Ingvill Thorson Plesner 2006: Skal vi skilles? veier videre for stat og kirke Oslo: Forlaget Press. 136 pages.

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1 BOOK REVIEWS Lars Ahlin Pilgrim, turist eller flyktning? En studie av individuell religiös rörlighet i senmoderniteten. (Pilgrim, tourist or refugee? A study of individual religious change in late modernity.) Stockholm: Symposion. 288 pages. The title of the book refers to three ways of being religious in late modern society. The first two terms are borrowed from Zygmunt Bauman. Pilgrims are those who are on the way to something, the religious seekers. Tourists are the religious shoppers who put together elements from different traditions and make something new out of them. Refugees are those who seek religion to escape from the harsh realities of life. The book sets out to fulfil several tasks. First, it gives a detailed presentation of the contemporary religious field based on data from a Swedish survey with more than 1000 respondents from 20 to 54 years of age. On the basis of this material Ahlin analyses the change from traditional to non-traditional religiosity. Secondly, the book aims to explain why people are attracted to these new forms of religion. Several theoretical contributors are presented and examined before Ahlin draws his own conclusions. The book summarises what Lars Ahlin has been working on over the last couple of years. It draws heavily on his doctoral thesis from 2001, entitled New age konsumtionsvara eller värden att kämpa för? (New Age a consumer good or values worth fighting for? Lunds Universitet, Teologiska institutionen). However, with its eleven chapters, this book has much a wider ambition. Logically, not formally, it is organised into two parts. The first deals with concepts and perspectives that are commonly used in the sociology of religion, e.g. the socialisation perspective and the focus on belief systems. In the second chapter Ahlin presents data indicating how Swedes categorise themselves when it comes to religion. The fact that people who call themselves «religious» are religious in a more protestant-pietistic way than people who call themselves «Christians» is old news. This is underlined by the reference to the doctoral thesis by Per Salomonsen from In Chapter five, «A new perspective», Ahlin states that the formerly discussed perspectives have little to offer when the objects of study are new and alternative forms of religiosity. Bearing this in mind, the lengthy discussion on the concept «conversion» at the beginning of the book seems a little out of place. The author concludes by saying that the term is no longer very useful as an analytic tool. The outline of the book may have something to do with the fact that it is part of an interdisciplinary research project entitled «Religious conversion individuals, communities, and society». 129

2 Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 19:1 In my view the most interesting part of the book is the section explicitly dealing with the new forms of religion. Ahlin offers a radical interpretation of what is often called the New Age or New Age religion. He operates with two categories of non-traditional religion, labelled «folk religion» and «the new individualism». Ahlin offers a new interpretation of such phenomena as astrology, fortune-tellers, spiritism and so on. Ahlin shows that what is often called New Age beliefs in many respects resembles the old folk beliefs that were rather common in the rural parts of Scandinavia some decades ago. The similarity between traditional folk or folklore beliefs and New Age ideas has been suggested by others but has not been as clearly integrated into a theoretical framework as in Ahlin's book. According to Ahlin, this part of the alternative religious trend has a clear class dimension and is tied to what Mary Douglas calls the culture of powerlessness. This interpretation of New Age ideas has the potential to radically change the way scholars approach this type of religiosity and its social consequences. Both theoretically and empirically there are good reasons to distinguish between two types of New Age. In my opinion the second dimension that Ahlin calls «the new individualism» is more problematic than the first. This has to do with the use of labels and the operationalisation strategy. Ahlin does not make a clear distinction between individualism and a form of (New Age) religion (p. 89). This is highly problematic, both empirically and theoretically. In this part of the book Ahlin draws on Paul Heelas. In his book The New Age Movement, from 1996, Paul Heelas discusses New Age and individualism in a way that makes it unclear whether or not there is any difference between the two phenomena. However, in later publications Heelas has developed a new view on this, and in his works after 2000 it is clear that he has more or less stopped using the New Age concept and instead introduced the term «spirituality of life». In The Spiritual Revolution (2005), co-written with Linda Woodhead, the authors refer to individualism (or «the subjective turn») as the main factor explaining the rise of the new form of spirituality. The book Pilgrim, turist eller flyktning? is a controversial but valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion on a possible change from traditional religion to new forms of New Age spirituality. The author's arguments are thought provoking and some of his conclusions are highly debatable. The book would have gained by following fewer tracks and focusing more on the main theme. For those who manage to keep many things going at the same time, the book indeed has something to offer, both in terms of interesting empirical analyses and a new interpretation of what is going on in the field of alternative religion and world views. 130 Pål Ketil Botvar, Researcher at KIFO Centre for Church Research Oslo, Norway Ingvill Thorson Plesner 2006: Skal vi skilles? veier videre for stat og kirke Oslo: Forlaget Press. 136 pages. «Will we divorce?» In the autumn of 2006, there was still no definitive answer to the question Ingvill Thorson Plesner (ITP) raises about the future of the state church in

