Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Preliminaries
- Part II Atheisms in History
- Part III Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment
- Part IV Classical Modernity: Philosophical and Scientific Currents
- Part V Classical Modernity: Social and Political Currents
- Part VI Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Intellectual and Artistic Currents
- Part VII Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies
- 42 Latin America
- 43 The Road to Modern China
- 44 Contemporary China
- 45 Atheism in India: Twentieth Century and Beyond
- 46 The Soviet Union
- 47 Modern Germany
- 48 The Nordic and Baltic Countries
- 49 United States
- 50 The Pacific Northwest
- 51 Tunisia
- 52 Southern Africa
- 53 Traditional Societies
- Part VIII Emerging Atheisms in the Twenty-First Century
- Part IX Conclusion
- Index
- References
48 - The Nordic and Baltic Countries
from Part VII - Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 September 2021
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Preliminaries
- Part II Atheisms in History
- Part III Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment
- Part IV Classical Modernity: Philosophical and Scientific Currents
- Part V Classical Modernity: Social and Political Currents
- Part VI Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Intellectual and Artistic Currents
- Part VII Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies
- 42 Latin America
- 43 The Road to Modern China
- 44 Contemporary China
- 45 Atheism in India: Twentieth Century and Beyond
- 46 The Soviet Union
- 47 Modern Germany
- 48 The Nordic and Baltic Countries
- 49 United States
- 50 The Pacific Northwest
- 51 Tunisia
- 52 Southern Africa
- 53 Traditional Societies
- Part VIII Emerging Atheisms in the Twenty-First Century
- Part IX Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
Unbelief in God is a normal position, and atheism is a relatively accepted – though not extremely popular – identification in northern Europe. Most of northern Europe has historically been dominated by Protestant Churches, and in many countries the relationship between church and state has been very close. Variants of Christianity have played a significant role in the formation of national identities, although not equally for each northern European nation. The aim of this chapter is to explore Nordic and Baltic countries to make sense of the peculiarities of these areas and nations in an international comparison. This chapter will use the terms ‘Nordic’ and ‘Baltic’, the first referring to five countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – and the second to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In our use, ‘Scandinavia’ is a narrower term than ‘Nordic’, and includes Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Atheism , pp. 898 - 917Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
References
Ališauskiene, M. 2020. ‘The social history of irreligion in Lithuania (from the nineteenth century to the present): between marginalization, monopoly and disregard?’ in Bubik, T., Remmel, A., and Vaclavik, D. (eds.) Freethought and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe: The Development of Secularity and Non-religion. London: Routledge, 155–76.Google Scholar
Davie, G. 2007. ‘Vicarious religion: a methodological challenge’, in Ammerman, N. T. (ed.) Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 21–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furseth, I. (ed.) 2018. Religious Complexity in the Public Sphere: Comparing Nordic Countries. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jansson, A. 2018. ‘“A Swedish Voltaire”: the life and afterlife of Ingemar Hedenius, 20th-century atheist’. Secularism and Nonreligion 7(4). DOI: 10.5334/snr.98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jansson, A. 2020. ‘Friends and foes: two secularisms in late nineteenth-century Sweden’, in Kosuch, C. (ed.) Freethinkers in Europe: National and Transnational Secularities, 1789–1920s. Berlin: De Gruyter, 155–78.Google Scholar
Kiope, M., Runce, I., and Stasulane, A. 2020. ‘The trajectories of atheism and secularization in Latvia: from the German Enlightenment to contemporary secularity’. In Bubik, T., Remmel, A., and Vaclavik, D. (eds.) Freethought and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe: The Development of Secularity and Non-religion. London: Routledge, 137–54.Google Scholar
Kjærgaard, P. C., Gregersen, N. H., and Hjermitslev, H. H. 2008. ‘Darwinizing the Danes, 1859–1909’, in Engels, E.-M. and Glick, T. F. (ed.) The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Knutsen, P. 2006. Livet før døden: Human-etisk forbund 1956–2006. Oslo: Humanist forlag.Google Scholar
Lüchau, P. 2010. ‘Atheism and secularity: the Scandinavian paradox’, in Zuckerman, P. (ed.) Atheism and Secularity Volume 2: Global Expressions. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 177–96.Google Scholar
Remmel, A. 2016. ‘Ambiguous atheism: the impact of political changes on the meaning and reception of atheism in Estonia’, in Cipriani, R. and Garelli, F. (eds.) Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion. Leiden: Brill, 233–50.Google Scholar
Taira, T. 2012. ‘More visible but limited in its popularity: atheism (and atheists) in Finland’. Approaching Religion 2(1), 21–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urstad, S. S. 2017. ‘The religiously unaffiliated in Norway’. Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 30(1), 61–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuckerman, P. 2007. ‘Atheism: contemporary numbers and patterns’, in Martin, M. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 47–65.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, P. 2008. Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, P. 2009. ‘Why are Danes and Swedes so irreligious?’ Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 22(1), 55–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar