The Cultivation of Conformity: Towards a General Theory of Internal Secularisation

Is God Back? Reconsidering the New Visibility of Religion

Gjestfrihetens sted : ti år på Metochi, Lesbos

The Powerlessness of Religious Power in a Pluralist Society

The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Social compass, 50/2,2003 by SAGE Publications Ltd., All rights reserved. © http://scp.sagepub.com/ In pluralist societies adhering to liberal and individualistic ideas, strict and conservative groups face some serious dilemmas if they want to recruit and keep members. In a liberal society, the most important form of religious power is normative power. Strict and demanding religious organizations will have difficulties in a liberal, anti-authoritarian society. Such organizations may succeed in increasing their control over loyal members, but in a broader context, they will be branded as authoritarian by the secular media and …

A softer God and a more positive anthropology: Changes in a religiously strict region in Norway

Abstract This is a report from an on-going project. Based mainly at the University of Agder, Norway, this research project involves over 20 full- and part-time researchers in studying religious change in the So rlandet or Agder region in Norway. This article, written by the project director, aims mainly to summarize some of the main empirical results. In sum, the empirical studies show that in the last few decades the strict Christian movements in the region have moved in a more liberal direction, especially concerning lifestyle issues. Towards the end the article also presents some reflections on the dynamics of change in religious organizations with a conservative self-understanding, as w…

Faith and Worldview Communities and Their Leaders–Inward or Outward Looking?

This chapter analyzes some of the ways that the faith and worldview communities deal with the growing religious diversity. The first part outlines the development of the “interfaith infrastructures” during the past decades. There has been a growth of interfaith bodies and religious umbrella organizations in all the five countries. These bodies are stronger at the national level in Norway and Finland, while local bodies are important in Sweden. The second part analyzes interview data of Norwegian national religious leaders, which show that most of them have an outward orientation and participate in bridgebuilding activities. The growth in the interfaith infrastructure has contributed to a de…

Religion and Change in Modern Britain