Niels Reeh

A Shining City on Another Hill: Danish Civil Religion as State Mythology

The author attempts to break with the Durkheimian approach to civil religion and seeks to develop a new approach. It is suggested that state agency could fruitfully be brought into the centre of the analytical framework. Norbert Elias’s concept of the survival unit is adopted and the democratic Danish state is regarded as a complex collective actor, not restricted to the government but comprising also its citizens, who have access, however limited, to the political process. From this point of departure, the Danish flag days are analyzed, including the introduction of official state recognition of Danish soldiers serving abroad. The consequence of the adoption of a state-centred analytical framework is that civil religion can be regarded as the official state myth, the autobiography of the Danish state. En repensant la notion de religion civile de Durkheim, l’auteur en propose un nouveau redéploiement. Il avance que l’État peut adéquatement être placé au centre du cadre analytique, pour mieux définir la fonction de la religion civile. Le concept d’unités de survie de Norbert Elias est adopté. La démocratie danoise est envisagée comme un acteur collectif complexe qui ne se limite pas au gouvernement, mais englobe aussi tous les citoyens qui peuvent participer, même de façon limitée, à la vie politique. À partir de cette hypothèse, les journées de pavoisement danois sont analysées, dont l’introduction d’une fête officiellement reconnue par l’État pour les soldats danois déployés à l’étranger. En adoptant un cadre analytique centré sur l’État, l’auteur est amené à considérer la religion civile comme mythe officiel, mais contesté, de l’État ou comme autobiographie de l’État danois.

Danish State policy on the teaching of religion from 1900 to 2007

The author presents an analysis of the political decision making process regarding the teaching of religion in Denmark from 1900 until 2007. The author uses Norbert Elias’s concept of the survival unit as the analytical framework of the study. Instead of a classic secularization narrative in which the secular and religious spheres of society are differentiated into separate realms as the process of modernization unfolds, a different narrative emerges in which the State has used the teaching of religion as an instrument to further its vital interests, especially with regard to its international relations.

A Relational Approach to the Study of Religious Survival Units

Abstract The article departs from the finding that religious texts and actors relate to other religions as for instance The Old Testament relates to Canaanites, the New Testament to Jews, Pagans etc. A consequence of this inter-relatedness of religion is that religion can be studied as a relational phenomenon and that religions are engaged in a more or less intense struggle against other competing religions. Further, using John Searle’s notion of collective subjectivity, the article posits that religions are in fact an example of such collective subjectivity (Searle 1995). In this perspective, a religion can be defined and studied as the result of complex set of dynamic relations, where a central tenet of a religion is that it relates to the significant religious other. As such religion is not a stable phenomenon but embedded in a dynamic historical process, which can explain the difficulties scholars have had in defining religion.

Flow of Temperate Ice in a Vertical Shaft with Rough Wall Surfaces

The glaciological aspects related to application of ice to support the rock walls in underground mining operations, are shortly discussed. Simple models for the states of stress and deformation in an ice body sinking into a vertical shaft are developed. Even if possible ice melt along the rock walls is neglected, it is concluded that the ice body is in general unstable, because cross contraction of the ice body will gradually reduce the intrusion depth of the wall obstacles into the ice. In order to avoid fall, the ice body should at intervals be supported by the shaft bottom, so that the necessary contact with the rock walls can be re-established. Estimates of the sink rate of the ice body are given.