Abstract
The article analyses the treatment of religion and nonreligion in two current permanent exhibitions at the Estonian National Museum in the light of a Estonian national narrative which is critical of religion/Christianity. National narratives are concurrently a process and an outcome and therefore it is important to study how that narrative changes over time, as it reflects changes in society. The article also studies how culture and religion are represented in the aforementioned exhibitions and how they support the recently emerging phenomenon of separating religion from culture.
Highlights
The article analyses the treatment of religion and nonreligion in two current permanent exhibitions at the Estonian National Museum in the light of a Estonian national narrative which is critical of religion/Christianity
The institution was housed in a former Lutheran church and a large part of the exhibition dated from the early 1980s
This scene is a vivid illustration of how situational religion can be: what in one context might be interpreted as religious may not seem like that as the context changes. Why is this scene relevant in an essay devoted to discussing religion and nonreligion at the Estonian National Museum? According to indicators of organized religion, Estonia is known as one of the most secularized countries in Europe [Pickel – Pollack – Müller 2012], this often having been seen as an outcome of the Soviets’ war on religion
Summary
In order to understand the entanglements described above, a brief overview of Estonian history and national narrative is in order before moving to the Estonian National Museum’s exhibitions. One of the most important figures here was Garlieb Merkel, who placed a mark on Estonian history by the Northern Crusades in the thirteenth century, when Estonia was conquered under the banner of Christianization, presenting the time before as the “golden age” when Estonians lived in harmony with their surroundings, and the time after as corrupt These ideas were seized on enthusiastically and the nascent Estonian intelligentsia took over the nation-building project in the middle of the nineteenth century [Laar 2005] and began to create their own narrative. In Estonia, the history of nationalism and anticlericalism goes back 150 years, yet it took the form of “atheist Estonian” only in the early twentieth century [Remmel – Friedenthal 2019] During this time, the overwhelming majority of Lutheran clergy were Baltic Germans who did not understand Estonians’ national aspirations. The results showed that Estonia had the lowest percentage in Europe of those who believed in a personal God (16%), and the study covered only Europe, the trope started spreading: Estonians were popularly called “the world’s most atheist people” and this was once more regarded as a component of national identity [Remmel 2013]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
