Church Of Norway Research Articles

Pro-immigration Norwegian Church élite: what explains the pro-immigration attitudes and are alleged welfare challenges acknowledged?

ABSTRACT Unlike political and business élites, few studies address attitudes among members of the church élite. Faced with politicians who refer to Christian heritage and values to justify restriction on immigration, we want to understand the attitudes of church leaders. This article draws on data from the Norwegian Leadership Surveys, conducted in 2000 and 2015, to identify attitudes to immigration and to the Norwegian welfare system among the Norwegian Church élite. The church élite respondents were recruited among bishops, deans, and members of the National Church Council in the Lutheran majority church, the Church of Norway. Finding that a pro-immigration position characterizes the Church élite, we explore how these attitudes can be understood by introducing various variables. As immigration allegedly represents challenges to socio-economic integration and to upholding the welfare state, we investigate whether pro-immigration attitudes correlate with attitudes to promoting integration and upholding the welfare state. We find that pro-immigration attitudes are correlated with concern for those not able to provide for themselves, stronger trust in the State than in markets, and no particular concern for the impact on the welfare state. Opposing a nationalist protection discourse, the church leaders express a humanistic or human-centered protection discourse, which we term ‘human-centered cosmopolitanism’.

Youth Ministry as a Third Ecclesial Logic?

Abstract This article presents the main findings of a three-year-long research project (2020–2023) on post-confirmation leadership training in the Church of Norway. One of the project’s key findings was that the practice of leadership training is characterized by experiences of ambiguity. Interestingly, the interactive and relational learning and development of faith within the practice are both challenged and promoted by these complex traits of ambiguity. For those who participate in leadership training, their faith and relationship with the church seem to be strengthened by the richness of the practice. Drawing on the findings from this research project and engaging other relevant research and theory on youth ministry, the article explores how experiences and patterns of ambiguity may be negotiated in a youth ministry context. With the help of pedagogical and theological theory, it further discusses dilemmas and possibilities pertaining to youth ministry`s situatedness between intentionality and institutionality, suggesting that youth ministry may operate as a sort of strategic, third ecclesial logic.

Collegiality as institutional work: Collegial meeting practices among Norwegian pastors

Abstract Collegiality is considered a hallmark of professionalism and involves specialization, equality, and leadership based on profession. Traditionally, within a profession, collegiality is treated as given and dealt with intra-professionally. This article, in contrast, studies collegiality as institutional work within the organizational context. We analyse how professionals and managers in a highly professionalized and institutionalized organization perform collegiality as institutional work. Interview and observational data shed light on collegiality in the practices of pastors in the Church of Norway. The findings highlight collegiality as a cultural ideal and a process of work beyond a mere governance structure. Collegial meetings constitute structural work that signals the intersection of conceptual work (theology) and operational work (daily challenges), facilitated by relational work. This article shows how collegiality constitutes institutional work that not only maintains the pastor profession as an institution but also gradually adapts it in response to external demands and strengthened management.

Christian values as the common good, not the good of Christianity?

This article seeks to explain the pro-immigrant attitudes among Church of Norway (CoN) leaders. These are shown in two Norwegian Leadership Surveys (NLS) – 2000 and 2015 – to constitute the Norwegian elite group with the most positive attitudes on immigration. Similar tendencies are also found in other studies. As the term used in NLS is «get access» it is not EEA citizens, but rather immigration of asylum seekers that leaders are asked about. The article applies a hegemony-critical theory and four conceptual frameworks, the latter either developed from Christian tradition or from the context of civil society actors. Rather than being concerned about maintaining hegemony or privileges for CoN, the leaders emphasise an inclusive approach, seeking to promote the common good for all living in Norway. This implies no support by CoN leaders to politicians seeking to utilise terms like «Christian values» for defending a restrictive asylum policy and no concern over the presence and growth of other religions in Norway. The article provides new insight of how a dialogical approach to other religions is also reflected in justifications for a inclusive asylum policy, expressed by a church that used to be a part of the state apparatus that promoted homogenity and actively prevented ethnic diversity.

