Book Reviews

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BOOK REVIEWS

Stifoss-Hanssen, Hans and Inger Furseth (eds.) 2008. Mellom prinsipper og pragma- tisme: analyser av høringen om staten og Den norske kirke [Between principles and pragmatism: analyses of the hearing about the state and the Church of Norway]. Trond- heim: Tapir Akademisk Forlag. 203 pages.

The relationship between State and Church has increasingly become an object of discussion in Norway. From a political point of view, and from the point of view of the state, there is a growing uneasiness about the current state of affairs. During the last half or quarter of the 20th Century Norway has become culturally and religiously heterogene- ous, not only due to immigration but also because of the spread of agnostic or atheistic world views among Norwegians with long generational roots in the country. As a result of this development towards world view pluralism, some laws regulating the affairs of the Church of Norway and its relationship to the State seem to have become outdated. The mere fact that the Parliament outlines the function and role of the Church may be seen as a sign that the State favors one particular world view. Even the fact that local municipalities support the parishes economically – to a degree decided by bishops – calls the neutrality of the Norwegian State into question. Can a state that supports one particular religious body guarantee its neutrality in terms of world view, it is asked. From within the Church another critique of the status quo is formulated. Due to its support, the State (and municipalities) also to some extent control the actions of the Church. The State institutes bishops, and the organization of the Church is closely linked to the secular organization of the country. The national synod has a say in a number of questions, but almost always in conjunction with the secular authorities such as the Church Ministry of the government. For some theologians this position of sub- jugation is intolerable, and arguments for the independence of the Church are formulated. Thus, from two different positions there has been a call for change of relations, positions one can call politically liberal and theologically activist, respectively. In 2003, a committee was instituted with the task of analyzing and proposing models for change in what to some had become an unreasonable, if not intolerable, state of affairs. In the year 2006 its report was published, called «the Gjønnes Report». In the report, three models for the future organization of the Church of Norway were investigated: (a) folk church based on a constitutional law, (b) folk church based on a non-constitutional law, and (c) independent folk church (based on a general law on life view communities). The majority of the committee recommended solution (b), which would mean that the present constitutional regulation about the State Church has to be removed, that the Church of Norway becomes a legal entity (not a part of the State), and that the Church of Norway through its own church law is given a privileged position in relation to other denominations or life view organizations. Following the publication of the report a large scale national hearing was organized. The results of the hearing were assembled and published, first in a series of publicati-

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ons of a mostly descriptive kind. The book under review here may be said to represent a second phase of analysis, in which a number of theoretical perspectives are used for more profound analyses. In part 1, six contributions deal with theoretical perspectives on the result of the hearings, political, democratic, sociological, human rights, and mul- ticultural perspectives. In part 2, three scholars from Denmark, Finland and Sweden depict the situation in their countries, thereby offering three perspectives of difference: which factors lie behind the differences in church organization in these often closely and historically united countries? The book reviewed is published in Norwegian. For this reason the review will tend to give a somewhat broader picture of the articles than what is normally seen. I will summarize the articles before my more qualitative discussion of their content. In the first part, political scientist Jo Saglie discusses how democracy is understood in church elections and church policy making. Who are the people in the Church of Norway? About which issues should the church’ people decide? How is this to be organized? These three questions pinpoint the issues which the article addresses. At the basis of his description of the problems of democracy Saglie places a quote from Cohen (1971):

Democracy is that system of community government in which, by and large, the members of a community participate, or may participate, directly or indirectly, in the making of decisions which affect them all (1971: 7).

Using a broad definition such as this allows Saglie to discuss a number of the issues that have proven controversial in the hearing: whether in church rule the aim of democracy is to control those in power, to develop participation of the population, or to develop deliberation about church matters in general. Membership of the Church of Norway can neither easily be compared to that of an association nor that of a state (citizenship). Saglie characterizes the membership percentage as inflated, which means that beside the proportion of devoted members there is another proportion who have become members without intent. They have been bap- tized by their parents and have remained in the membership going along with baptism. The inflated membership has consequences when calculating voting percentages in church elections. Historically, these have been very low when compared to other elections. But – as Saglie states – when a percentage is considered low, you may in your analysis look at the numerator, in casu the number of votes, or the denominator, i.e. the number of people allowed to vote. If the number allowed to vote is unrealistically high, a low voting percentage may be unavoidable. The question of what issues the elected representatives decide on posits another problem, since a number of decisions are placed elsewhere. In an Episcopal church a number of decisions are in the hands of the bishop. In order to motivate candidates to run and voters to vote there has to be a clear understanding that such actions matter. If the decision space available is considered too small, nobody will care to candidate or vote. The final question posed by Saglie, who abstains from giving advice, is what kind of organization the Church of Norway wishes to be or become. Charles Anderson

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(1984: 433) is quoted for the following conclusion: «form follows function in the design of political institutions, almost the way it does when it comes to buildings». So the question whether the Church of Norway wishes to be an institution of the State or a voluntary association is placed at the centre of the discussion of various democratic models. Ethicist Ulla Schmidt describes how formal bodies and officers in the Church of Norway see democracy in the church by means of an analysis of their responses in the official hearing, complemented by survey data from the church members. The question of how to build democratic structures is complicated. When respondents in the official hearing are asked to present their view on general principles concerning faith and life view, a democratic structure for the Church is frequently mentioned. There seems to be a difference between on the one hand local and on the other regional and national church bodies about direct or indirect elections. The locals do not support an extension of direct elections. Schmidt notes a difference in views of what constitutes the basic units of the church, the parish or the individual. For the bodies underlining the parish as the basic unit there is also a tendency to underline the necessity of «through-going representa- tion», i.e. that the locally elected are represented at higher levels of organization (dio- cese, nation). Others underline that the individual member must be given possibilities to influence decisions. This view tends to coincide with a preference for direct elections at the higher levels. The low level of participation in church elections obviously presents a problem for the Church, and so Schmidt analyzes the individual motivations for participation or non-participation in these elections. She engages in a discussion (with among others theologian Harald Hegstad (2004) about recruitment of new voters, who may be in their rights to vote, without necessarily being engaged in church matters. To a certain degree this discussion echoes Saglie’s comments on an inflated membership. The Church of Norway may have members who do not consider it in their interest to vote in church elections. This group may be identical with the group loosely depicted as «unjustified voters» by Hegstad and Schmidt. The methods and ways of voting constitute one side of democracy. There are others, however. Democracy may be conceptualized as a culture more than a voting procedure. Theoretically speaking one might discuss the deliberative side of democracy. Schmidt notes that there is a correlation between a reduction of the idea of democracy to voting procedures and the concept of management by objectives, a correlation which contrasts against arguments for a deliberative democratic culture. Arguing against this correlation Schmidt claims that democracy is more than a high percentage voting. In a final comment, Schmidt addresses the question of centralization, bureaucratization and pro- fessionalization of the Church of Norway, and their possible effects on voting behavior. On some levels, the development of the church has lead to the formation of secretariats, manpowered by secretaries, i.e. full time employees working with church issues of various kinds. An employed secretary has resources, mainly time, to analyze and to recommend solutions, whereas a lay representative elected in ordinary church elections will normally need to deal with church matters in her spare time. This gives the

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employee an advantage in relation to the representative, and it, so it is argued, will in due course reduce the willingness and feeling of necessity which had functioned as an important motivating factor for representatives. One of the editors of this journal, sociologist of religion Pål Repstad, investigates the differences at three levels of church organization, when it comes to views on future relations between State and Church. He notes that there is a systematic relation between the level of organization and views on the future of the Church of Norway: On the local level (municipalities) seven out of ten units want continued status as some kind of State Church, on the middle level (dioceses and deaneries) three out of ten want a continued State Church, and on the national level (synod) there is an obvious demand for a church standing on its own feet. Repstad concludes (page 62):

Near the grassroots of the Church of Norway there is a majority for preserving the state church. The nearer the top you get in the church management hierarchy the stronger the wish for loosen- ing of the ties to the State (Author’s translation).

