Believing and Belonging in Europe: Cross-National Comparisons of Longitudinal Trends (1981-2007) and Determinants

Reitsma, J.; Pelzer, Ben; Scheepers, P.L.H.; Schilderman, J.B.A.M.

doi:10.1163/9789004299320_009

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Some studies suggest that to analyse the changes in secularization it is important to explore religious differences in the birth cohorts (Voas andChaves 2016: 1548;Kaufmann et al 2012;Zrinščak 2004;Ecklund et al 2008;Gautiert 1997;Reistma et al 2012;Molteni 2017). In my research I focused on the professors as they have normally completed all the stages in their careers, their biography is longer, accompanying important historical changes in the countries.…”

Section: A Few Methodological Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trajectories of (Non)Belief in the Scientific Community: The Case of Polish and Ukrainian Natural Scientists

Rogińska

2019

Review of Religious Research

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The article contributes to the discussion on the secularizing impact of science in modern societies. The starting point of the research is sociological data that shows lower religiosity of scientific communities in comparison to the general population in various countries. This might indicate that science does exert a secularizing force on modern ideologies. The explanatory hypotheses of this phenomenon are, however, ambiguous and predominantly concern Western countries. Based on 100 in-depth interviews with physicists and biologists from Central and Eastern Europe (Poland and Ukraine), it demonstrates the crucial role of cultural and historical context in the formulation of the (un)faith of the scientists. The scientific knowledge and participation in science as a social institution is more complementary than decisive in these processes, moreover, these factors play different roles in biographical trajectories of the Polish and Ukrainian natural scientists.

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Section: A Few Methodological Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trajectories of (Non)Belief in the Scientific Community: The Case of Polish and Ukrainian Natural Scientists

Rogińska

2019

Review of Religious Research

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“…The Netherlands is one of the world's leading countries in terms of secularization, with religious communities losing believing and practicing members on a large scale over recent decades (De Hart and Van Houwelingen 2018, 21-26;Reitsma et al 2012). While in 1966 still 67 per cent of the Dutch population reported to be a member of one of the many Christian churches in the country, by 2015 this figure had dropped to 25 percent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Church Growth in Times of Secularization: A Case Study of People Joining Evangelical Congregations in the Netherlands

Vermeer

Scheepers

2021

Review of Religious Research

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Background: Today the Dutch religious landscape is characterized by two opposite trends. On the one hand, there is a massive and dominant trend of religious disaffiliation which mostly affects the Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant churches, while on the other hand the Netherlands also witnesses the emergence of several independent, evangelical congregations of near megachurch size. Purpose: Against the background of these opposite trends, this paper focuses on the second trend and tries to explain why some people join an evangelical congregation. Methods: For this purpose, quantitative data gathered among the audiences of six thriving evangelical congregations are analyzed in view of the following research questions: (1) What was the previous religious affiliation of the people who switched or converted to one of the six participating evangelical congregations? and (2) Which factors induced the switch or conversion to these congregations? Results: Results of bivariate and multivariate analyses show that these congregations attract both mainline and orthodox Protestant switchers as well as a significant number of secular converts, whose decision to join these evangelical congregations is induced by early socialization experiences, their intrinsic religious orientation and the switching of their partner. Closer scrutiny into the background of the apparent secular converts reveals, however, that several of these converts are probably re-affiliates. Although these secular converts indicated to be a religious none in their early teens, their conversion to evangelicalism is in part still induced by certain, early religious socialization experiences. Conclusions and Implications: This insight puts the alleged success of these evangelical congregations in more perspective. It shows that their success is more a matter of circulating, religious believers and not so much a matter of successfully reaching out to the unchurched. In all likelihood, then, thriving evangelical congregations will remain an exception in secular societies like the Netherlands and evangelical church growth in no way marks a break with the ongoing trend of religious disaffiliation.

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“…The Netherlands constitutes an interesting context in this respect, because it ranks among the most secular countries in the Western world with nowadays only a quarter of the population reporting to be a member of a Christian denomination (Bernts and Berghuijs 2016, 23;cf. also Reitsma et al 2012). Such a secular context is likely to affect the political attitudes of Dutch evangelicals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Political Attitudes of Evangelicals with the Attitudes of Mainline Christians and Non-Church Members in The Netherlands

Vermeer¹,

Scheepers²

2017

Politics and Religion

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Evangelicals are generally considered culturally conservative regarding issues like abortion or homosexuality and sometimes also economically conservative regarding issues like tax reduction. But does this image also apply to Dutch evangelicals who live in a secular environment in which they constitute only a tiny fraction of the number of church members? This article explores the political attitudes of Dutch evangelicals with the help of two research questions: (1) Do Dutch evangelicals hold more conservative political attitudes on economic and cultural issues than Catholics, mainline Protestants and non-church members? and (2) Which decisive factors determine the supposed conservatism among Dutch evangelicals as compared to Catholics, mainline Protestants and non-church members? Analyses of survey data show that Dutch evangelicals are indeed culturally conservative, but more liberal in economic matters. In addition, results also show that their cultural conservatism is related to their religious convictions, while their economic attitudes are unrelated to religion.

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Believing and Belonging in Europe: Cross-National Comparisons of Longitudinal Trends (1981-2007) and Determinants

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Trajectories of (Non)Belief in the Scientific Community: The Case of Polish and Ukrainian Natural Scientists

Trajectories of (Non)Belief in the Scientific Community: The Case of Polish and Ukrainian Natural Scientists

Church Growth in Times of Secularization: A Case Study of People Joining Evangelical Congregations in the Netherlands

Comparing Political Attitudes of Evangelicals with the Attitudes of Mainline Christians and Non-Church Members in The Netherlands

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