Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

List of Plates.Preface.Introduction.1. Distinguishing Religion and Spirituality: Findings from Kendal.2. Testing the Spiritual Revolution Claim in Kendal.3. Evidence for a Spiritual Revolution: Britain and USA.4. Bringing the Sacred to Life: Explaining Secularization and Sacralization.5. Looking to the Future.Appendices.References.Index.

The spiritual revolution : why religion is giving way tospirituality

The Reality of the Mass Media

Religion in the Media Age

This book explores the recent trend toward the transformation of religious symbols and practices into culture in Western democracies. Analyses of three legal cases involving religion in the public sphere are used to illuminate this trend: a municipal council chamber; a town hall; and town board meetings. Each case  involves a different national context—Canada, France and the United States—and each illustrates something interesting about the shape-shifting nature of religion, specifically its flexibility and dexterity in the face of the secular, the religious and the plural. Despite the differences in national contexts, in each instance religion is transformed into culture or heritage by the courts to justify or excuse its presence and to distance the state from the possibility that it is violating legal norms of distance from religion. The cultural practice or symbol is represented as a shared national value or activity. Transforming the ‘Other’ into ‘Us’ through reconstitution is also possible. Finally, anxiety about the ‘Other’ becomes part of the story of rendering religion as culture, resulting in the impugning of anyone who dares to question the putative shared culture.
The book will be essential reading for students, academics and policy-makers working in the areas of sociology of religion, religious studies, socio-legal studies, law and public policy, constitutional law, religion and politics, and cultural studies.

The Transition of Religion to Culture in Law and Public Discourse

This article examines the coverage of religion in Nordic newspapers during 1988, 1998 and 2008. Through quantitative analyses of 5,000 articles in 14 newspapers, we examine the differences between the five Nordic countries and changes from 1988 to 2008. The results show that the coverage of the Lutheran majority churches in newspapers is generally declining, especially in Sweden. This is the case also during major Christian holidays. Newspapers present religion differently, in the sense that regional papers present a more traditional view of religion and religion is least covered in the tabloid press. There are differences between the five Nordic countries. The newspaper media seems to serve both as a secularising force in society, contesting the role of the majority churches – especially in Sweden and Denmark – and as support for a greater visibility of religion in the public sphere.

Religion in Newspapers in The Nordic Countries in 1988–2008

In recent decades, a new type of room has been established in public institutions in Europe: the rooms of silence. In this article, rooms of silence at three Scandinavian universities are analyzed with focus on intention, materiality, and use in relation to increased religious diversity in the student population, individualization, and ongoing secularization. This is done by using a typology which distinguishes between individual and collective use and use associated with religious, spiritual, and secular practices. The analyses show that plans and policies for the rooms emphasize stress-reduction and spiritual or secular reflection. The chaplains actively facilitate the shift from collective to more individual use of the rooms. The analyses also show that the restricted materiality of the rooms shapes practices in ways that either hinder collective Muslim prayer or force students to perform prayer as an individual “silent” action.

Rooms of Silence at Three Universities in Scandinavia

This chapter begins with a presentation of the particular features of the Nordic media systems and their transformations since 1980. The following analyzes three forms of mediatized religion: journalism on religion (in major newspapers), religion in popular media (popular magazines and films), and religious media (religious programs in the public service broadcasting and the Internet presentations by the Nordic majority churches). The conclusions show no simple pattern of a decline or resurgence of the visibility of religion in the media. This chapter also asks what the media do to religion (mediatization theory), and concludes that the media genre has a profound impact on the representation of religion, which results in a complex pattern of increased diversity of topics and perspectives.

Religion and the Media: Continuity, Complexity, and Mediatization

This chapter asks whether the growing religious diversity has implied a shift in the role of religion in Nordic political opinions and debates. The analysis shows continued links between individual religiosity and political party preferences, although people in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have become more tolerant toward religious minorities. In political party platforms, Christianity and the majority churches are still used as references to national identity. There is a growing invocation of religion in parliamentary debates. Especially issues that are related to Islam and human rights have increased. Religion has become more diversified and contested in Nordic politics since the 1980s. The findings suggest a politicization of religion in a process of renegotiating social and cultural identities and values.

Religion on the Political Agenda

The number of Lutheran chaplains in Danish public institutions (hospitals, prisons, the military) has grown substantially in the last few decades. This article presents the results of a recent stud...

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Henrik Reintoft Christensen

Papers

Religion in Newspapers in The Nordic Countries in 1988–2008

Rooms of Silence at Three Universities in Scandinavia

Religion and the Media: Continuity, Complexity, and Mediatization

Religion on the Political Agenda

One to serve them all. The growth of chaplaincy in public institutions in Denmark