This empirical observation is then discussed in a number of theoretical frameworks. Is there a tension between activists and ordinary Christians? Or between people with different class backgrounds? Or is there a particular radicalism among church leaders? In a number of studies based upon mostly qualitative data, everyday life of parishes and parishioners has been analyzed within the last decade. Repstad tries to trace whether this research can be used as documentation for tensions between those active in church and those who mostly take part of services in connection with church rites such as bap- tisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals. The answer is that such tensions exist at all levels of church organization, bottom-up or top-down. The difference that results in the diverging recommendations for the Church of Norway is that such tensions between an activist and a «ritual» wing are set in different discourses, depending on level of organization. At the local level the church discourse is about preserving all church members’ possibilities of carrying on, i.e. be churched in using rites, but rather indifferent when it comes to attending ordinary Sunday services. In such a discourse a preservation of the State Church seems to be the safest alternative. At the national level the church discourse is about clarity of position and of expressing of the view of the church, which means that independence becomes an important priority, and the aban- donment of the State Church a necessary step. Repstad compares the church elite with other contemporary Norwegian elites and notes, that the church elite is more radical (less willing to compromise) than other comparable elites: more oriented towards the non-European world, towards the poor. So it seems that the church elite is less willing to be part of the kind of daily compromise which life in a State Church entails. Political scientist Pål Ketil Botvar attempts to isolate the factors that explain the differences observed in the hearing between different parts of the country. Behind his choice of places lies an operationalization of four variables which, traditionally, have been used in Norwegian church studies, namely (1) degree of low church activism, (2) geographical and cultural localization, (3) degree of urbanization, and (4) relative strength of two ideological-theological positions: community-of-believers and folk-

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church-culture. Using these four as independent variables one other variable serves as result or dependent variable, namely the view on changed relations between the state and church expressed in the official hearing by the local church organization. For each of the four independent variables a number of indicators are tested, and in a final run the significant factors are tested in a multivariate analysis. When it comes to (1) degree of low church activism none of the indicators which show significant differences in the initial bivariate analysis display significant effects in the multivariate analysis. It must be noted that the indicators shown seem rather weak and less than clear. (2) Geographical and cultural localization participates in the final analysis with one indicator, namely if the church organization is located in the «inner, Eastern» part of the country or not. The organizations in that region tend to oppose change in the Church’s relation to the state. Urbanization and degree thereof (3) turn out to present some significant differences in the bivariate analysis, none of which result in significant dimensions in the multivariate analysis. But it may be noted that the size of the population of the municipality in question matters: the greater the population, the more sympathy for change in the State—Church relations. Finally, when it comes to (4) strength of community-of-believers versus folk-church-culture, there are only weak and non-significant effects in the multivariate analysis. It may also be noted that the proportion of the overall variation explained (R2) is low, 10,3 percent. Botvar’s analyses reflect an attempt to clarify a number of issues discussed in Nor- wegian church research: the effect of certain regions, the effect of certain low church voluntary movements, the effect of social and cultural characteristics, and the effects of a specific tension between those parts of the country where a type of religiosity called community-of-believers is strong and opposing a folk-church-culture. In most of these respects Botvar’s data suffer from the predicament that his dependent variable is measured on an aggregated level, i.e. he can deal with answers from organizations, not from individuals. In such a situation it is difficult to obtain enough variation for a meaningful statistical analysis. The results thus cannot be used as proof for these «traditional» ways of theoretical explanation. Here and there, they may be used as illustration. Njål Høstmælingen, a specialist in human rights issues, discusses to what degree the bodies answering the hearing use arguments from a human rights discourse. Before arriving at that analysis Høstmælingen presents a background for discussing human rights, involving the general argumentative power of human rights, how the rights have been internalized in Norwegian political and theological thinking and the degree to which authorities have encouraged participants in the hearing to contribute with arguments based on human rights thinking. This review will only deal with his analysis of how arguments based on human rights are put forward in the hearing responses. Høstmælingen concentrates his analysis on responses given by the Church synod and the associations within the Church, by government bureaus and agencies, by churches and denominations other than the Church of Norway, by national associations for work, including unions, and by educations departments, in all 79 responses, of which one third argues from a human rights standpoint. The most frequently mentioned right is that of freedom of religion, belief and life view. The quality of the formulated argu-

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ments, however, does not impress Høstmælingen. The level of precision is generally characterized as «extremely weak» (page 111). Only rarely is the mentioning of the rights substantiated by references to un declarations and conventions, and when such references occur in the responses, they are vague. The lack of precision in the arguments provokes a sigh from Høstmælingen: «most of the responding bodies use human rights without precision and in a way that makes it difficult for members of the juridical profession to accept the argumentation as serious» (page 113). One may note that Høstmælingen also detects a number of responses in which the argumentation goes against human rights. The national Labor Union’s response is hung out to dry: «The response of the Labor Union witnesses that they do not take seriously their own human rights argumentation» (page 114). Sarcastically, Høstmælingen describes his impression of the responses as representing «goats guarding sacks of oats»: responses from the Church of Norway describe how that body wishes its relation to the State to be, responses from other religious bodies how they would like their relation to be. This is, of course, a question of economy, and in such argumentation money, not general principles, tend to get the upper hand. The contribution of Kristine Rødstøl concludes the first part. She is a political scientist analyzing the responses to the hearing through the looking glass of political rights, especially the right to freedom of faith and world view. She analyzes arguments from different responding organizations, using two kinds of political theory as a background, liberalism and multiculturalism. Following Østerud (2007:152–153) she describes liberalism as the state ideology which places the individual as primary in relation to the state and to society, and in which individual freedom is the central goal. Multiculturalism is defined in relation to Charles Taylor (1994) as the ideology according to which certain kinds of group rights (of minorities) may at times be seen as more important than individual rights (of majorities). The examples mentioned often come from cultural and ethnic minorities; in the Norwegian case the Sami population has often been taken as an example. At the local level, i.e. in the hearing responses from parishes and municipalities, Rødstøl traces different kinds of arguments for the model chosen, (a) folk church based on a constitutional law, (b) folk church based on a non-constitutional law, and (c) independent folk church (based on a general law on life view communities). The principle mentioned most frequently is that of individual freedom of faith and life view, freedom of religion or even «total» freedom of religion. There is, however, a sliding scale in the formulations from the local level; on various grounds State Church privileges are recommended. The choice of principle is also correlated to choice of model. The local organizations wanting model (b) tend to mention the principle of freedom of faith and life view more often than the local organizations which prefer other models. The responses from the regional organizations express a more outspoken preference for model (b), and almost all responses relate that preference to the principle of freedom of faith and life view. Among some of the bishops there is also recognition of the obli- gation to protect minorities, inside or outside of the Church of Norway. In her final analysis, Rødstøl identifies an inverted multiculturalism, i.e. a multiculturalism which does aim to protect not a minority but a majority. According to this

