An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion (2006, co-author). She was the director of the research program, The Role of Religion in the Public Sphere: A Comparative Study of the Five Nordic Countries 1998-2008 (NOREL 2009-2014).
This book is an empirical comparative study of the complexity of religion in the public spheres of the five Nordic countries. The result of a five-year collaborative research project, the work examines how increasingly religiously diverse Nordic societies regulate, debate, and negotiate religion in the state, the polity, the media, and civil society. The project finds that there are seemingly contradictory religious trends at different social levels: a growing secularization at the individual level, and a deprivatization of religion in politics, the media, and civil society. It offers a critique of the current theories of secularization and the return of religion, introducing religious complexity as an alternative concept to understand these paradoxes. This book is for scholars, students, and readers with an interest in understanding the public role of religion in the West.