Transnational social welfare associations and religion: the protestant social advocacy network “Eurodiaconia” in Europe

European churches and the European parliament elections. The case of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

“…Nevertheless, compared to USresearch with its abundant studies on the activities of religious interest groups, there has been markedly less academic interest in the advocacy of churches within the EU (Leustean 2012;Hill 2009;Houston 2009;Steven 2009); churches' EU-related advocacy on the national level has attracted even less scholarly attention (Guerra 2012). However, existing research indicates that churches and faith based organizations do not act in isolation in EU matters; rather, they have formed close ties through various ecumenical networks (Zimmermann 2014). At a time when European societies are undergoing increasing transnationalization, studying the dynamics of religion at the national level is also relevant for understanding the religious scene in a wider European context.…”