Nordic Europe

• Main Author: Furseth, Inger
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2021
• Subjects: Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198834267.013.39; https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/55124412/book_37088_section_323197184.ag.pdf

Abstract This chapter examines religious change in the five Nordic countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. Immigration came later to these countries than in many other parts of Europe, but it has transformed Sweden, Norway, and Denmark into relatively diverse societies; Finland and Iceland remain more homogeneous. In spite of these differences, the religious outlook is changing right across the Nordic countries with a decline in membership in the majority churches, falling indices of religious belief and practice in most of them, growing numbers of people who place themselves outside the faith communities, and multiplying forms of spirituality that lie beyond religious institutions altogether. The chapter addresses the implications that these changes have for religion and state relations, and the role of religion in politics, the media, and civil society.