Church & State – The Nordic Situation
Contribution to Nordisk Systematiker konferens,
Reykjavik Jan 2013
12/01/2013
Church/state Relations in the Nordic:
West• Also executive & judiciary
powers with secular bodies• The church is the local
church – the national church is part of nation-building-bodies
• Theological normative grounds? Societal grounds? Grundtvig?
East• Internal hierarchy & internal
executive and judiciary power survived reformation
• The church as a body to be identified survived and has been renewed (arch-bishop, synod 1860’es)
• Theological normative grounds? Societal grounds?
12/01/2013
Church/state positions in the Nordic
PeripheryThe role of the church ministers as well as local church members to societal changes (reformation – enlightenment – democracy – independence):
CentreChurch ministers as civil servants for the state, used to change the norms and practices of the population (reformation – enlightenment – democracy – (independence))
12/01/2013
Church/state competences in the Nordic (historical models)
WestCENTRE The state supports the individual through establishing (church) institutions and secures a minimum of ecclesiastical power through systems of civil servantsPERIPHERIThe individual/local group establishes the church and the state shouldn’t mix itself up into that, just send the priests
EastCENTRE
State and church support each other through mutual
recognition of hierarchical powers over the people
PERIPHERIThe people establishes
organisational power over the church as resistance towards
state powers
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Challenges to the Nordic welfare-state-(church)-model
Monopoly - coherence• Normative function of
majority system• State hierarchy to
protection of individuals• Individualisation• Broad range of normative
suggestions within one institutional setting
Globalisation – (Post)-Secularity
• Global competition – global market
• Pluralisation• Confessionalisation• Chosen identity/ies• Dis-solution leads to re-
organisation of hierarchies, also religious leadership is reorganised on the global market
12/01/2013
Converging changes in church-state-relations in the Nordic:
• Dis-establishment as either folkekirke (I, FO, N?) or majority church (S, F)
• Economy: state pays for folkekirke (I); for all religious communities (N); contributes to economy in religious organisations supporting democratic values (S); contributes to folkekirker (F); contributes partially to folkekirke (DK)
• Independent leading body as executive (F, S, I) vs delegation of powers from government (N, DK)
• Following law of the land (DK, I, N) vs independent legislative body (S, F)
• Using courts of the land (DK, I, N) vs independent ADR-institutions (S, F)
12/01/2013
Danish government committee on the governance structure of folkekirken
• Of folkekirken? Or in? or around?• ‘and as such supported by the state’ vs state
powers in full control
• Locus of governance decisions – national, diocese, deanery, congregation
• Presence – any village vs mega-churches
• Congregational structures and competences12/01/2013
Church & State - & other Religious Communities in the Nordic
• Normative/historical: civil religion• The ‘other’ as the hidden signifier
• Numbers• Principal equality vs principal freedom • Practical Functions: cemeteries (libraries, schools)
• Same or different legal/executive/judiciary structures in relation to the state: religions as collective entities
12/01/2013
‘The holly Lutheran church of west-reykjavik: Neskirkja’ (wikimapia.org)
12/01/2013
Hallgrimskyrkjan – ‘a Lutheran parish church in Reykjavik’ (wikipedia.org)
12/01/2013
The 21st century questions:
From Church and State To Religion & Power
Which from you demands normative theories on law, power, structure, institutions etc – not only in regard to religious organisations, but in regard
to the societies we live in
In a globalized post-secular world of competition
12/01/2013
[email protected] 1612/01/2013
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