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position, the Church of Norway, its specificity, culture and tradition should be protected against threatening minorities. She also identifies a position termed paternalistic multiculturalism. That term denotes an argument according to which the religious freedom of minorities is protected through the specific position of the Church of Norway. For their own good, so to speak, religious minorities ought to accept the dominating position of the State Church, since they, indirectly, benefit from such a model. The second part of the volume is dedicated to similarities and differences between Norway and the other Nordic countries, written by Danish, Finnish and Swedish scholars. Sociologist of religion Göran Gustafsson analyzes the Swedish development leading up to the disestablishment of the Church of Sweden in the year 2000, while comparing the Swedish and Norwegian processes in a number of perspectives. The disestablishment of the Church of Sweden has been termed «divorce» (from the State). There are, however, a number of ways in which the divorcees have continued to share accommodation. The State assists the Church in collection of church fees (former church taxes); the Church is entrepreneur for the civil function of organizing burials; the State contributes to the preservation and restoration of buildings owned by the Church, since the buildings are considered interesting from a cultural and historical point of view. This benevolent attitude of the state towards the Church of Sweden is expanded to other churches and denominations as well: a special state office allocates funds for activities and construction in those denominations; the tax authorities help willing churches and denominations to collect their membership fees. From a legal point of view the comparison with the Norwegian discussion shows that there is no mention of the Church in the Swedish constitution. Instead, there is a general law on faith communities, a special law on the Church of Sweden, and another law about the delegation of funerals to the Church of Sweden. Gustafsson discusses the fact that the Gjønnes report offers a number of possible formulations about the historic relation between Church and State. These formulæ are proposed as descriptions of the values upon which the State and the citizens are based. This, he says, may be seen as attempts to formulate a new civil religion (whether Chris- tian, evangelical-Lutheran or neutral from a confessional point of view). The members of the Gjønnes committee thus wish to preserve the idea about a (fictive) community of values. In the Swedish case such considerations are introduced, not in the constitution, but at a lower legal level, in school laws and regulations. Despite similarities between Norway and Denmark there are obvious differences. Historic-systematic theologian Hans Raun Iversen gives a background of some of these differences, for instance absence in Denmark of democratic church bodies on regional and national levels, or the strong governmental control over the running of the Church’s daily affairs in Denmark. The three theological fathers of the Danish folk church, Luther, Grundtvig, and Kierkegaard, were anarchists in questions of church organization, Raun Iversen claims. Too busy revolting against the church organization of their own time they never arrived at a balanced view of how a church should be organized. Because of this lack of guiding principles the Danish folk church has been in the hand of the King or the State. The Church is mentioned in the constitution of 1849 («the evangelical-Lutheran church

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is the Danish folk church and is as such supported by the state»), but the promise in the constitution to give detailed instructions in a law has never been fulfilled. Raun Iversen claims that the history of Denmark has not provided reasons for breaking up the ideological unity between people, State and Church, which has been the case in most other countries. On the contrary, there has been a number of instances where the idea of unity has been reinforced. In the 21st century, however, there has been a shift in orientation. Most political parties favor change in the relations between the state and the folk church. Such changes necessarily would entail changes in relations between the State and other churches and denominations, even religions. Sociologist Susan Sundback concludes the second part of the volume with an analysis of the historical developments leading to the particular role of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, as well the circumstances due to which Finland has two national churches, the other being the Finnish Orthodox Church. In contrast to Raun Iversen’s description of Denmark Sundback’s description of Finland gives ample opp- ortunity to contemplate a number of historical events in which a possibility to distin- guish between Church, State and people have been at hand. Until 1809 Finland was part of Sweden and had Swedish laws (including church laws). During the Russian reign a number of balancing regulations were introduced, and when in 1919 Finland became independent a state church system was dismantled. During the 20th and 21st centuries, however, a number of ties between the Church of Finland and the State have continued, or developed. According to Sundback the main issue of discussion in Norway, how to formulate a relation between the State and a dominating church alongside minor churches and denominations, while preserving the fundamental human right of religious freedom, does not become acute in Finland. The basic problem of religious freedom was solved at the outset in 1919, and the need for nation building lead to the privileged position of the Lutheran church. The Finnish public has shown no sign of awareness of a need for radical changes. Triangulation is a method used by geodesists when creating a cartographic repre- sentation of a landscape. It involves looking at the same formation from three or more different angles in order to assess and represent the size and form of the formation. In the social sciences triangulation is a metaphor for multi-method analyses of the same object (Riis 2001). Surveys may be combined with interviews; field studies may com- plement archive studies, etc. In order to do justice to the name of the procedure one ought to apply at least three viewpoints. The book under review: Between principles and pragmatism: Analyses of the hearing about the state and the Church of Norway is a valuable example of triangulation. There are geographical angles, from three neighboring countries. The main reason for including these three chapters is the ability to depict small differences and likenes- ses when comparing with your next of kin. When it comes to the Norwegian situation, however, the triangulation from the internal, theoretical, non-geographical perspectives is more important. These perspectives give a picture of a country where an inter- national discourse (human rights) calls a nationalistic constitution (of 1814) into question, thereby challenging a traditional construction of unity between State, Church and people. At various levels, in various regions, and in various ideological contexts this

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problem is now being discussed. Is the solution going to be a non-denominational – civil – religion? No one knows. In the social sciences it is often an attractive goal to have different methods and perspectives confirm one another. Results duplicated – or at least not opposed – by studies using other methods are considered safer and more valuable than results not substantiated in a similar way. Do the results of the present triangulation confirm each other? There are some convergences, but the main impression is that the analyses resemble the work of geodesists. Rather than confirming they add details, heights and depths, altitude lines and topography, to the map of an ongoing Norwegian discussion, namely how to relate a Christian tradition deeply imbedded in a national history and culture to modern political principles of equality and human rights. Since the process ahead is primarily a political process, theological and historical arguments may be expected to carry less weight. But since four out of five voters are also members of the Church of Norway, those politicians who are going to take the ini- tiative and formulate propositions about the future of the Church of Norway can not disregard the vague, blurred and mixed attitudes towards change witnessed in the volume under review. The most difficult task in the future does not seem to be to assemble and rearrange facts and relations, but to write a proposition which a majority of the voters and their representatives will be willing to legitimate by their votes.

Jørgen Straarup, PhD Department of history, philosophy and religious studies, Umeå University, Sweden.

References Aerson, Charles W. 1984. Politisk design og interesseorganisasjonene [Political design and the organizations of interest]. In Demokrati og demokratisering, Bernt Hagtvet and William M. Lafferty (eds.), 405–435. Oslo: Aschehoug. Cohen, Carl 1971. Democracy. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Hegstad, Harald 2004. Pluralisme, demokrati og forankring i folkekirken [Pluralism, democracy and change in the folk church]. In Etikk, tro og pluralisme: festskrift til Lars Østnor, Kjell Olav Sannes et al. (eds.), 217–234. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. Riis, Ole 2001. Metoder på tværs: om forudsætningen for sociologisk metodekombination [Crossing methods: how to combine sociological methods]. København: Jurist- og Økonom- forbundets Forlag. Taylor, Charles 1994. The politics of recognition. In Multiculturalism: examining the politics of recognition, Amy Gutmann (ed.), 25–73. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press. Østerud, Øyvind, ed. 2007. Statsvitenskapelig leksikon [Political science lexicon], 2nd ed.Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

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Eileen Barker (ed.) 2008. The Centrality of Religion in Social Life. Essays in Honour of James A. Beckford. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 247 pages.

