Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe

Bäckström, Anders; Davie, Grace; Edgardh, Ninna; Pettersson, Per

doi:10.4324/9781315547558

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…A key example comes from the UK were aspirations to give welfare service contracts to faith groups are based on the expectation that there is an army of volunteers in particular places-notably the Church of England-where they may in fact no longer be, as in Abby Day's observation that the churches are populated by elderly women who are gradually dying and not being replaced [25]. Other spaces of welfare engagement are being explored in this way, at UK, European, and global levels, including foodbanks, homelessness services, social care, youth services, mental health and addiction services, fair-trade cities, cities of sanctuary, climate change and energy provider networks [26].…”

Section: New Spaces: Hotspots and Blindspots?mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Interdisciplinary Spaces of Religions and Beliefs in Contemporary Thought and Practice: An Analysis

Baker

Dinham

2017

Religions

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This article is rooted in the observation that the 21st century has witnessed a resurgent interest in and a new visibility of religions and beliefs across a range of arts, humanities and social science disciplines, some of which have always focused on religions and beliefs, others are returning to it, while some have no previous tradition of doing so. The article reports on an analysis of these new spaces of interest in religions and beliefs, undertaken through semi-structured interviews with eighteen landmark figures in the study of religion internationally. Points of connection, disconnection and innovation are explored, and the concept of liminality is deployed to explore how understandings of religion, belief and the secular are in a process of being re-imagined within academic disciplines. By considering new thresholds and debates as they are emerging, the article concludes that there are opportunities to research and conceive of the role of religions and beliefs as an interdisciplinary exercise, which are yet to be addressed and which reflect the need to re-imagine how religions and beliefs are broadly conceived and how different disciplines engage with each other.Keywords: religion; interdisciplinary; secular; post-secular Many have observed in the last ten years a renewed visibility of religions and beliefs in the public sphere [1]. This has been opened up by Habermas' proposal that "a postsecular self-understanding of society as a whole in which the vigorous continuation of religion in a continually secularizing environment must be reckoned with" [2]. A growing plethora of publications has reflected on this, and versions of this argument, often with surprise that "God is Back" [3]. Others have contested the notion that God, religions and beliefs ever went away, drawing a distinction between the absence of public talk about religion on the one hand, and continuing religion on the other [4][5][6]. Some have attempted to reassert post-religious positions from highly normative stances, as in the group of "New Atheists" [7]. Bruce has suggested that what is underway is merely a last gasp before secularist predictions of the decline of religions and beliefs to a vanishing point are finally realized, at least in the West [8].An apparently increasing prevalence of conversation about religions and beliefs across a widening range of disciplines and practices prompts the work reported here. Despite this prevalence, there has been little systematic analysis applied to the new spaces which are emerging. This work sought to induce an analysis of new thinking that is taking place simultaneously across a broad range of disciplines in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences around the increasing significance of the role and impact of religion in public life. A motivating issue is the absence of connection between these emerging discourses, which this project sought to address. There are two interconnecting goals: first, to portray and analyse what leading thinkers from different disciplines are saying about r...

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Section: New Spaces: Hotspots and Blindspots?mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Interdisciplinary Spaces of Religions and Beliefs in Contemporary Thought and Practice: An Analysis

Baker

Dinham

2017

Religions

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“…Concerning religious institutions, then, the findings are also more multifaceted than one might expect. For instance, empirical studies concerning the welfare activities of the Nordic churches (e.g., Angel & Pessi, 2010;Bäckström et al, 2009;Yeung, 2006bYeung, , 2008a indicated that church representatives' views vary concerning the relationship and relative importance of preaching and evangelizing versus helping and offering welfare. More generally speaking, how do religious institutions perceive individuals -as altruists or egoists?…”

Section: Happinessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altruism. Does it exist and is it a true possibility in diaconal and social work?

Pessi

2017

Diaconia

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This article focuses both on the theoretical analysis of altruism and on its empirical illustration on the individual level. The first part of the paper, the theoretical section, presents the core ideas of the altruism discussion in different fields as well as its historical turns in academia. The overall goal of the article is to inspire a discussion of altruism -the core question of human action -in diaconia and social work studies and research. The article also aims at questioning the overarching, easy, superficial view of humans being non-altruist in their core.

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“…Similar differences have been suggested by other scholars, too. According to recent comparative studies on religion and welfare in Europe, countries with the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church tend to be family-centred in their welfare policies, whereas countries with Reformed majority churches are more market-oriented and countries with Lutheran majority churches assign a greater role to the public sector (Bäckström et al 2010(Bäckström et al , 2011. Bäckström and his colleagues, however, mainly work on contemporary material, comparing current welfare regimes and current churches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Long History of Lutheranism in Scandinavia. From State Religion to the People’s Church

Markkola

2015

Perichoresis

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ABSTRACT. As the main religion of Finland, but also of entire Scandinavia, Lutheranism has a centuries-long history. Until 1809 Finland formed the eastern part of the Swedish Kingdom, from 1809 to 1917 it was a Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire, and in 1917 Finland gained independence. In the 1520s the Lutheran Reformation reached the Swedish realm and gradually Lutheranism was made the state religion in Sweden. In the 19th century the Emperor in Russia recognized the official Lutheran confession and the status of the Lutheran Church as a state church in Finland. In the 20th century Lutheran church leaders preferred to use the concept people's church. The Lutheran Church is still the majority church. In the beginning of 2015, some 74 percent of all Finns were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. In this issue of Perichoresis, Finnish historians interested in the role of church and Christian faith in society look at the religious history of Finland and Scandinavia. The articles are mainly organized in chronological order, starting from the early modern period and covering several centuries until the late 20th century and the building of the welfare state in Finland. This introductory article gives a brief overview of state-church relations in Finland and presents the overall theme of this issue focusing on Finnish Lutheranism. Our studies suggest that 16th and early 17th century Finland may not have been quite so devoutly Lutheran as is commonly claimed, and that late 20th century Finland may have been more Lutheran than is commonly realized.

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Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

New Interdisciplinary Spaces of Religions and Beliefs in Contemporary Thought and Practice: An Analysis

New Interdisciplinary Spaces of Religions and Beliefs in Contemporary Thought and Practice: An Analysis

Altruism. Does it exist and is it a true possibility in diaconal and social work?

The Long History of Lutheranism in Scandinavia. From State Religion to the People’s Church

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