Ecclesial Online Identities during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The majority churches in Europe are paradoxically considered to be both powerful and weak religious institutions. Their complex position in secular society makes it important for them to communicate who they are to the public. The Covid-19 pandemic was a situation in which churches and other religious institutions were ‘forced’ to use digital media as a primary arena of outreach. This article investigates how three Scandinavian majority churches negotiated their ecclesial identities on Facebook during 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The following question is explored: did ‘online’ enactments represent their religious identities and core values in new ways to the public? The data material consists of material from the official Facebook pages of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (the ELCD), the Church of Norway, and the Church of Sweden, as well as interviews with Facebook editors from each church. The study demonstrates how the Church of Norway and the Church of Sweden enact church practices on Facebook, while the ELCD tries not to be too ‘churchy’. Facebook emerges as a hybridized third space where Scandinavian majority churches pursue new logics and forms of meaning making to retain their position in secular societies. Overall, the churches’ online identities on Facebook are not new representations but intensified versions of their distinct offline identities as ‘folk churches’ for the whole population.

The Power of the Periphery: How Norway Became an Environmental Pioneer for the World

The Power of the Periphery: How Norway Became an Environmental Pioneer for the World

Kirkelig demokrati under korona-pandemien

Church democracy during the corona pandemic: A study of elected church leaders' participation in decisions about measures in the Church of Norway The article examines the conditions of democracy in the Church of Norway during the corona pandemic in 2020-2021.The focus is on the decision-making process with the church's own infection control supervisor, especially regarding the participation of elected leaders. The article is based on interviews and surveys among church leaders, as well as selected documents. The material is analyzed from three perspectives, which have also been trends in the church in recent years: democratization, corporatization, and professionalization. The analysis shows that there has been good coordination between employed leaders at all levels in the church, during the pandemic. The collaboration mainly seems to have worked well. Decision-making processes have emphasized consensus. Some of the employees have also been given a clearer role of responsibility. However, democracy has played a withdrawn role during the pandemic, where most decisions are made by employed leaders. Most elected local leaders seem to be satisfied with this withdrawn role. Among regional and central elected leaders, there is a clearer wish that this should have been discussed, and that the elected leader should have had a more prominent role. This delimitation of the scope of democracy can partly be understood in terms of the pandemic's distinctiveness, with the need for quick decisions and action. At the same time, there is reason to believe that this limitation of democracy relates to traditions and understanding of the church's democracy in general. In part, church democracy has been seen as a "meeting democracy", with emphasis on the decision itself, while implementation is left to the employees. At the same time, a lack of time or an institutionalized role of representative has pulled in the same direction. This article contributes to further reflection on the role of democracy in the Church of Norway.

Baptism and Church Growth in the Church of Norway

Baptism and Church Growth in the Church of Norway

Stort ansvar, liten myndighet.: Menighetsrådet som styringsorgan.

The parish council is a statutory governing body in the Church of Norway. Drawing on interviews with parish council leaders, this article explores how parish councils exercise their governance capacity. Findings identify how two factors impact the councils’ governance: First, tensions in their tripartite self-understanding as governing body, relational leaders and operative volunteers. Second, lack of an administrative organization and reduced manoeuvring space due to autonomous professionals, the joint parochial council, and scarce economic resources. In practice, these factors only allow the parish council to exercise a limited and “soft” form of governance, which does not equate the official role of the parish council.

Responding to the sacred

ABSTRACT In this paper, three dilemmas in liturgical gender-inclusive language are discussed: firstly, if there is any need for gender-inclusive language at all among Christian people; secondly, to what extent gender-inclusive language confirms or challenges binary gender categories; and, thirdly, how queer theory could be a useful tool to develop a non-binary theological language whilst also recognising the risks this might pose to making women invisible. The dilemmas are illuminated by examples from the discussion of gender-inclusive language in the (Lutheran) Church of Norway over a period of twenty years from a liturgy made for 8th March in 1993 to a comprehensive liturgical reform of the principal Sunday service in 2011. This led to a very moderate use of gendered metaphors, either male or female, in the liturgy. In the Church of Norway, it seems that inclusive language’s most important contribution to theological speech lies in the insights of metaphorical theology. God is neither a man, nor is She a woman, and the theological speech demands a broad variety in metaphors used for God.

