Secularization Revisited - Teaching of Religion and the State of Denmark: 1721-2006

207 Pages·2016·4.703 MB·English

by  Niels Reeh (auth.)

Boundaries of Religious Freedom:
Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies 5
Niels Reeh
Secularization
Revisited - Teaching
of Religion and the
State of Denmark
1721-2006
Boundaries of Religious Freedom:
Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies
Volume 5
Series Editors
Lori G. Beaman , University of Ottawa , ON, Canada
Anna Halafoff , Deakin University , Vic, Australia
Lene Kühle , Aarhus Universitet , Denmark
Processes of globalization have resulted in increasingly culturally and religiously
diverse societies. In addition, religion is occupying a more prominent place in the
public sphere at the turn of the 21st Century, despite predictions of religious decline.
The rise in religious diversity, and in the salience of religious identity, is posing both
challenges and opportunities pertaining to issues of governance. Indeed, a series of
tensions have arisen between state and religious actors regarding a variety of matters
including burial rites, religious education and gender equality. Many of these
debates have focused on the need for, and limits of, religious freedom especially in
situations where certain religious practices risk impinging upon the freedom of
others. Moreover, different responses to religious pluralism are often informed by
the relationship between religion and state in each society. Due to the changing
nature of societies, most have needed to defi ne, or redefi ne, the boundaries of
religious freedom refl ected in laws, policies and the design and use of public spaces.
These boundaries, however, continue to be contested, debated and reviewed, at
local, national and global levels of governance.
A ll books published in this Series have been fully peer-reviewed before fi nal
acceptance.
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/11839
Niels Reeh
Secularization Revisited –
Teaching of Religion and
the State of Denmark
1721–2006
Niels Reeh
Department of History
University of Southern Denmark
Odense , Denmark
ISSN 2214-5281 ISSN 2214-529X (electronic)
Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies
ISBN 978-3-319-39606-4 ISBN 978-3-319-39608-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-39608-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947714
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
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does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
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Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 The State, External Relations and Internal Organization . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Disclaimers and Remarks on the Limitations
of the Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Part I Theory
2 The Blind Spots of the Dominant Secularization Theories . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1 From S ecularizatio to Secularization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2 Comte’s Framing of Sociology and Break
with the Natural Law Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Consequences of Emile Durkheim’s Foundation
of the Discipline of Sociology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4 The German Approach to Sociology and Talcott Parson’s
Transformation of Max Weber’s Sociology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.5 Consequences of the Concept of Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.6 The Implicit Notion of Religion in the Concept
of Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.7 On the Absence of War in Sociology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.8 Blind Spots of Classic Secularization Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 A New Theoretical Approach to Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2 Towards a New Theory of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3 Preliminary Remarks to a Relational Notion of Religion . . . . . . . 35
3.4 Norbert Elias’ ‘Survival Unit’ and ‘the Extended
“I-and-We” Consciousness’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.5 Towards a Sociology of the Social ‘We’
as a Relational Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
v
vi Contents
3.6 On the Relations Between Religions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.7 Mimicking, Imitation, and Copying in Social Life:
A Modifi cation of the Confl ict Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.8 On the Historical Development of the Split
Between the Survival Unit and Religious Entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.9 The Field of the Religious Survival Units as a Point
of Departure in Defi ning Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.10 Counter-Religions in the Present Field of Religions . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.11 Myth and Ritual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.12 A Short Note on the Distinction Between Religion
and Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.13 Three Kinds of Survival Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.14 The Call of the State: Civil Religion or Nationalism
as the ‘Religion’ of the Danish Survival Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.15 Contested Myths and Life Histories
of the US and Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.16 The Myth and Life History of the Danish Church
in Its Liturgical Year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.17 On the State, Group, and Individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.18 Concluding Theoretical Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4 Further Implications of the Relational Approach
to the Study of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.1 Historical Differentiation of Religious
and Sovereign Survival Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.2 Miracles as a Discursive Weapon in the Religious Struggle . . . . . 69
4.3 State Agency Elsewhere Than Denmark:
The Glorious Revolution in England and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Part II The Danish Road through Modernity – Transformations
of the Sacred Canopy in Danish Schools from 1721–2006
5 Despotic Absolutism: 1721–1784 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.1 The Teaching and Politics of Religion
from 1721 to 1784 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.2 State Mythology—A Christian State
Under a Christian King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3 Historical Background—The Wars Against
Sweden 1657–1660 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.4 The Absolutist State After 1660 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.5 The Military and Compulsory Schooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.6 The Re-Established Country Militia of 1701 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.7 The Establishment of the Equestrian Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Contents vii
