Peter Lüchau

A Spiritual Revolution in Denmark

ABSTRACT Based on data from the Danish part of the European Values Study 1981–2008, this article explores the validity of the claim for a spiritual revolution as proposed by Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead. The article suggests an operationalisation of spirituality. The results of the analyses are that religious values—Christian faith as well as spirituality—tend to be stable over an individual’s life course. This suggests that, if there is a spiritual revolution, it must be the product of cohort replacement. If a spiritual revolution is taking place, Christian faith would be expected to decline in younger cohorts while spirituality would increase, but an analysis of cohort support for Christian faith and spirituality from 1981 to 2008 shows that both were constant across cohorts. Thus Danish data contain no indication that a spiritual revolution is taking place or will take place. Finally, we show that, contrary to theoretical expectations, spirituality and Christian faith are strongly correlated. A closer analysis reveals an indirect and more complicated support for parts of the theory since the two variables are explained by different factors and it shows that Christian faith, but not spirituality, is correlated with morality.

By Faith Alone? Church Attendance and Christian Faith in three European Countries1

Many social scientists seem to believe that Catholics attend church more often than Protestants because of differences in theology and not necessarily because Protestants are more secularised. In an attempt to settle this issue, this article uses data from the 1999 European Values Study to determine what factors influence church attendance in a Catholic, Protestant, and mixed European country (Italy, Denmark, and Germany). Using an ordinary least squares multiple regression the article shows that for both Catholics and Protestants it is predominantly the level of Christian faith that determines the rate of church attendance. Hence the differences in church attendance among Catholics and Protestants reflect differences in overall levels of religiosity and are not just artefacts of different views of the importance of going to church. Even Protestants do not live by faith alone.

A New Approach to Secularisation on the Individual Level: The Declining Social Significance of Religion in Denmark

The article tests a novel approach to secularisation, using Denmark as a test case. Secularisation is defined as the declining social significance of religion. Data from all four waves of the European Values Study is used. The analysis shows that there was a significant decline in the social significance of religion in Denmark from 1981 to 2008, even though there was no overall decline in religiosity. This suggests that the analysis of secularisation is improved by using a more precise operationalisation of the concept. It also suggests that secularisation is not necessarily related to declining religiosity.

The Spiritual Revolution and Social Capital in Denmark

Religion is changing. From being a social or collective phenomenon, religion in modern or postmodern countries is becoming an individualistic phenomenon. God is no longer the judge of what is right or wrong. That task is left to the individual. Alongside this religious change, there is a growing interest in social capital and the role religion holds in producing such capital. Traditional Christianity is said to produce social capital which poses the question of what will happen when collectively anchored Christianity gives way to individualistic spirituality. Will the role of religion in the production of social capital seize or will it simply change? Using expanded data from the Danish part of the European Values Study, this chapter will analyze the possible impact of religious change upon the production of social capital in Denmark.