For most academics, path-breaking scholarship in one area of study is a satisfactory achievement. James A. Beckford can boast (though boast he would not) of several, including his empirical research on Jehovah’s Witnesses, New Religious Movements in general (conversion to, politics of, societal reactions to, etc), and prison chaplaincy; not to mention his insights on particular country cases studies (Britain, France, Germany, and Japan - thus far!), and his commentary on secularisation theory. This book is a tribute to Beckford’s very rich career and, simultaneously, an active conversation with his work. Seventeen scholars and friends of Beckford were charged with the task of providing a chapter that would ‘add to our understanding of the centrality of religion in contemporary society’. Clearly a labour of love for many of the contributors, each chose a theme in some way applying, furthering or even questioning Beckford’s positions. What emerges is a relatively graceful division of the chapters into four themes, each of which represents one dimension of Beckford’s career. The first is ‘the French connection’, fittingly first given that his academic life started with a French Studies degree. Here Grace Davie, who shares a special interest in the French context, demonstrates how Beckford’s writings on France and beyond have helped teach her to ‘think sociologically’ about religion. By pointing to lessons drawn from three of his major texts, Davie illustrates the enduring didactic nature of much of Beckford’s work. The ‘French Connection’ in Danièle Hervieu-Léger’s chapter on the relationship between ‘religious’ and ‘modern’ individualism presumably relates to the author herself (unless we consider ‘the individual’ a quintessentially French focus), as the chapter goes well beyond the French context, delving deeply and adeptly into history to adjust our contemporary conceptions of the religious roots of modern individualism. The remaining three chapters in this section explore various specificities of the French case. Jean-Paul Willaime addresses the tension within and continually developing around French laïcité. France, he suggests, had reached a point of equilibrium between state, religions and society, but the confrontation with NRMs and Islam has ‘reawakened’ a hard-line laïcité. So convincing are his arguments that a later section on laïcité’s ‘open-minded aggiornamento’ fails to persuade. Willaime’s aim to end on this positive note is further undermined by Veronique Altglas in her chapter on ‘the French cult controversy’. Building on Beckford’s Cult Controversies, Altglas describes the relentless anti-cult movements in France and the de facto if not de jure liaisons between these and the state. Further, she illustrates a worrying ‘extension of the battlefield’ whereby the anti-cult movements target even home schooling, parental refusal of vaccination, holistic therapies, and alternative medicines. Altglas’ nuanced approach reveals division and contradiction within both the anti-cult movements and the state policies on cults. The section closes with Karel Dobbelaere’s unsystematic comparison, but pleasant-to-read narrative, of the French and Belgian processes of secularisation. Here we are usefully reminded of how critical a battlefield the education system is for secularisation (one of several ‘red threads’ in this text) – in France, with ‘la que-

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relle scholaire’ at the centre of ‘les deux France’, and in Belgium launching the first wave of secularisation and of pillarisation. The second section of the book addresses how new (though sometimes old) religious movements are ‘inserted’ into societies. Enzo Pace’s contribution requires a bit of a strain, but well spent, to glean insights into the extent to which the social successes of Sikhs in the west can be explained by similarities with Protestantism and, specifi- cally, by a Sikh spirit of capitalism. J. Demerath’s tellingly entitled ‘A movement without a crisis is a movement with a crisis’ explores how NRMs sometimes exploit and often depend upon crises both as a source of their basic missions and/or as mobi- lizers. Here with a dose of political incorrectness and a mission (accomplished) to amuse, Demerath portrays an arbitrariness in the establishment of NRMs. James Ric- hardson and Jennifer Shoemaker hypothesise an uneven-handedness in the approach of the European Court of Human Rights to cases in western versus eastern European (post-Communist) countries, with the latter being held to far more rigorous standards. The authors set out to test this hypothesis but ultimately fail because of a lack of suffi- cient data available at the time of writing. Still, the chapter is an effective ‘watch this page’ advert. The conversation with Beckford’s work is at its liveliest in David Voas’ astute contribution on the levelling off of Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) growth in the west. Voas posits that each society may have a certain ‘carrying capacity’ for JWs. He also wonders whether JWs are discouraged by failure to recruit and thus become inac- tive, a hypothesis to which Beckford responds (via personal communication included in the chapter) that a drop in recruits is likely viewed as a crisis (echo Demerath) and hence functions more as a motivator than deterrent. Margit Warburg also builds on, and challenges to a certain extent, Beckford’s work from a 1978 article wherein he questioned the reliability of conversion accounts by noting that many accounts were stri- kingly similar and reflected converts’ ideals of the conversion process. In her efforts to ‘save the baby’ if not the bathwater, Warburg calls for the researcher’s discernment as regards the trustworthiness of each element of informants’ accounts based on potential motives for distortion of facts. Her insightful comparison with the autobiographical genre is followed by a less lucid though interesting comparison with marriage and courtship accounts. Sophie Gillat-Ray brings the section to a close with a chapter drawing on her and Beckford’s study of the development of the Muslim chaplaincy in Britain. Gillat-Ray shows how a range of contextual factors – largely (and notably) external to the Muslim communities in question – merged to make the Muslim chaplaincy possible, whilst the ‘pastoral care’ tradition within Islam provided fertile soil. Perhaps amongst the duller chapters in the text, it escapes that label by treading into murky waters with the argument that the development of the Muslim chaplaincy is ‘very good evidence’ of the emergence of a European Islam (page 151). If the previous paragraph felt like brisk tour of sociology of religion sites of study, such is that second section of the book. However, the chapters hang together surprisingly well because of the recurrent references to Beckford’s ideas. In section three, on religion, power and politics, a shift in gears is required for the encounter with David Martin’s chapter where, in his own words, he has ‘traced the shadow of the transcendent animating the political tradition, with the bare structure of

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the dynamic of power showing through the disguises of political rhetoric’ (in his simpler English: he traces the religious models underlying much of what appears to be secular politics). Like Hervieu-Léger before him in the text (and Thomas Luckmann and Meredith McGuire after him), Martin relies skilfully on examples from history, and elegantly on references to literature and music, to buttress his points. And, like Hervieu-Léger before him and Luckmann, Barker and McGuire after him, in this chapter Martin advances our understanding of the individual in relation to religion – one of several timeless learnings in this book. Thomas Luckmann’s entertaining and thought-provoking contribution compares the helplessness faced by humankind opposite nature (before science ‘tamed’ nature), with the helplessness faced by humankind opposite the ‘irresistible power’ of society (a ‘second nature’, his pun intended). He presents as paradoxical the fact that the modern experience entails an unprecedented sense of autonomy, yet society (comprised of the economy and the polity) still renders the individual somewhat ‘impotent’. The volume’s final section responds to Beckford’s call for research into the ‘reloca- tion’ occurring in the relationship between the spiritual and the religious. Here Eileen Barker and Meredith McGuire contribute to the development of a ‘sociology of spirituality’. Barker’s approach seeks to cover several bases by applying different methods to identify possible relationships between the religious and the spiritual, including two ideal-typical models and analysis of the results of two survey studies. The typology pitting spirituality in opposition to ‘conservative’ religiosity is noteworthy: the lists of characteristics on either side would themselves make an intriguing subject of study. Barker argues that surveys alone are not a sharp enough instrument to be able to disen- tangle the diverse meanings of the term spirituality. As if in conversation with Barker, Meredith McGuire draws on examples from her own qualitative research and from history to reveal the ideological underpinnings of the terms ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious’ and to challenge dominant conceptions of a private/public dichotomy underlying the terms. Sandwiched in between Barker’s and McGuire’s chapters is a ‘Japanese connection’ by Susumu Shimazono. On its surface more about ‘religious insertions in society’, Shi- mazono’s chapter warrants its inclusion in this section with the conscious substitution of an ‘S’ for spirituality for the ‘R’ in NRMs, reflecting a Japanese trend towards distancing from traditional religion and thus echoing McGuire on the ideological uses of the terms. Particularly interesting is his illustration that new age music, occult and fortune-telling magazines, etc are to NRMs what the folk culture of worshipping saints has been to Cat- holic churches. This chimes well with McGuire’s perceptive paralleling of the pre- modern Irish farm wife who practiced devotions to numerous ‘patron’ saints unrecogni- sed by the official church and engaged a repertoire of religious practices learned in the socialisation of women, with the modern member of the Methodist Church who simultaneously practices yoga, zen meditation, and New Age healing rituals. Both examples help us to question where (or, whether) the ‘religious’ ends and the ‘spiritual’ begins. The volume has a certain incisive ‘edge’ to it, as one might expect of anything with Eileen Barker’s name to it. One example is a recurrent and witty critique of Rodney Stark and other supply-side theorists: Demerath jokes about Stark’s efforts to establish his own religion; Voas ridicules Stark and Iannacone’s prediction that JWs would grow

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by 4 percent annually; and McGuire accuses Stark and Iannacone of a gross over-sim- plification of European history (‘Having only one food store in town is hardly a mono- poly if the people of the town grow most of their own food’ page 221). Also edgy is a normative-leaning approach present in some chapters: Demerath amuses with a tale of how any reader might go about establishing a new religious movement (any faith in anything being wholly irrelevant); Voas portrays evangelists as predators in an over-fished sea (albeit with an apologetic note); and in Barker’s distinc- tions between religiosity and spirituality, we find the former characterised by ‘control- ling’ relations and by the goals of grace, redemption, and atonement, with no mention of e.g., worship or thanksgiving. In all, the text certainly fulfils its twin aim to honour James Beckford, and to contribute to our understanding of the centrality of religion in social life. As such, one ima- gines it was doubly well-received by Beckford.