Hans Nielsen Hauge og mystikken: – ut fra hans autobiografiske tekster

Hans Nielsen Hauge’s view of Christendom was shaped by the state Pietism of the Danish-Norwegian church. As in all Pietism, however, a mystical foundation can also be detected in Hauge’s thought. This was explicitly expressed in his autobiographical texts, which was not unusual in his days. As a mystic he did not consider himself bound by the restrictions imposed by ecclesiastical law on the layman’s sermon (The Conventicle Act). But Hauge and his adherents remained loyal to the state church, and Haugeanism became a Pietistic awakening and pietist movement within the Church of Norway. Their mysticism was ecclesiasticalized, and in this manner the movement came to shape church and cultural life in Norway.

Eskatologien i Landstads salmer

In a Christian burial, the pastor reads from Scripture about the Resurrection. After the burial, Christians often say: “Now he / she has reached the heavenly glory.” Is that a contradiction? In 2020, we celebrated one of the most significant hymn books in The Church of Norway, published in 1870. The editor, Magnus Brostrup Landstad, wrote many of the hymns himself. This article is a study of the eschatology in these hymns, with an emphasis on how Landstad combined the two motives.

Church, migration and populism in Norway: four discursive strategies

ABSTRACT When migration is high on the political agenda, religious communities are challenged in terms of their identity, formation and public witness. In this article I draw on official documents and public statements from the Church of Norway as well as examples of preaching practices in the context of increased numbers of refugees and asylum seekers and populist/far-right politics. The aim is to discuss the implicit and explicit ecclesiological and political positioning of the church in its various responses. I identify four discursive strategies: Political participation, Religious identification, Biblical witness and Self-critical assessment.

Growth in a context of decline

Churches all over Europe are experiencing decline within a larger context of religious decline. One under-researched field concerns the consequences this decline has at a local organizational level. This article examines congregations experiencing growth in attendance at their regular Sunday worship services, and asks: What has caused growth in attendance among these congregations? What are the consequences of the attendance growth according to parish leadership, staff, committed volunteers and regular churchgoers? The empirical material for the study is interview and observation material from four congregations in the Church of Norway. These congregations have witnessed an increase in attendance of between 15.5% and 31.6% the last five years (2013–2017) compared to the previous five years (2008–2012). The ecclesial ideal in the Church of Norway, as in other national majority churches, has been to balance between “the core congregation” and “the folk church”. However, the Nordic pattern of “belonging without believing” or “believing in belonging” is not as strong as it used to be, and this has made “vicarious religion” more contested within congregations. A more polarized neither-nor understanding of the Sunday service can explain why the studied congregations have been able to grow within a context of decline.

Religious Parental Transmission and the Importance of Authenticity

Abstract During the last decades, European historic churches have experienced a decline in the number of baptisms. This paper maps, describes, and analyses existing relevant empirical research from the Norwegian context by focusing on the social-economic transformation of the society and how it has impacted upon the parents’ generation and the transmission of Christian tradition. The paper examines empirical studies of parents who are themselves baptized in the Church of Norway but have opted out of infant baptism for their child. The paper argues that this practice refers jointly to consumption and the subjectivation of worldviews. The parents’ narratives give the child a strong voice. They emphasize the child’s authenticity and the child’s right to make his/her own decisions. Embedded in consumption norms, the parents relate to a plural market of religious and secular alternatives where the child is viewed as a future actor for positive encounters and critical views.

Ildsjeler og ildsteder: En etnografisk studie av ledelsesdynamikker i vitale ungdomsarbeid i Den norske kirke

No particular vocation is formally assigned to running local youth ministry in the Church of Norway. Despite the fact that no one has to do youth ministry, many local youth ministries in the Church of Norway are thriving. This article draws on fieldwork, data and analysis of a three ­year long research project (2016­2019) which sought to describe and understand how various patterns of dynamics in leadership emerge in vital youth ministries. In the data we singled out four independent – yet intertwined – dynamic patterns of leadership: a culture of enthusiasts, a practice of welcome, a hierarchy of development and responsibility, and finally an understanding of theology as approximate. These patterns create an interplay between the centripetal dynamics of an attracting place (No.: «ildsteder» / Eng.: «fire places») and centrifugal dynamics of change and moving on (No.: «ildsjeler» / Eng.: «fire starters»).

