Negotiating Christian Cultural Heritage

Abstract

This article shows how Christmas in schools and public service media for children (PSM) involves negotiation and renewal of Christian cultural heritage. Across the studied cases from Norway and Denmark, we find that the institutions involved seek to realize community. However, community is approached differently in different settings. It is either understood restoratively as a process in which children, including immigrant children, become part of an existing societal community, or constructively as establishing an inclusive community across cultural and religious divides. A major finding is that activities associated with Christianity such as school services are framed in a language of ‘museumification’ and not as part of a living religious practice with the capacity to change and transform. Whereas Islam is positioned as a ‘religious other’, Christianity understood as culture facilitates creative heritage making, establishing community across religious divides. Contrary to political rhetoric, Christian cultural heritage in schools and PSM is by and large not dominated by a safeguarding nationalistic discourse. Rather, traditions and activities related to Christianity are negotiated and appropriated for the benefit of an inclusive community. A premise for making this succeed in schools and PSM is to negotiate Christian cultural heritage as culture, not as religion.

Contemporary Challenges to the Regulation of Religions in Europe

“…The link between the formal aim of the RE as subject and school activities during Christmas, and the low number of exemption requests from minority pupils, is visible in a study by Johnsen and Johansen (2021) As shown, the expression of this school leader is in accordance with how religion is legally regulated in schools in Denmark, and it is also representative of most Danish school leaders. According to an 2011-interview study of school leaders (response rate 27%) 70% of schools arrange Christmas services (Jensen, 2019, p. 138), while 86% indicate that they cooperate with the local church (139).…”

Banal and Nostalgic

“…These four Calendars are thus likely to illicit nostalgia from people born in the eighties and early nineties, which may say more about the age of the journalists than these Calendars' broader popularity. However, given the role newspapers have played in cementing particular understandings of Swedish traditions (Johnsen and Johansen 2021;Löfgren 1993;Strömberg 2017), journalists' role in establishing a canon of good Calendars against whose legacy new Calendars are measured should not be overlooked.…”

Soner for nær skriveutvikling: Ei utviklings- og danningsorientert tilnærming til responsdialogar

“…Datamaterialet ble etablert som del av prosjektet «Reimagining The Nordic model Christian Cultural Heritage. Christmas in public schools and broadcasting (NORCHRIST)» 2 og har også blitt brukt i andre publikasjoner med oss begge som forfattere (Johnsen & Johansen, 2021) og i artikler med kun én av oss som forfattere (Johansen, 2022). 3 Det saeregne ved dette kapitlet er at jeg anvender et Vygotsky-perspektiv på materialet.…”

“…Ved Århus blir ikke juletreet satt inn i en intim familieramme. Juletreet på plassen foran skolen medierer jul som en offentlig hendelse (Johnsen & Johansen, 2021). Arrangementet der skoleledelsen inviterer lokalbefolkningen og synger sanger, ligner på julegrantenningene som finner sted foran rådhus i større og mindre byer.…”

“…Kritikken mot at skolen ikke bør bruke så mye penger på et juletre, viser at artefakten har symbolske betydninger langt ut over det å mediere hygge. Juletreet forhandler og inngår i kontroversielle diskurser om medborgerskap, immigrasjon og integrering (Johnsen & Johansen, 2021).…”