Christendom in decline: the Swedish case

Hamberg, Eva

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511496783.004

Cited by 13 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Until 1996 in Sweden, all children automatically became members of the Church of Sweden at birth unless both parents were nonmembers (Hamberg 2003:50) and church affiliation is generally seen to be an “expression of solidarity with society and its basic values” (Hamberg 2003:50). This is similar to what Davie (2007:140) labels “vicarious religion.” In other words, rather than commitment to theological beliefs or frequent practice, church membership signals a “civil religion” to which individuals are expected to conform (Hamberg 2003:47). The formal separation of church and state in Sweden in 2000 has done little to dispel the notion of the “church of the people,” and there has not been a sharp or major decrease in the membership (Gustafsson 2003:68; Svenska kyrkan 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Halfway to Heaven: Four Types of Fuzzy Fidelity in Europe

Storm

2009

Scientific Study of Religion

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People who are neither very religious nor specifically nonreligious are generally understudied despite comprising on average half the national population in most European countries. From its size alone, we should expect this group to hold some of the clues, not only to how religious change takes place in Europe, but also why. Using the Religious and Moral Pluralism (RAMP) survey from 10 European countries, four subtypes of "fuzzy fidelity" were identified through cluster analysis. These included both "believing without belonging" and "belonging without believing." Detailed analysis of each type show great national differences in the ways that religion is practiced and understood. A sizable minority of the Dutch population can be classified as "Believing without belonging," whereas Scandinavians are much more likely to belong without believing. The diversity of the religious landscape within fuzzy fidelity highlights the methodological issues involved in using single-scale measures for multidimensional phenomena.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Halfway to Heaven: Four Types of Fuzzy Fidelity in Europe

Storm

2009

Scientific Study of Religion

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“…People in Nordic countries enter the Lutheran Church by birth (Lane and Ersson 1996: 184), and being a church member is considered almost a citizen's duty in these cultures. Several reasons for this have been suggested, one being that church membership in these countries can be seen ‘as a way of expressing solidarity with society and its basic values’ (Hamberg 2003: 50). However, since the level of actual participation in religious activities is low in Nordic countries, church membership in these countries is a less meaningful indicator of religious practices than in other countries.…”

Section: Data Measures and Analytical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

How secular is Europe?

Halman

Draulans

2006

British Journal of Sociology

178

104

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A large body of literature has developed, yielding evidence that religion in general and Churches and Church leaders in particular have lost their once dominant position in contemporary Europe. Evidence is often cited in declining levels of church attendance. Whether Europe should also be qualified as secularized in terms of religious beliefs remains unclear. In this paper we investigate the degree to which European people are secular, focusing not only on religious practices, but also on beliefs. We argue that trajectories of religious change occur all over Europe, but not at similar speeds. We formulate hypotheses regarding the differences in the degree to which individuals and societies are secularized. Data from the recent European Values Study surveys are used to empirically test these hypotheses concerning patterns of variation in religious beliefs and practices. The findings provide evidence in favour of secularization theories and in contradiction to rational choice theories. In Europe, religious pluralism produces not higher levels, but lower levels of religiosity. The findings also reveal that religious denomination as well as cultural and socio-economic heritages are important factors in explaining the patchwork pattern in levels of religiosity and religious participation in contemporary Europe.

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“…An individual can adhere to other groupings in order to solve moral dilemmas (Luckmann, 2003;Repstad, 2003). In contemporary Sweden, religion only plays a very minor role as a basis for moral values and behavioural norms (Hamberg, 2003;Tomasson, 2002). Even immigrant Catholics who come from more traditionalist cultures, to the extent they become integrated in Swedish society, find themselves in a context where they are supposed to choose their courses of action on a modern and 'rational' basis rather than on a religious one.…”

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confidence: 99%

Turning Women from Criminals into Victims

Salminen‐Karlsson

2005

European Journal of Women's Studies

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This article examines how one of the most striking differences between the central doctrines of the Catholic Church and the secular context of Swedish society, attitudes to abortion, is managed by the Swedish church hierarchy and commentators in the official newsletter of the Catholic Church of Sweden. Using Foucauldian concepts of power, the article concludes that in its marginal position, the Catholic Church in Sweden mixes the traditional pastoral and sovereign power of the church with the way pastoral power is exerted in modern society, in its efforts to continue asserting its influence over the possible courses of action for pregnant women. While traditionally abortion has been a woman’s crime, in the Swedish Catholic context it becomes rather the crime of the secular society. This means also that the image of woman as being responsible for her decisions and in need of forgiveness gives way to an image of woman as a victim in need of understanding

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Christendom in decline: the Swedish case

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Halfway to Heaven: Four Types of Fuzzy Fidelity in Europe

Halfway to Heaven: Four Types of Fuzzy Fidelity in Europe

How secular is Europe?

Turning Women from Criminals into Victims

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