Effie Fokas, PhD London School of Economics United Kingdom

Christopher Deacy and Elisabeth Arweck (eds.) 2009. Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate. 274 pages.

Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age is a volume that contributes to contemporary debate on the meaning and significance of religion in a culture of everyday life in heavily media-saturated societies. Hence, the volume can be located into a conti- nuum with other fairly recently published books that discuss intersections between media, religion and culture in a cross-disciplinary context. The list includes volumes like: Rethinking Religion, Media and Culture edited by Hoover and Lundby (Sage 1997), Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media edited by Hoover and Schofield Clark (Columbia University Press, 2002), Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture edited by Mitchell and Marriage (T&T Clark 2003), and with Implications of the Sacred in (Post)Modern Media edited by Sumiala-Seppänen, Lundby and Salokangas (Nordicom 2006). Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age mainly includes articles from UK religion scholars (theologians and sociologists of religion). Only few articles are written by academics associated primarily with media and communication studies or affiliated with other institutions outside the British context. This should not come as a surprise since the volume is edited by two British scholars of religion Christopher Deacy and Elisabeth Arweck, and the volume is published by Theology and Religion in Interdisciplinary Perspective Series in Association with the British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group. One cannot avoid the impression that the composition and the framing of the book also reflects the fact that especially in the European academic context the studies around

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religion and popular culture are still often affiliated first and foremost with theology and religion studies. (Especially influential have been studies on religion and film!) The studies carried out in the academic context of media and/or cultural studies in the facul- ties of social sciences still remain considerably rare. The interesting question is why this is the case? Having said this, it must be acknowledged that the range of different approaches and frameworks applied in this book epitomizes profound competence in the interdisciplinary field of study. The cases and approaches vary considerably from media rituals, marketing strategies to reality television, the Internet and to the influence of religion on clubbing and music. In this sense the anthology offers a rich and genuinely cross-disciplinary view over studies on religion, media and popular culture. However, this book also has a bias that is played out explicitly in the introductory chapter. The introduction written by Christopher Deacy is entitled Why Study Religion and Popular Culture and it brings up the widely recognized attack by fundamentalist atheists such as Richard Dawkins on religion and religiosity as a virulent cultural phen- omenon. In this text Deacy constructs an intellectual tension between the Dawkins view and the scope of the book. In this sense the articles can be interpreted as a defense of the significance of religion and religious phenomena in the world of today. But they also manifest a need to keep developing more sophisticated tools to analyze the complex intersections between religion, media and popular culture in the contemporary world. Taking this antagonism into consideration, the articles by Stephen Pattison on Deepening Relationships with Material Artifacts, offer especially stimulating reading experiences in which he argues for a wider understanding of the significance of material items and artifacts in the ways in which we establish and form our relationships in the contemporary world. In his rather radical piece Pattison wants to challenge conven- tional boundaries maintained by academics between human and non-human actors. By challenging this dualism Pattison (p. 68) argues for new possibilities to «create more gracious and fruitful relationships with, and attachments to, the material world» in all its variety and richness. Thought provoking are also Jolyon Mitchell’s piece on Contesting Martyrdom and Nick Couldry’s article on Media Rituals: From Durkheim on Religion to Jade Goody on Religious Toleration. Mitchell brings into the discussion the concept of martyrdom that is itself a contested term in religious and political studies. But instead of analyzing the construction of martyrdom in various cultural contexts, Mitchell turns the idea around and focuses his analysis on the performative strategies of the unmasking and deconstructing of martyrdom, that is – on the strategies of contesting martyrdom. Mit- chell draws on different religious contexts such as Islam and Christianity, and includes a wide range of different «media» (posters, films, photo essays, shrines and Web) to make his argument. Mitchell explains his motivation in an ethical tone by stating that:

Understanding these processes (deconstruction of martyrdom, added JS) is important not simply for deepening understanding of the role of different media in these conversations, but also for creating spaces where different religious traditions can learn to co-exist (Mitchell 2009: 83).

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sociology, distances his work from religious studies, but nevertheless uses one of the key figures of sociology of religion! – Émile Durkheim to create his theoretical framework. What is interesting in Couldry’s approach is the way in which he uses the concept of ritual to analyze contemporary media and its logic. In this piece special focus is given to the analysis of Reality TV as a media ritual. For Couldry (page 50) the point of analyzing media rituals is embedded into an understanding that media rituals can «clarify the workings of the potential interactions between media and religious spheres in the media age». In order to do that, Couldry claims, we must avoid confusing media with religion and instead look to the media as a power structure that with its ritualizing practices contributes to normalizing our everyday life, and this indeed, has implications on the way in which religion is experienced today. The volume Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age demonstrates well that there is an ever more growing interest among scholars of religion, media and culture to recognize the value of studying different religious and /or sacred phenomena in contemporary media cultural settings and contexts. This means trying out new theoretical frameworks, approaches, methodologies, and empirical cases, but most of all it means recognizing the importance of the context for and in the analysis. As a media scholar looking at the interplay between media, religion, and culture in the Nordic context (both academic and societal), I cannot help being a bit puzzled once more. There is no doubt that we need more studies that take seriously the complex dynamics between media, religion and popular culture in today’s media saturated- world. And it is also unfortunate truth that genuine interdisciplinarity is still only a vague dream in many Nordic academic institutions studying religion and the media. So certainly there is a lot we can learn from our Anglo-Saxon colleagues. Exploring Reli- gion and the Sacred in a Media Age is a good proof of that. And yet, we should not be uncritical of the cultural load (in relation to race, gender and class for example) these approaches bring with them as we try to translate them into Nordic contexts. The debate around Dawkins and religion in the introduction of the book reviewed here is a very illuminating example. It shows how the context matters and shapes the ways in which religion can be played out and discussed in the specific, very Anglo-Saxon context. I suppose what I am trying to say here is that there is definitely a need for more theoretical and empirical research on media, religion and popular culture that has an explicit and deeply acknowledged Nordic bias. This means that we need to acknowledge at the same time the very problematic nature of the concept «Nordic» in the era of globalized media and religions, and yet we should be able to recognize the history that is present in the Nordic public sphere through the strong historical influence of the public broadcasting companies and the institutionalized idea of «folkkyrka». So, if there is going to be a Nordic anthology one day it should start with an introduction that explores peculiarities of the Nordic public sphere(s) as a context for religion(s) of the area.

Johanna Sumiala, PhD Department of Communication University of Helsinki, Finland

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Lise Kanckos och Ralf Kauranen (eds.) 2008. Social Samhörighet och Religion: festskrift till Susan Sundback, [Social Cohesion and Religion: A festschrift to Susan Sund- back]. Åbo, Finland: Åbo Akademi University Press. 377 pages.

