Abstract
As has often been said, the theories of secularization constituted a paradigm and reigning dogma of the sociology of the 1960s and 1970s (Tschannen 1991; Swatos and Christiano 1999). Many sociologists subscribed to Anthony Wallace’s statement, ‘The future of religion is extinction.’ Since the end of the Cold War and especially in the period after September 11, 2001, the roles have been reversed; now one might say that religion is here to stay while the future of secularization theory may be extinction, failure, or, at least, reformulation (Berger 1999; Stark 1999; Reeh 2009b). Religion has mounted the stage again and to a degree that would have been unfathomable, for instance, in the 1980s.
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Notes
- 1.
For an analysis of the rise of educational systems in Europe that includes competition but not the military struggle between states, see Ramirez and Boli 1987 2–17.
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Acknowledgements
The chapters of this book have been written over a number of years and before the rise of the Islamic State and the tragic attack in Paris on November 13 2016. After these murders, this work sadly seems even more relevant, since one of the main issues that the book argues is that the academic studies of religion should pay more attention to the relations between religions as well as the relations between state and religion.
Since the book has been written over a number of years, earlier versions of some arguments have appeared in the following publications: Reeh 2006: Religion and the state of Denmark - state religious politics in the elementary school system from 1721 to 1975, an alternative approach to secularization. Unpublished Ph.D.-dissertation, University of Copenhagen; Reeh 2009a: “American civil religion as state-mythology” published in Holy nations and global identities: civil religion , nationalism, and globalisation , ed. A. Hvithamar, M. Warburg and B. A. Jacobsen. Published by Brill Academic Publishers; Reeh 2009b: “Towards a new approach to secularization: religion, education and the state in Denmark, 1721–1900” in Social Compass 56(2): 179–188 published by Sage; Reeh: 2009c. “Ideas and state subjectivity in history, the introduction of the equestrian schools in 1720 and the confirmation in 1736” in Ideas in History; Reeh 2011:“A shinning city on another hill: Danish civil religion as state mythology” in Social Compass 58(2): 235–246 published by Sage; Reeh 2013a:“A relational approach to the study of religious survival units” in Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 25 published by Koninklijke Brill NV and Reeh 2013b: “Danish State policy on the teaching of religion from 1900 to 2007” published in Social Compass 60(2): 236–250. I am grateful for the permission to expand on these earlier versions of my work.
Over the years, my work has been funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research and the Carlsberg Foundation. I am very grateful for this support. With regards to the content, this book has benefitted from comments, assistance and advice from many individual persons. The point of departure for the study at hand was a Ph.D. thesis at the Department of History of Religions at the University of Copenhagen. I would like to thank Margit Warburg who most importantly was my Ph.D. supervisor and to whom I am greatly indebted. I am grateful to Thomas Højrup for providing me with a radical different theoretical outlook without which this book could not have been written and who has been a stimulating critic as well as a friend, throughout the years. The same goes for James Beckford who was a member of the assessment committee at my Ph.D. defence and who since have remained a friend and provided me with invaluable advice and recommendations. I would like to thank Danielle Allen, Joan Scott and Didier Fassin who gave me the amazing opportunity of spending a full year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Furthermore, I am greatly indebted to Catharina Raudvere who invited me to partake in her Carlsberg funded research project Many Roads in Modernity, which provided an opportunity to continue my work and to be part of a stimulating research group in which we had many fruitful and inspiring discussions. I would also like to express my gratitude towards the editors of the book, namely Lene Kühle, Lori Beaman and Anna Halahoff for their encouragements, patience and constructive editorial advice. Various pieces of the book have been presented in different settings over the years and a number of individuals who in different ways have given me advice, comments or simply been good colleagues. In particular, I would like to thank Peter J. Katzenstein, Peter Beyer, Christian Meyer, Jesper Eckhardt Larsen, Ingrid Markussen, Erik Reenberg Sand, Annika Hvithamar, Jørgen Podemann Sørensen, Tove Tybjerg, Peter Westergaard, Morten Warmind, Laura Feldt, Lars Kjær Bruun, Morten Thomsen Højsgaard, Mikael Rothstein, Mogens Pelt, Abdullah Simsek, Trine Stauning Willert, Zlatko Jovanovic, Kristian Frisk, Mads Damgaard, Andreas Baumann and Erik Sporon Fiedler. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Tine Reeh for her support and encouragement throughout the years.
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Reeh, N. (2016). Introduction. In: Secularization Revisited - Teaching of Religion and the State of Denmark. Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39608-8_1
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