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Abstract
Genemuider bovenstem is a particular style of psalm singing, originating from the town of Genemuiden in the Netherlands, in which a higher voice is added to the Genevan melody of the psalms. It has roots in liturgical contexts, and has been designated as Intangible Cultural Heritage. This article discusses the construction of singing communities in Genemuider bovenstem psalm singing as performed both in the Sunday worship practices of strictly Reformed church communities, and in collective regional singing events on weekdays that receive financial and practical support from the Dutch government. We present the results of empirical research in Genemuiden, demonstrating the existence of a mutually reinforcing overlap between church communities and the publics who attend psalm-singing events. Our work serves to further nuance extant theories that suggest that the eventization and heritagization of religious practices lead to a diminution in the status of church communities and of their control and ownership over their practices.
Abstract
This article assesses the role of children in perpetuating the chain of memory of the faiths in Europe. Drawing on indepth interviews with parents/guardians and fifty-two children on the religious socialization of Roman Catholic, Muslim, and non-religious children in Malta, it argues that Roman Catholic children are now the bearers of “vicarious religion” of communities that have become “unchurched,” while Muslim children steady the “precarious” memory of Islam in Europe. The article explores how children propel adults’ religious practices, keeping parents and grandparents connected to the faiths, churches, and mosques. Given the moral panic regarding voluntary childlessness as a threat to the perpetuation of the faiths, the vital role children play in the chain of religious memory is acknowledged.
Abstract
Between 2002 and 2016, church attendance and self-attributed religiosity declines linearly, if all countries included in the European Social Survey are taken together. This analysis differentiates within Europe between two ideological and three denominational divides. Two questions are examined. First, is secularization pervasive across these groups? Second, how pervasive does secularization remain as a macro-level trend, when cohort membership and other individual-level qualities are controlled for? We find that the trend in secularization is well-explained by cohort succession in Western as well as in Catholic and Protestant countries. In Eastern Orthodox countries, however, an increase in religiosity is observed, which cannot be explained by individual-level properties. We speculate that it is triggered by a coalition of national churches and political elites.
Abstract
This article compares youth religiosity in each Catholic European country (CEC) in two perspectives: with the rest of the population (35+) and among youth over time. Based on EVS (European Values Study) and ISSP (International Social Survey Programme), data comparisons are also made between CEC s, as well as between and within European regions. Three dimensions of religiosity are examined: community, belief, and practice. Results confirm that in general youth religiosity is lower than among the older age group and decreases over time with some exceptions. Results also confirm the theories of cohort replacement and of multiple secularizations.
Abstract
The analysis dedicated to the history of Transylvanian Jews follows their communities’ evolution in a regional context, from the perspective of integration projects, through the policy of tolerance and civil equality recognition, to see whether the tendencies characteristic of Central Europe, and especially Hungary, were relevant for them. The investigation refers to the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, defined by significant evolutions of demographics and legal status of the Jews. The research conclusions underline the integration of Transylvanian Jews in the Central European cultural area, with differences between the communities determined by their religious orientation.
Abstract
In this article, I explore how Islam is configured in two creative universes that have recently affected the cultural and political scene in Norway. I compare the enactment in Oslo (2019) of Disgraced by the American playwright Ayad Akhtar to parts of the artistic project Heisann Montebello (2015–2017) by the Norwegian rap duo Karpe. In both fictional universes, references to Islam, Muslims, xenophobia, racism, terror, and politics of integration are paramount. It is therefore significant that major cultural institutions in Norway such as The National Theater, the music hall Oslo Spektrum, the National Library, and the Norwegian Broadcasting Network (NRK) stage these works. Overall, my main argument is that both productions speak to wider audiences in a multireligious and multiethnic setting, demonstrating that Muslims and different configurations of Islam have become an integrated part of Norwegian cultural life.
Abstract
From the late 1980s, foreign—primarily American—missionaries started to travel to Ukraine in large numbers. This article is concerned with the impact of American Baptist missionaries and how their influence was perceived locally in 2016, the time of my fieldwork. When I set out to conduct my fieldwork research among Baptist believers in Lviv, I was surprised that local believers denied the impact of foreign missionaries on their communities and worship style. Moreover, many local Baptist churchgoers I met claimed they had never encountered an American missionary and insisted that foreign missionaries had not played any significant role in the development and transformation of Ukrainian Baptism. In this article, I present the data from the fieldwork and analyze the Ukrainian Baptists’ reasons for minimizing the influence through the perspective of religioscapes, and glocalization as the dialectic process between homogeneity and heterogeneity.
Abstract
In several European countries, Slovakia included, Islamophobia has been shaped by the challenges faced by Europe (an influx of refugees, terrorism, rise of the far right) since circa 2015. Anti-Muslim narratives have penetrated politics as well as the media and are shared by a significant part of the Slovak population. This article aims at contributing to the existing research on Islamophobia in Slovakia through an exploratory case study focusing on a different perspective, Muslims themselves. The main objective of the research is to identify the magnitude and character of Islamophobia experienced by Muslims in Slovakia since 2015. Data were gathered using an online survey. The findings revealed not only the extent but also the most common features of Islamophobia experienced by Muslims, including the type of incidents, the places of their occurrence, and the nexus between Islamophobic incidents and origin of respondents (Slovak or foreign), external manifestation of their faith, and sex.