As the title suggests as well as being a festschrift designed to celebrate the career of Prof. Susan Sundback and reflect the variety of her research interests this volume has a secondary aim. It provides a broad-brushstrokes sketch of current research in the Soci- ology of Religion (and adjoining fields) in the Nordic countries, or indeed Scandinavia. As the editors note, and as is so often the case with volumes of this kind, the contributors were clearly the focal point when compiling the list of contents rather than the contributions themselves. This as well as the large number of contributions has led to the sense that what this book does, and does well, is to provide a taste of the state of the art in the field in this part of Europe. Contributions are either summaries or extracts from the authors’ current projects or more tentative tests of ideas – small pilot studies or theoretical analysis based on secondary analysis of existing empirical studies. The large number and variety of the chapters (23) means that individual comments on the content of each cannot be contained within the scope of this review. The review itself will therefore also adopt this broad-brushstrokes approach in addressing the volume as a whole and its key themes. The common thread running though the volume is also indicated in the title and the various chapters tackle issues of social cohesion or religion and sometimes, but not necessarily, the intersection of the two. In Anders Bäckström’s article on the return of religion, for example, we can see connections made between the theoretical discussion of religion’s role in society and the role of civil society in contemporary democracies while in Ole Gunnar Winsnes’ contribution a study of membership of the Church of Norway and the notion of ‘passive membership’ introduces a discussion of the connection between religious and Norwegian identity (and citizenship). Over and above the two broad areas of interest which provide the framework for the volume however, two major themes with subthemes recur throughout providing links on a theoretical plane between otherwise disparate contributions. In the first section of the book mainly containing chapters written by academics active in the field of the sociology of religion this unifying theme is the question of religion’s role in contemporary society against the background of the secularization paradigm. In the second contributions touch rather on the question of citizenship at a number of levels, first in discussions of social capital, second in more general terms of active citizenship and social activism and thirdly on issues of language, ethnicity, identity and citizenship. The question then remains as to which audience could be interested in this volume, apart from those who are represented in the tabula gratulatoria. As previously indicated, while the contributions rarely say much completely new to those already familiar with the author’s work, many of these short and therefore for the most part positively concise and precise articles, provide a good introduction to the research interests of the authors and much current research in the field today. This aspect also suggests a second potential readership over and above the authors’ peers, namely students at the various universities in Scandinavia. This volume (or selected parts of it) could prove a useful

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teaching resource bringing new research to students in bite-sized pieces. In an academic environment where more and more is published in English the fact that a large number of the contributions are in Swedish gives the volume particular value as a teaching aid for Swedish speaking students. Otherwise the mixture of languages used in the volume, as with its diversity in terms of content, could be seen as a weakness. Limitations in my own linguistic abilities meant I was unable to read the two chapters written in Finnish and while as a teacher I am happy that some new ideas are now available for those students more reluctant to read English I am also regretful that I cannot recommend the majority of chapters in this volume to colleagues elsewhere who read neither Swedish nor Norwegian (or Finnish for that matter).

Martha Middlemiss Lé Mon, Thd. Department of Theology, Uppsala University, Sweden

Marcus Moberg 2009. Faster for the Master! Exploring Issues of Religious Expression and Alternative Christian Identity within the Finnish Christian Metal Music Scene. Published doctoral dissertation in Comparative Religion, Åbo Akademi University.

In recent years the interrelationship between religion and popular culture has gained increased attention (Forbes and Mahan 2000; Clark 2007; Lynch 2007). What can then be more fruitful than examining the encounter between two entities, seen by many as totally separate, or even irreconcilable: metal music and Christianity? This is the field of exploration for this book. The main aim of the study is to analyze how the actors within the vibrant Finnish Christian Metal scene ascribe meaning to their music culture. Central theoretical viewpoints come from a starting point in social constructionism. The author also discusses the concept of identity and relates individual, collective and religious identity to theorists like Giddens, Lash and Taylor. Discourse is, of course, not only written or even spoken «text» but also aesthetic processes, music, ways of dressing, gestures etc. Viewing religion and religious meaning as something socially constructed, the author identifies discourses around what Metal in general and Chris- tian Metal in particular is all about; firstly in the print and online media on the scene, secondly at concerts and festivals and thirdly in interviews with 19 active musicians and 3 web site editors. The concept scene is used in place of sub culture or life style, since it allows the researcher to grasp the dynamics of interaction between active members on the scene, and between different levels – local, national and transnational. Keith Kahn Harris showed the usefulness of this concept in his study of Extreme Metal from 2007 and in this study too it is convincingly appropriate. The discussion of the religious situation in contemporary Finland reveals that the author seeks a balanced position from which to understand the in-between and margi- nalized role of institutionalized religion. Woodhead and Heelas’ (2000) notion of the subjectivization thesis is central and the author argues that his informants fall into the

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categories of religions of experiential difference (mostly) and religions of experiential humanity (to some extent). The interrelationship between religion and popular culture is discussed. Forbes’ typology of religion in popular culture, popular culture in religion, popular culture as religion and popular culture and religion in dialogue, is used both to position the study in relation to other studies in media, religion and culture and situate it with regard to Contemporary Christian Music, but also to defend the choice of a rather narrow and substantive definition of religion. Although not a study on religion in secular metal, the reader is in need of a brief and nuanced overview of this complicated relationship. This is given in one chapter. After this comes a comprehensive chapter on the Christian Metal Culture. Since this is an understudied field, this chapter provides a great deal of scientific value. The commo- nalities and specificities of the musical, visual and verbal dimensions of Christian Metal are highlighted. The points of connection with the ‘secular’ Metal Culture are discussed, stressing the main differences as referring to the verbal dimension. Taking a closer look at the Finnish scene, four main discourses used in the internal and external construction of the scene are presented. The interviews are analyzed cap- turing how these discourses are used to ascribe meaning and function to Christian Metal. The author concludes that Christian Metal is used as a resource for the active members of the scene for their everyday religious life. To indulge in Christian Metal is for them a way of doing religion. It becomes a way of expressing an alternative Chris- tian identity in a manner which is more personal and more experiential. This is discussed in terms of religions of experiential difference and to some extent also religions of experiential humanity. This dissertation contributes a solid and vital examination of a field of religious popular culture which is as yet understudied. In order to more fully understand the complex relationship between mass mediated consumer culture and religion, studies such as this are welcome. As a critical remark, however, it should be added that the issue of gender surely would have deserved more attention in the study. The fact that all informants are male, and that female fans are underrepresented on the scene as on the secular metal scene are of course discussed. However, if this aspect were to have been highlighted to a greater extent in the study, the study as a whole would have con- stituted an even more interesting insight into how Christian Metal is used as a resource for expressing a specific male Christian identity. Moberg’s study provides a welcome contribution and is of interest to any scholar of religious and social change with refe- rence to popular culture and cultural studies.

Anders Sjöborg, PhD Department of Sociology and Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre Uppsala University, Sweden

References Clark, Lynn S. (ed.) 2007. Religion, media, and the marketplace. Rutgers: New Brunswick, NJ. Deacy, Christopher and Elisabeth Arweck 2009. Exploring religion and the sacred in a media age. Ashgate: Farnham. 213 Tapir_NJRS 2-10.fm Page 214 Wednesday, October 13, 2010 4:23 PM

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Forbes, Bruce David and Jeffrey H. Mahan (eds.) 2000. Religion and popular culture in Ameri- ca. UCP: Berkeley, CA. Lynch, Gordon (ed.) 2008. Between sacred and profane: researching religion and popular culture. Tauris: London. Woodhead, Linda and Paul Heelas 2000. Religion in Modern Times: An Interpretive Anthology. Religion and Modernity, 3. Oxford: Blackwell.

Zuckerman, Phil 2008. Samfund uden Gud [Society without God]. Højbjerg: Forlaget Univers, 228 pages; Zuckerman, Phil 2008. Society without God. New York and London: New York University Press, 227 pages.

