Good Protestant, Bad Religion? Formatting Religion in Modern Society

Norwegian debates on religion are often characterized by simplified dichotomies. On the one hand, Evangelical Lutheranism has dominated culture and society for centuries, as the traditional religion of the majority. This majority religion still enjoys a strong position, although the ties between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway and the state are currently being dismantled. On the other hand, Norway (and especially the Oslo region) has experienced increasing numbers of believers and organizations from other religions, and of non-believers, agnostics and atheists, creating a diverse public sphere where the role of religion is anything but clear-cut. In this diverse public sphere, the role of religion is frequently debated as if religions were standalone entities that can either be forces of good and therefore eligible for protection and state support, or forces of bad, and therefore legitimately subjected to restrictions and suppression. Taking observations like these as a point of departure, the research project Good Protestant, Bad Religion? has been looking at the way in which religion is formatted by Norwegian social actors, ranging from the legal and political sphere to the media and civil society. The project has also compared the Norwegian situation to the situation in some other (mainly Protestant) countries in order to gain a better understanding of the Norwegian case, but also in order to contribute to the general discussion of religion in modern Protestant societies. The research has mainly been carried out by way of case studies in four distinct thematic fields. Throughout the project period, project members have disseminated the findings from their subprojects at a variety of venues, from academic publishing and conferences to participation in public debate and through educational efforts. Dissemination of research questions and research results to a broader public has been an important part of the project since it started. Over the course of the reporting period, the Religion: Going Public scholarly blog has steadily published numerous blog posts on the role of religion in the public sphere in collaboration with two other SAMKUL-sponsored projects. Several of these blog posts have been culled from a conference organized by GOBA and the other projects in Sigtuna, Sweden in November 2016. In May 2017, the collaborating projects behind the blog also co-hosted the public event Laugh or Die! (Le eller dø!), which combined religious satire and scholarly analysis of the role of religion and the freedom of expression in Norway and beyond. In spring 2018, GOBA organized a series of public meetings where research results were presented and discussed in with broader audiences. The our meetings dealt with the following topics: 1. Protestantism/Protestantization, 2. Circumcision (within a Jewish and a Muslim context), 3. Migration and Protestant ethics, 4. Islamic theology in a university context. During the two last years of the project period, GOBA has deepened its involvement with its international networks, in particular the Strasbourg-based EUREL network, where GOBA scholars have provided important overviews of legislation and data on religion in Norway that have previously not been available in English. In September 2018, the GOBA project and EUREL also shared responsibility for a joint conference on Nonreligion in Late Modern Societies ? Institutional and Legal perspectives, a topic closely related to the research plan of the ph.d. candidate associated with the project. The conference was the first on the topic of Nonreligion in Norway, and most of the papers from the conference are currently being revised and prepared for international publication in a conference volume. Since early 2017, the core group of researchers has met regularly to discuss the format and scope of a shared, edited publication that will draw together some key perspectives on the formatting of religion in Norway today, while also inviting in scholars from outside the project to offer fresh critique and context to the core findings within the subproject. The contributions to this edited volume have been developed from an early workshop in Oslo and a conference panel during the American Academy of Religion conference in Atlanta in 2015 up to a final workshop in Oslo in 2018. The volume is being prepared for publication in 2019/2020.

GOBA har bidratt til et skjerpet kritisk blikk på hvordan protestantismen som dominerende norsk religionsform har vært med på å prege samtalen om religion i Norge. Underprosjektet om islamsk universitetsteologi har vært nær knyttet til arbeidet ved Det teologiske fakultet med å etablere formaliserte utdanningstilbud for islamske ledere. GOBA har bidratt til at denne studiesatsingen har fått et mer solid teoretisk fundament, opparbeidet i dialog med tilsvarende initiativer i andre europeiske land. Prosjektet har også bidratt til å fremme en god debatt om rett og religion, i en situasjon der Stortinget forbereder seg på å vedta en ny religionslovgivning. Et av GOBAs underprosjekt har også bidratt til å få i gang en ny norsk debatt om de ikke-religiøse, og om forholdet mellom ikke-religion og protestantisk tradisjon. Prosjektets to postdoktorer har fått styrket sin kompetanse på en måte som har gjort begge til svært attraktive søkere i det norske arbeidsmarkedet.

Formatting Religion seeks to overcome the simplicity of the good/bad-narrative currently dominating debates on religion in the public sphere by critically examining the mechanisms that lie behind this dichotomy as it is manifested at the nexus of state an d civil society. The project employs a comparative perspective, where practices of formatting religion in Norway are compared with the practices of other states facing similar situations of religious diversity. Formatting Religion features two major proje cts: Project I examines the relationship between state-driven formatting of religion as private belief and the nature and consequences of state involvement with religion in the public sphere, and has two subprojects: One examines how media outlets, govern ment agencies and politicians format the nexus between religion and culture, and seeks to identify the major pressure points where "religious" beliefs and practices are converted into "culture" and the other way around. The other investigates the formatti ng of religion in the recent institutionalization Islamic theology at Western universities, examining the reflexive impact of such institutions on Islamic discourses and practices, and on the identity of Christian university theology. Project II examines how different religious groups incorporate and negotiate the dominant formatting of religion provided by state authorities and the general public in Norway and beyond. Project II has two subprojects, one exploring minority notions of religious belonging, and how these forms of belonging may conflict with those conditioned by state administrative systems and prevalent public discourse. The second subproject investigates religious civil society organizations and their work with marginalized immigrants, and asks how cultures of hospitality and practices recognizing the others as citizens can be fostered outside the purview of the state in an increasingly multicultural, partly secularized Europe.