Religious Complexity in the Public Sphere: Comparing Nordic Countries

Description

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Introduction (Inger Furseth)....Pages 1-29 Changing Religious Landscapes in the Nordic Countries (Inger Furseth, Lars Ahlin, Kimmo Ketola, Annette Leis-Peters, Bjarni Randver Sigurvinsson)....Pages 31-80 Religion and State: Complexity in Change (Lene Kühle, Ulla Schmidt, Brian Arly Jacobsen, Per Pettersson)....Pages 81-135 Religion on the Political Agenda (Mia Lövheim, Jonas Lindberg, Pål Ketil Botvar, Henrik Reintoft Christensen, Kati Niemelä, Anders Bäckström)....Pages 137-191 Religion and the Media: Continuity, Complexity, and Mediatization (Knut Lundby, Henrik Reintoft Christensen, Ann Kristin Gresaker, Mia Lövheim, Kati Niemelä, Sofia Sjö et al.)....Pages 193-249 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 et al.)....Pages 251-289 Secularization, Deprivatization, or Religious Complexity? (Inger Furseth)....Pages 291-312 Back Matter ....Pages 313-341