There are only two substantial differences between the original version in English and the translated version in Danish of the book Phil Zuckerman has written as a result of his research terms in Århus in Denmark. One of them is that the American version has a subtitle: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us about Contentment. The Danish version has no formal subtitle but where the front cover of the American version has the subtitle the front cover of the Danish version has the text «En amerikaner ser på religion i Danmark og Sverige» (An American looks at religion in Denmark and Swe- den). The second and certainly the more important difference is that the Danish version has an introductory text written by the Danish systematic theologian Viggo Mortensen; his text is entitled «En amerikaner i Århus»(An American in Århus). This text is not included in the American version and this version does not correspond to any part of Mortensen’s text. Phil Zuckerman is an American sociologist of religion of Jewish origin. He declares himself to be a non-believer in God but he is well aware of his Jewish identity and his religious heritage. He also confesses to strong sympathies with the form of cultural religion that he finds among the majority of the Jews in California, where he grew up and where he had his academic training. Zuckerman spent more than a full year in Århus 2005–2006 and most of this time he, on a theoretical level, concentrated on two macro-sociological questions: How is it possible that societies (Denmark and Sweden) function so well in spite of the fact that belief in God is nearly absent? How can it be that people in these societies are so dis- interested in death and in what follows thereafter? When Zuckerman presents his research problems he leans on rows of great names of sociology of religion. He refers to authors who have stated that a society without religion is impossible, and if there is such a society it has to be a society like Albania under Enver Hoxha or North Korea. However, theoretical work did not dominate the daily life of Phil Zuckerman in Århus. All the time, he was an observer of Danish society and how people there behaved in different situations. He provides the reader with several mental snapshots from traffic, schools, informal parties, and so on. These ethnographic observations of Danish everyday-life certainly demonstrate the differences between two economically flourishing societies: The welfare societies in the European North and the innovative

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culture on the American West Coast. His observations are certainly of equal interest to readers in these different cultures. There is however one thing that is missing in Zuckerman’s observations and descriptions of Scandinavian life. He refers to many different situations he was a part of, but he never gives a description of his own experiences of the religious life in a Danish (or Swedish) parish within the national church of the country. He leans on the – mostly negative – pictures of traditional church life that his interview objects gave him. He seems – at least he makes no references to any such situations – not to have visited the «great» services at Christmas or Easter in the Cathedral in Århus. Neither does he describe an every-Sunday service in a small parish church in the countryside where people are well acquainted with each other, as well as with those resting in the graves surrounding the church. The illustrative ethnographic snapshots serve as a background for the interviews that constitute the main material for Phil Zuckerman’s analyses of Scandinavian religious life. He interviewed nearly 150 persons, either face-to-face or over the telephone; in most of the conversations he could use English, in a minority of them he had to ask for help from Danish-speaking friends. Three fourths of the interview persons were living in Denmark, and one fourth in Sweden. Some eighty of those interviewed are cited in the text and ten of the conversations – all of them with Danes – are reproduced more or less in extenso in the book. The author states that it was not easy to find persons who were willing to be faced with questions about religious beliefs and behaviour, conceptions of God, the idea of an afterlife and so on. These hesitations may – together with problems with the English language, which the author seems to underestimate – be one reason why Phil Zucker- man’s «snowball» sample has been rather biased. Among the interview objects who are given a presentation, there are too many rather young people who belong to the well- educated urban middle class and rather few persons with traditional working-class occupations. The book tells the reader much about the religious ideas of people working in schools, in different forms of caring work or in a wide range of «creative» occupations, but not much about how farmers, plumbers, bus-drivers or people who work in the canning industry think about God and death. There are certainly risks connected with «snowball» sampling; it is excessive to include two naval officers among the 39 persons interviewed in Sweden. Keeping the reservations about the sampling in mind, it must be admitted that Phil Zuckerman’s year in Århus resulted in a highly interesting outsider-view of religious ideas among Danes and Swedes. It is a book more about religious ideas, than a book about religious life. The author seems – just as Viggo Mortensen points out in his introduction to the Danish version – not to have understood that the Scandinavian «belonging without believing» paradigm is a special form of religious holding, as is the Chris- tian holding he is acquainted with from California. He is not the only one among (Ame- rican) sociologists of religion with a tendency to define religion as something more or less equivalent with what goes on within an American denomination or revival movement. The Scandinavian system of national churches whose members are characterized by a willingness to pay church-taxes as well as by being lukewarm to activity within

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the parish except when it comes to the life rituals, is apparently too different from the denominational situation in the US to be classified as «real» religion. Phil Zuckerman does not confine himself to shedding light on how people in Denmark and Sweden think of religious matters through his presentation of citations and exhaustive summaries from the interviews. The sixth chapter in his book has the short headline «Why?» (Hvorfor?). There he provides several – alternative or concur- ring – «explanations» behind the Scandinavian religious situation. Some of these «explanations» are well known. Like Rodney Stark he emphasises the «Lazy Monopo- lies» of the national churches. He also stresses the fact that Scandinavian countries are «Secure Societies» with general and generous social welfare systems that diminish the need for compensation through « pie in the sky, when you die». Some of the «explanations» are questionable as the one that the Social Democrat domination of the political life in Denmark and Sweden has resulted in anti-religious legislation and in value-neutral school-curricula. This is one of the points where Zuckerman seems to exaggerate the similarities between Denmark and Sweden; the Social Democrats have never had the same indisputable power position in Denmark as they for a long timed held in Sweden. Besides, at least in Sweden, the Social Democrats have not made the actual political decisions alone. However, the most questionable «explanation» that Zuckerman argues for is that the Scandinavian countries never have been «fully» Christianized. According to him, the Christian religion was introduced as well as upheld from above; the people accepted it by coercion but they did not take it to their hearts. There were some signs of «real» religion – in line with an American definition – connected to the revival movements in the nineteenth century but otherwise, Zuckerman argues, the present situation can be seen as a prolongation of age-old hesitant holdings towards the Christian religion. The knowledge of the Bible that many Swedes still have as a result of the teaching in public schools and the familiarity with the hymn-book of the Danes is not enough for Zuckerman to accept Sweden and Denmark as «true» Christian countries. He insists on personal commitment to Chris- tian beliefs and on frequent service attendance from the church members as proof of the Christian character of a society. According to the author, the book Society without God not only penetrates the problem of the non-religiousness of the Scandinavians. It also analyses the question about the absence of fear of death among the interviewed objects in Denmark and Sweden. Here Phil Zuckerman leans on many authors who have emphasized that a con- stitutive trait of human existence is the fear of death, and questions about what comes after death. When he made his interviews with Danes and Swedes he did not meet this set of problems; according to him Scandinavians do not worry about death and the possibility of an afterlife. Certainly, Zuckerman may present quotations from Freud, Malinowski, Greeley, Bainbridge and many others who have stressed that man eter- nally raises questions about death and expresses hope that death is not the end of existence. However, he has not much empirical evidence that those questions have saliency for everyday people. It may be questioned whether the people Zuckerman interviewed were willing (shyness to be open about existential questions), or capable (the largely

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neglected language problem again) to discuss problems of this kind with a person that they were not very well acquainted with. Neither are there references to publications where the same methods as Zuckerman used which describe (higher levels of) fear of death among Britons, Italians, Czechs or even Americans. On these grounds it does not seems wise to use a rather biased sample of Danes and Swedes to point out the peoples of Scandinavia as exceptional through their absence of fear of death. Initially, the introductory text that Viggo Mortensen wrote for the Danish version of Phil Zuckermans book was mentioned. The title of his text, «En amerikaner i Århus» (An American in Århus) gives associations to a well-known musical composition by George Gershwin: An American in Paris. This is a nice piece of music; in tunes Gers- hwin depicts the bright and happy sides of Parisian life, but he does not even try to depict the whole picture. Something of the same could be said about Phil Zuckerman’s book Society without God. It gives, in a basically positive holding, illuminating descriptions of religious and non-religious life in Denmark and Sweden, but it does not provide a deeper analysis of the role Christian religion still has in Scandinavia. This is what Viggo Mortensen tries to tell the Scandinavian readers and it is to be regretted that his text does not appear where it is most needed, i.e. in the English version.

