Socio-Economic Factors Behind Disaffiliation from The Danish National Church

Belief in God, Confidence in the Church and Secularization in Scandinavia

“…Most studies on secularization in the Nordic and Scandinavian countries have focused on the dynamics of religion in the public sphere (Furseth, 2018b) and the trends toward disaffiliation from the Evangelical Lutheran Churches (Lüchau andAndersen, 2012, Urstad, 2017). For example, Niemelä (2007) and Lüchau and Andersen (2012) have argued that disaffiliation in the Nordic countries is mostly associated with an attitudinal response to the perceived contribution of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches to social life, and not with a rejection of Christian faith. In comparison, the study of religious beliefs (such as belief in God) in Scandinavia has received less attention (Lüchau and Andersen, 2012).…”

“…For example, Niemelä (2007) and Lüchau and Andersen (2012) have argued that disaffiliation in the Nordic countries is mostly associated with an attitudinal response to the perceived contribution of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches to social life, and not with a rejection of Christian faith. In comparison, the study of religious beliefs (such as belief in God) in Scandinavia has received less attention (Lüchau and Andersen, 2012). Nevertheless, religious beliefs are central in the scientific study of religion for several reasons.…”

“…For example, strongly mediatized reports of priests' child abuse, bishops with affairs, and other cleric wrongdoings undermine confidence in the church and lead to distancing from institutional religion (Field, 2014, Keysar, 2014, Bottan and Perez-Truglia, 2015, Turpin et al, 2019, even in a highly religious country like Ireland (Donnelly and Inglis, 2010). The conflict between the churches' public positions and the societies' principles, values, and beliefs (like sexual behavior, family issues, and political orientation) is important for the decay of 'belonging' in terms of confidence in the church and the trust in religious leaders (Hoffmann, 1998, Nicolet and Tresch, 2009, Lüchau and Andersen, 2012, Hoffmann, 2013, Field, 2014, Kasselstrand et al, 2017, Kasselstrand, 2019, because of the interplay between ' cultural religion' and cultural values in Scandinavia (Kasselstrand, 2015;Demerath, 2020).…”

“…In summary, the above review suggests the interest of considering religious beliefs, particularly belief in God, for studying the recent evolution of religion in the Scandinavian countries. In the words of Lüchau and Andersen (2012): "The element of individual religiosity may have been missing from previous Nordic research into disaffiliation simply because in the Nordic countries faith has low priority." The work of Ina Rosen ( 2009) is an exception, but refers only to Denmark (Copenhagen area).…”

“…One is the centuries-old Protestant tradition that led to the Evangelical Lutheran churches' establishment and integration within the states, which forged these nations' social cohesion, political organization, and values (Dobbelaere, 2006, Nielsen and Kühle, 2011, Kasselstrand and Eltanani, 2013, Furseth, 2018c, Kühle et al, 2018. The other is the advance of secularization in many Western countries (Cheyne, 2010, Norris and Inglehart, 2011, Lugo et al, 2012, Stolz and Könemann, 2016, Pew-Research-Center, 2017, which leads to a decrease of the importance of religion in the peoples' lives and is most visible in the trends toward disaffiliation from the main Protestant churches in the Nordic countries (Lüchau, 2010, Lüchau andAndersen, 2012).…”