5.8 Education, State, and Individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.9 The Law of Adscription of 1733 and What Followed . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.10 The 1736 Statute Regarding Confi rmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.11 The Use of Religion Under Early Absolutism in Denmark . . . . . . 92
5.12 Arguments Concerning the Law of 1739 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.13 The School Law of 1739 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.14 Instructions for the Schoolmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.15 The School Law of 1740 and the Retreat of the State . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.16 The Sacred Canopy Under Despotic
Absolutism, 1721–1784 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6 Enlightened Absolutism: 1784 to 1849 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.1 Towards the Elementary School Reforms
of 1806 and 1814 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.2 The Military and Economic Situation
of the Danish Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.3 Peasantry and Power Relations Within the Danish State . . . . . . . . 101
6.4 The Small and the Great Land Commissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.5 The Great Agrarian Reforms and the School
Reforms of 1814 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.6 The School Act of 1814 – Education, the State,
and the Individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.7 School Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.8 The Curriculum and the Supervisory System
of the Law of 1814 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.9 The Schoolmaster – Betwixt and Between . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.10 The Sacred Canopy Under Enlightened Absolutism,
1784 to 1814 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7 Constitutional Monarchy: 1849–1901 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.1 Towards 1849 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.2 A New State-Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.3 Schooling and the Act Concerning Marriage 1851 . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.4 The Organization of the Church and Education
Departments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.5 The Act Concerning Local Administration of 1855 . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7.6 The Free Schools Act (F riskoler ) of May 2, 1855 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7.7 An Overview of the Period from 1849 to 1864 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.8 From 1864 to 1901 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
7.9 The Circular of H.V. Sthyr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.10 Transformation of the Sacred Canopy Under
Constitutional Monarchy, 1849–1901 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
viii Contents
8 Parliamentary Democracy: 1901–1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.1 The Push for Democratization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.2 Society as Defence of the State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
8.3 The Act of 1904 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
8.4 The Battle Over Christianity in Schools in 1930s . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
8.5 The Act of 1933 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
8.6 The Positions of the Four Political Parties in 1933 . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
8.7 Important Aspects of the Act of 1933 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.8 Denmark for the People—The Turnaround
of the Social Democrats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.9 The Act of 1937 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
8.10 World War II—An Exception? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8.11 The Sacred Canopy Under Parliamentary Democracy
and the Nazi Occupation, 1901–1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
9 The Welfare State: 1945 to 1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
9.1 Beneath the ‘Nuclear Umbrella’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
9.2 The Act of 1949 and the Positions in the Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
9.3 The Blue Consideration 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
9.4 Towards the Schools Act of 1975 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
9.5 The Debate on Political Indoctrination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
9.6 The Act of 1975 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.7 The Right of Exemption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.8 Intellectual Liberty as Ideological Defence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.9 The External Environment from 1975
to the End of the Cold War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
9.10 The Internal Situation from 1975 to the End
of the Cold War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
9.11 Globalisation and Guidelines for the Teaching
of Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
9.11.1 The Sacred Canopy Under the Welfare State,
1945 to 1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
10 The Public Management State: 1989 to 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
10.1 The External Situation of Denmark in 1989 Until 2001 . . . . . . . . 157
10.2 Legislation Pertaining to the Teaching of Christianity
from 1993 Until 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
10.3 On the Importance of Culture (Including Christianity)
in a Shrinking World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
10.4 The New Public Management State, the War on Terror,
and the Cartoon Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10.4.1 Externally: Towards September 11, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10.4.2 Internally: Towards the So-Called Change
of Systems in 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Contents ix
10.4.3 The Governments of Anders Fogh Rasmussen . . . . . . . . 167
10.4.4 Common Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
10.4.5 The Teaching of Christianity According
to Common Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
10.4.6 Farewell to the Welfare State? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
10.4.7 The Cartoon Crisis, the Teaching of Democracy,
and Leviathan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
10.5 The Sacred Canopy Under the Public Management State,
1989 to 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
11 Overview of the State Religious Politics in the Danish
Elementary Schools from 1721 to 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
11.1 Conclusion to the Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Part III Conclusion
12 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201