A major trend in the Nordic countries during the past 30 years is that religion has become more visible, and perhaps more significant, in the public sphere. The NOREL project (2009-2014) compares religious changes during the past twenty years in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden. NOREL is a NORDCORP project (Nordic Collaborative Research Project) awarded by Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social sciences (NOS-HS).
Profound religious changes have taken place in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, which include changes in church – state relations and the growth of new religious minorities that demand equal opportunities and roles in the public sphere. Here, the “public sphere” refers to the state, the polity, the mass media, and the civil society. The Nordic countries have different church-state relations as well as immigration histories and policies. At the same time, they have a Lutheran majority church and institutionalized rights for religious minorities. They harbor a combination of common and different features that make for an interesting comparative study. The Role of Religion in the Public Sphere: A Comparative Study of the Five Nordic Countries (NOREL) is a five year research project (2009-2014) that systematically compares religious changes during the past twenty years.
The project's findings point towards four general trends in the Nordic countries:
Read a summary of NOREL's main conclusions here.
For more information on NOREL, click here.
Profound religious changes have taken place in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, which include changes in church – state relations and the growth of new religious minorities that demand equal opportunities and roles in the public sphere. Here, the “public sphere” refers to the state, the polity, the mass media, and the civil society. The Nordic countries have different church-state relations as well as immigration histories and policies. At the same time, they have a Lutheran majority church and institutionalized rights for religious minorities. They harbor a combination of common and different features that make for an interesting comparative study. The Role of Religion in the Public Sphere: A Comparative Study of the Five Nordic Countries (NOREL) is a five year research project (2009-2014) that systematically compares religious changes during the past twenty years.
The project's findings point towards four general trends in the Nordic countries:
- declining membership in the Lutheran majority churches;
- decline (Sweden and Denmark) and growth (Norway, Finland, Iceland) in the Christian minority churches;
- growing amount of non-affiliated;
- growing religious diversity.
Read a summary of NOREL's main conclusions here.
For more information on NOREL, click here.