3 Jan Ove Ulstein: Book review Norway. Her book is highly informative regarding how Norwegian politicians and church leaders have (or not have) positioned themselves in discussions and investigations about the future relations between the Norwegian Church and the state. As an introduction, ITP informs the reader about historical and juridical preconditions as well as actual occurrences that have given rise to the politicisation of a question that has traditionally been answered by the notion that the unanimity of the status quo should be more or less preserved. Four possible outcomes of the process under way are examined, and in the discussion of those alternatives, two different but at least partly related questions are the focus: Do they imply complete freedom of religion? And are they consistent with the principle that the Norwegian society should be founded on a basis of common of values? It is impossible for a reader who followed the divorce process between the Church of Sweden and the state not to make some comparisons between the courses of events in the two neighbour countries after observing how it ended in what was termed «changed relations» at the shift of the millennium. There are a lot of parallels: The processes have been greatly drawn out, and the changes of opinion in some of the political parties have sustained this process. The original opinions within both churches have been solidly hesitant, but gradually they developed into acceptance, while at the same time, the main alternatives under discussion have become less provocative. Comparative studies concerning how acceptable consensuses are reached or not reached which is still possible in Norway will be an interesting task for social scientists interested in religion. However, there are not only parallels between the development in Norway and in Sweden. During the lengthy discussion and investigation phase in Sweden, practical and economic matters were often the focus. Such matters do not seem to have been of the same importance in the Norwegian discussion. Unlike those directly involved, ITP forgoes mentioning the possible problems of the country s prevalent number of small parishes. Perhaps this is because of her background as a student of human rights. Instead, she concentrates on principal questions such as the freedom of religion for different religious or ideological minorities and the possibility to maintain a common basis of values within the Norwegian society. The active role in the discussion taken by the Human-Ethical Society constitutes an important difference between Norway and the other Nordic countries (Iceland and Sweden) where the traditional state/folkchurches have found or accepted new organisational forms for their relation to the state. At least partly, ITP presents new perspectives on the question concerning church/ state relations when compared to those that have often dominated the many public investigations on the matter. Her descriptions and analyses should be of interest not only in Norway, but also in other societies with a remaining cohabitation between the state and a dominating church regardless of how the formal relation is arranged. 131

4 Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 19:1 Göran Gustafsson Professor emeritus in sociology of religion, Ph.D. and Th.D. Centre for Theology and Religious Studies Lund University, Sweden Morten Thomsen Højsgaard and Hans Raun Iversen (eds.) Gudstro i Danmark. Frederiksberg: Anis. 311 pages. Gudstro i Danmark [Faith in God in Denmark] is a collection of essays on contemporary religious life in Denmark. The book is one of many publications from a large project at Copenhagen University, «Religion in the 21 st century». For reasons of space, I choose to comment only upon some of the contributions. The book begins with a couple of studies mainly presenting a compilation of existing quantitative data. Then, several qualitative descriptions of religious faith in the Danish public space follow as well as some studies of specific religious agents in Denmark. The editors chapters at the beginning and the end summarise some main themes and give new information and material for reflection as well. The book includes two media analyses. Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, Norwegian historian of religion, looks at a regular column in the Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet. Every Saturday an interview ends with the question: «If Heaven existed, what would you want God to say when you arrived?» The analysis of 256 (!) interviews gives Gilhus a good opportunity to present accurate comments on Norwegian celebrities religious presentation of themselves, and interesting reflections on religion in the public space. The article is also entertainingly written (a virtue too rare in the realm of religious studies). Nevertheless, from a somewhat pedantic point of view one may wonder why this study from Norway is included in a book on Danish religion almost 200 years after Norway s independence from Denmark. I think that the other article on media, on medialization of religious conceptions, is the best and most thought-provoking article in the book. This may be related to the fact that I am no expert in this field, but in that case the author, Stig Hjarvard, must have succeeded in communicating his ideas to me. Hjarvard analyses the increasing tendency to produce programmes in a competitive television market about what was in earlier times called «superstition». He claims that popular programmes using wellestablished genres (quiz, reality show, documentary and so on) probably contribute to an upgrading of «banal religion», which formerly had a poor reputation in the public space. One possible objection is that in order to say anything about the consequences of such programmes for people s religiosity, empirical studies are needed. Yet, as far as I can see, Hjarvard does not stretch his conclusions further than his material allows, and in a few pages, he manages to present interesting links between media theory, theory from the sociology of religion, and a limited empirical material. 132