Göran Gustafsson, Professor Emeritus Lund University, Sweden

Kristin Aune, Sonya Sharma and Giselle Vincett (eds.). 2008. Women and Religion in the West: Challenging Secularization. Aldershot: Ashgate. 230 pages.

Women and Religion in the West: Challenging Secularization is a collection of twelve articles edited by Kristin Aune, Sonya Sharma and Giselle Vincett. The contributors come from Europe and North America, and they discuss issues related to women in Christianity, alternative spiritualities and Islam. The book is part of the Theology and Religion in Interdisciplinary Perspective series that is produced in association the Reli- gion Study Group of the British Sociological Association. The volume starts with the question «what is the relationship between women and secularization?» It also notes that women predominate numerically in religion, but that their experiences have long fallen outside the scope of theorizing religion in modernity. The authors approve of secularization theories and admit that secularization is a fact, but they aim to dig out gender or women specific features in this process. They also note the big impact of feminism on religion and discuss the feminization of religion. The introduction brings forth the concept of ‘thirdspace’, crafted by Homi Bhabha in postcolonial studies, as a key to understand the changing positions of women. ‘Thirdspace’ belongs to a category of concepts that wish to open up new horizons beyond established institutions. «We use it to mean those spaces (physical, mental, social) which may be described as both/neither spaces; that is, spaces which are not easily categorisable as, for example, entirely public or private spaces» (page 9). By this

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conceptual focus the authors wish to highlight the shifting locations of women’s lives in late modernity, and focus on the changed roles women have at home and at work. The division of labour at home, in society, and changes in them, are at the heart of the whole volume. The section on Christianity starts with Penny Long Marler’s excellent article on religious change in the West. It looks at how changes in demography, the gendered division of labour and family ideals have stayed unexamined in broader religious transformations over the last centuries. According to Marler, «as the family moved from a unit of pro- duction to a unit of consumption, the woman became the primary (re)producer of chil- dren and religious piety in the domestic sphere (…) Care for others and at home and church was the providence of women and self-mastery through work the providence of men» (page 23). In post-industrial times associated with the rise of service economy and the creation of welfare society, women’s paid work became essential for the economy. «Care for others and at home and church increasingly conflicted with work schedules and career demands» (page 23), which has decreased the role of religion in many women’s lives. The article is a fantastic example of scholarship that shows how demographical developments loom in the background of many religious megatrends. Marler also trans- forms Grace Davie’s notion of ‘belonging but not believing’ into ‘belonging but not behaving’ (page 43) to describe the US experience. The following articles on Christianity are Kristin Aune’s piece on single women in the churches, Sonya Sharma’s text on sexu- ality among young Protestant Christians and Marta Trzebiatowska’s analysis of Catholic nuns in contemporary Poland. All of these highlight the changing roles of womanhood and many discuss the decrease of women’s activities in churches and its eventual consequences to religious socialization of the next generation. The section on alternative spiritualities opens with Dick Houtman’s and Stef Aupers’ study of the sacralization of the Self in late modernity. They emphasize the organizational and institutional framework in which alternative spiritualities function, and demand more attention to it, as mainstream research often focuses solely on its fluidity. Síân Reid looks at Paganism, Goddess religion and witchcraft in Canada. She writes that «paganism is not so much about shared belief as it is about shared experience and a shared symbolic uni- verse» (page 131). This is yet another remainder that many existing ideas of the «core essence» of religiosity still too often focus on notions of belief and membership. Gisella Vincett’s analysis of «the Fusers» points out that even in established churches are increasingly people who combine traditional Christian doctrine with new forms of spirituality. In her analysis they inhabit «an unusual space» that «is neither here, nor there. It is a space that holds together difference, and it is the crossing-over point(s) between differences» (page 143). Such positions tend to be lost in studies that focus on communities and organizations as their starting-point. Linda Woodhead’s article ‘Because I’m Worth It’ ends the section on alternative spirituality. The text is a masterpiece discussing the late modern project of the self and late modern femininities. According to Woodhead, main- lines churches aim to maintain masculine domination, while alternative spiritualities offer holistic strategies to provide «essential connection (…) with a web of relationships» (page 156) and independent forms of selfhood.

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Martin Lindhardt: Book reviews

The final four articles focus on Islam. Serana Hussain looks at quantitative studies of Muslim women in Britain and discusses the difficulties of measuring religiousness among Muslims. The institution of the family is still far more important among Muslims (as well as Hindus and Sikhs) and the families are larger than among the population as a whole. In Britain, Muslim women are still more likely to have traditional gender roles. Hussain argues that this might have to do with the relative lack of women in the public sphere, but that is now changing. Hussain suggests that the increase in wearing the hijab among younger Muslims is a sign of change. This might eventually lead to less difference in other areas of life as well, such as more participation in working life. Sarah Bracke studies young Muslim women in the city of Kazan in Tatarstan, Russia, and their discourses about Islam. For the young women, a ‘real’ Islam is something beyond post-Soviet revival of ‘ethnic’ and ‘traditional’ religion. It is rather based an individualized understanding of religion and based on individual decisions. Bracke also discussed the role babushka, the prototypical Russian grand- mother, in this transition period. Rubina Ramji tells about second generation Muslim women in Canada and how they create their religious lives. Ramji notes that the young women use many different sources for religious reflection, the internet, books, audio and video files, etc., and the role of traditional authorities such as imams is rather small among the more involved. Garbi Schmidt’s section focuses on Muslim women’s experiences in the United States. She notes that among the intellectual Muslims contemporary Islam is often described «as the fight between an authentic, knowledge-based and a traditional, non-evaluated form of Islam» (page 215). Women and Religion in the West in an excellent piece of academic work that will serve both as an impetus for further debate as well as a platform for future research. It can be used as an many-sided introduction to the topic in sociology of religion, religious studies and gender studies. The volume brings together up-to-date research and raises significant theoretical issues on religion, gender and secularization. The texts are also surprisingly smooth reading, for which we need to thank the editors. Many of the contributors are also young researchers, of whom we will hear more in the years to come.

Tuomas Martikainen, PhD Department of Comparative Religion, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

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Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 23:2 BOOKS RECEIVED

Brown, Callum G. and Michael Snape 2010. Secularisation in the Christian World. Essays in Honour of Hugh McLeod. Farnham: Ashgate. Cartledge, Mark 2010. Testimony in the Spirit. Rescripting Ordinary Pentecostal The- ology. Farnham: Ashgate. Christoffersen, Lisbeth, Hans Raun Iversen, Hanne Petersen and Margit Warburg (eds.) 2010. Religion in the 21st Century. Challenges and Transformations. Farnham: Ashgate. Christoffersen, Lisbeth, Svend Andersen and Kjell Modéer (eds.) 2010. Law and Reli- gion in the 21st Century - Nordic Perspectives. Copenhagen: DJOF Forlagene. Collins-Mayo, Sylvia and Pink Dandelion 2010. Religion and Youth. Farnham: Ash- gate. Hammer, Olav and Jesper Sørensen 2010. Religion. I psyke og samfund (Religion. In psyche and society). Århus: Univers. Palmer, Susan 2010. The Nuwaubian Nation. Black Spirituality and State Control. Farnham: Ashgate. Percy, Martyn 2010. Shaping the Church. The Promise of Implicit Theology. Farnham: Ashgate. Riis, Ole and Linda Woodhead 2010. A sociology of religious emotion. Oxford: Oxford University Press Rountree, Kathryn 2010. Crafting Contemporary Pagan Identities in a Catholic Soci- ety. Farnham: Ashgate.

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