Norwegian Christian Leaders: The Term ‘Christian Values’ is Divisive and Useless

Church leaders and politicians in several countries make frequent references to Christian values as part of a rhetoric of dividing between wanted and unwanted view and practices. Hence, even more than a source for division between adherents of different faiths, religion divides adherents of the same faith when identifying the core of religion. The article presents findings from a survey and focus group interviews with five groups of Norwegian Christian leaders: church leaders, bishops and deans from the Church of Norway, as well as leaders in mission organization and diaconal foundations. The informants are generally very hospitable towards immigrants, not particularly skeptical of Islam, and highly skeptical of politicians applying the term ‘Christian values’ for protectionist purposes. While distancing themselves from the term ‘Christian values’, informants have a clear understanding of what these values encompass. These attitudes mirror the major attitudes among the so-called church-going Norwegians in the Pew report, “Being Christian in Western Europe”, having higher appreciation of both Islam and immigration than the other groups of informants. The article proceeds by explaining and contextualizing, including how the churches have promoted conviviality in diverse societies and whether the leaders are willing to act when Christianity is applied to legitimize nativism.

Renegotiating Relations, Structuring Justice: Institutional Reconciliation with the Saami in the 1990–2020 Reconciliation Processes of the Church of Sweden and the Church of Norway

Social reconciliation has received much attention in Christian churches since the late 1980s. Both the Church of Sweden and the Church of Norway initiated reconciliation processes with the Saami (also “Sami” or “Sámi”), the indigenous people of Northern Europe, at the beginning of the 1990s. As former state churches, they bear the colonial burden of having converted the Saami to Lutheranism. To make amends for their excesses in the missionary field, both Scandinavian churches have aimed at structural changes to include Saaminess in their church identities. In this article, I examine how the Church of Sweden and the Church of Norway understand reconciliation in relation to the Saami in their own church documents using conceptual analysis. I argue that the Church of Sweden treats reconciliation primarily as a secular concept without binding it to the doctrine of reconciliation, making the Church’s agenda theologically weak, whereas the Church of Norway utilizes Christian resources in its comprehensive approach to reconciliation with the Saami. This article shows both the challenges and contributions of the Church of Sweden and the Church of Norway to the hotly debated discussions on truth and reconciliation in the Nordic Saami context.

From Environmental Activism to Environmental Education A historical overview, evaluations and a suggestion for a path forward for the religious institutions as partners for a global green shift

In this article, the author shows how all the major world religions have engaged in climate and environmental activism by developing theology and practical projects for more than fifty years. Using metadata from the European Social Survey, he shows that members of all religious traditions in Europe have become increasingly positive to the environment and nature. Especially noticeable is the increased engagement of Protestant Christians. Tomren uses a case study from the Lutheran Church in Norway to show how religious actors have a great influence on their own members. Against this background, the author argues that religious institutions should see themselves as actors and arenas for environmental education and seek knowledge and partnership in professional networks working with Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE).

Does managers' motivation matter? Exploring the associations between motivation, transformational leadership, and innovation in a religious organization

AbstractReligious organizations are social systems operating in a complex and changing environment. By looking to an authority beyond themselves, religious organizations have comparatively little control over defining their own goals. In this juggling between sticking to the ultimate goal of an organization and adapting to complex changing environments, that is, in the juggling between tradition and renewal, transformational leadership seems to play an important role in religious organizations. The extensive body of literature on transformational leadership has focused more on the outcomes of transformational leadership than on its antecedents. We extend the existing literature by linking managers' motivation to their transformational leadership behaviors in a religious organization. More specifically, we examined the associations of intrinsic and prosocial motivation with transformational leadership, and we investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and innovation among 252 managers in the largest nonprofit organization in Norway, the Church of Norway. Analyses in structural equation modeling revealed a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and transformational leadership, whereas the relationship between prosocial motivation and transformational leadership was not significant. Transformational leadership was positively associated with innovation. Based on the results of the study, we discuss practical implications regarding how to support intrinsic motivation, transformational leadership, and innovation in religious organizations.