5 Jan Ove Ulstein: Book review Parts of the book could have gained from further discussions between the contributors before the book was published. Now the text suffers from the usual fate of anthologies: There are many interesting suggestions, but as a whole, the book becomes fragmented, and it is to a large extent left to the reader to reflect upon the internal relations between the chapters. For instance, I would have liked to read a discussion between media researcher Stig Hjarvard and psychologist of religion Peter La Cour. Based on comparative quantitative data La Cour presents some rather pessimistic conclusions about the Danes ability to master difficult situations. According to La Cour, the increasingly impersonal conception of God in the Danish population makes it hard to achieve a stable and comforting relation to God. La Cour asks whether the Danish people have a positive freedom to find their own path, or whether they rather run the risk of becoming lonely and without the ability to care for others. Without being quite categorical, he leans towards the second alternative. Durkheim s concerns about social integration lurk in the background. The article is interesting, but maybe too strong conclusions are drawn on the basis of a quite limited number of variables in some surveys. Peter Lüchau has compiled several surveys on faith in God in the Danish population. He goes back all the way to 1945, although the material before 1970 is very sparse indeed. His main conclusion, having reviewed these surveys, is that a thesis about an even and smooth process of secularization in Denmark after World War II cannot be confirmed. Faith in God and related questions show a downward trend, but this decrease took place before 1970, and it is not very large. However, there have been changes in the conception of God, in a more impersonal direction. In a brief theoretical discussion Lüchau states that individualization rather than secularization characterizes the religious development in Denmark in recent decades. One could have wanted a more precise discussion of the many-sided concept of individualization, but the article is very useful as a summary of surveys over a large period of time. The book would have gained from connecting to more current discussions and research in international sociology of religion, and from using more comparative perspectives. For instance, Morten Warmind presents some, admittedly, in themselves interesting empirical findings about atheists in Denmark. For a Norwegian like myself, it is very striking that atheism is so poorly organized in Denmark compared to Norway, where The Norwegian Humanist Association has members. One wonders about this difference between two countries, similar in so many ways. But such wondering, so fruitful for formulating research questions, is stimulated only when comparative perspectives are present. Another example: the tendency among young Danish Muslims (according to the article by Safet Bektovic and Martin Thostrup) to «westernize» Islam, to distinguish between religion and culture, and to use their interpretation of their religion to criticize «cultural traditions» among fellow Muslims, should be seen as a European (or Western, or urban) phenomenon rather than being treated as something distinctively Danish. Margit Warburg actually does connect to an international discussion in a meaningful way. She writes about civil religion in Denmark, and she disagrees with those sociologists of religions stating that this kind of nationally integrating religion is chan- 133

6 Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 19:1 nelled exclusively through the national majority churches in the Nordic countries. One of her examples of civil religion outside the church is the Queen s New Year s Speech («God save Denmark»), others are a number of national and historical songs invoking God and often sung outside the church, at local festivals and so on. In addition, let me briefly mention chapters on conceptions of God in Danish school education (Irene Larsen and Peter Green Sørensen), among vicars (Cecilie Rubow), in new psalms (Peter Balslev-Clausen) and in groups committed to new, alternative spirituality (Olav Hammer). The editors contributions present some additional typologies of conceptions of God in Denmark. Parts of this material are also presented in Hans Raun Iversen s article on religion in Denmark in Nordic Journal Journal of Religion and Society 2/ Raun Iversen distinguishes between seven forms of religion in what he calls the Danish park of religion: Implicit and banal religion, folk religion, new religions and spirituality, church Christianity, culture Christianity, civil religion and Islam. He then tries to show that each of these forms of religion has a distinct basic structure regarding God, moral behaviour and the destiny of man. The typology is «good to think with», but like all such attempts is it vulnerable to accusations of being to schematic and too static. The editors also try to find one brief way of characterising the religion of the Danes faith in God. They call it belief in God conditionally. People in Denmark accept a tradition including faith in God, but with some reservations, in recent years with a revision in an individualizing direction, and with a religious commitment on a very modest level. As the editors suggest near the end of the book, this is not the ultimate, authoritative book on religion in contemporary Denmark. Nevertheless, it presents a few useful summaries of quantitative surveys as well as some heuristic concepts and suggestions that may inspire empirical research in the years to come. It has with some reservations become a good book. Pål Repstad. Professor. Faculty of Humanities. Agder University College, Norway Books received Mortensen Viggo (ed.) Religion & Society. Crossdisciplinary European Perspectives. Højbjerg: Forlaget Univers. Natvig, Richard and Siv Ellen Kraft (eds.) Metode i religionsvitenskap. Oslo: Pax Forlag. McLeod, Hugh, Risto Saarinen and Aila Lauha North European Churches: From the Cold War to Globalization, Finland: Church Research Institute Publication 56. Otterbeck, Jonas and Pieter Bevelander Islamofobi en studie av begreppet, ungdomars attityder och unga muslimers utsatthet. Stockholm: Forum för levande historia. Østergaard, Kate Danske Verdensreligioner. Islam. København: Gyldendal. 134