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In this article, we explore the connection between religion and COVID-19 in the Netherlands or, more precisely, how the number of Muslims and Christians relates to the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 per municipality at the beginning of the second COVID-19 wave (6 July-2 November). Our expectation was that there is a positive relationship between the relative number of Muslims living in a municipality and the relative number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in that same municipality. This expectation was based on the notion that a substantial part of Dutch Muslims stand at a relative distance to society and display less confidence in politics and the government, which may result in less compliance with government measures to combat COVID-19. Christians, on the other hand, have an above-average confidence in all kinds of societal institutions such as the government. As a result, we expected a negative relationship between the relative number of Christians and the relative number of hospitalized patients in a municipality. Based on data from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) regarding the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) regarding religious affiliation, and also considering intermediate factors such as age, overweight, educational level and population density, we demonstrate that at the beginning of the second COVID-19 wave, there indeed is a positive relationship between the number of Muslims and the number of hospitalized patients per municipality. However, we did not find a positive, nor a negative, relationship between the number of Christians and the number of hospitalized patients.

This article discusses how practitioners of Islamic Religious Education (IRE) in Dutch primary schools look at the relationship between IRE and citizenship education (CE). To what extent do they believe it is possible and desirable for IRE to contribute to CE? What would an integration of IRE and CE look like, and where do they see potential tensions between IRE and CE? In two extensive focus group discussions, with identity coordinators and experienced IRE teachers, the relationships between IRE and four citizenship dimensions, namely, identity, legal status, participation, and rights, were discussed. Qualitative content analysis of these discussions reveals that the integration of IRE with CE is desirable and possible, but in varying degrees based on the level of different citizenship dimensions. The extent of integration of IRE and CE also depends on the interpretations of Islamic key concepts. IRE and CE were also found to face similar challenges in seeking to achieve integration: both struggle with exclusive interpretations of Islam and citizenship.

This study explores attitudes towards the poor among Christian and Muslim secondary school students in Indonesia. Are there significant differences between Muslims and Christians with regard to these attitudes and, if any, how could they be explained? The authors argue that there is little reason to expect differences based on religious affiliation alone, because both Christianity and Islam pay special attention to poverty alleviation and economic justice in teachings and moral guidelines. However, specific religious beliefs and practices could still result in different attitudes towards the poor among Muslims and Christians. This study investigates to what extent beliefs such as attitudes towards religious plurality, fundamentalism, religious salience and religious practices are related with attitudes towards the poor. The potential differential effects of non-religious factors like socio-economic status, social dominance orientation, bonding and bridging social capital, compassion and school activities are also taken into account.

Contains fulltext : 205938.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Like other Western countries, in the Netherlands women continue to demonstrate higher levels of religiosity than men. In this article, we set out to explain this Dutch religious gender gap regarding belief in God, prayer and church attendance. Using high quality survey data (LISS 2015), a comprehensive model is built combining social and psychological differences between Dutch men and women. These gender differences are operationalized where they are most strongly experienced, i.e. within personal relationships. We find that the gender gaps within Dutch relationships regarding belief in God and prayer can be explained by gendered religious socialization and gendered mental health dependency - and for belief in God additionally by the gendered level of agreeableness. For the gender gap regarding church attendance, gendered religious socialization explains the religious gender gap. 35 p.

Contains fulltext : 208076.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) The rise of conservative religion in the West threatens the enduring positive contribution of religion to civil society, if conservative churches, as often assumed, indeed generate more bonding than bridging social capital. Against this background, this study explores the civic engagement of evangelicals in the Netherlands. Two research questions are addressed: (1) To what extent are Dutch evangelicals more involved in religious than non-religious volunteering as compared to mainline Christians and non-church members? and (2) Which decisive factors determine the religious and non-religious volunteering of Dutch evangelicals as compared to mainline Christians and non-church members? Results show that these orthodox Christians are more involved in religious than in non-religious volunteering. Their religious volunteering is determined by their church attendance, Bible reading and social embeddedness in their congregation, while their non-religious volunteering is impeded by their mono-religious orientation and social embeddedness in their congregation and by the volunteering of their parents. 14 p.

Background: Today the Dutch religious landscape is characterized by two opposite trends. On the one hand, there is a massive and dominant trend of religious disaffiliation which mostly affects the Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant churches, while on the other hand the Netherlands also witnesses the emergence of several independent, evangelical congregations of near megachurch size.Purpose: Against the background of these opposite trends, this paper focuses on the second trend and tries to explain why some people join an evangelical congregation.Methods: For this purpose, quantitative data gathered among the audiences of six thriving evangelical congregations are analyzed in view of the following research questions: (1) What was the previous religious affiliation of the people who switched or converted to one of the six participating evangelical congregations? and (2) Which factors induced the switch or conversion to these congregations?Results: Results of bivariate and multivariate analyses show that these congregations attract both mainline and orthodox Protestant switchers as well as a significant number of secular converts, whose decision to join these evangelical congregations is induced by early socialization experiences, their intrinsic religious orientation and the switching of their partner. Closer scrutiny into the background of the apparent secular converts reveals, however, that several of these converts are probably re-affiliates. Although these secular converts indicated to be a religious none in their early teens, their conversion to evangelicalism is in part still induced by certain, early religious socialization experiences.Conclusions and Implications: This insight puts the alleged success of these evangelical congregations in more perspective. It shows that their success is more a matter of circulating, religious believers and not so much a matter of successfully reaching out to the unchurched. In all likelihood, then, thriving evangelical congregations will remain an exception in secular societies like the Netherlands and evangelical church growth in no way marks a break with the ongoing trend of religious disaffiliation.

In this article, we explore the connection between religion and COVID-19 in the Netherlands or, more precisely, how the number of Muslims and Christians relates to the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 per municipality at the beginning of the second COVID-19 wave (6 July-2 November). Our expectation was that there is a positive relationship between the relative number of Muslims living in a municipality and the relative number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in that same municipality. This expectation was based on the notion that a substantial part of Dutch Muslims stand at a relative distance to society and display less confidence in politics and the government, which may result in less compliance with government measures to combat COVID-19. Christians, on the other hand, have an above-average confidence in all kinds of societal institutions such as the government. As a result, we expected a negative relationship between the relative number of Christians and the relative number of hospitalized patients in a municipality. Based on data from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) regarding the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) regarding religious affiliation, and also considering intermediate factors such as age, overweight, educational level and population density, we demonstrate that at the beginning of the second COVID-19 wave, there indeed is a positive relationship between the number of Muslims and the number of hospitalized patients per municipality. However, we did not find a positive, nor a negative, relationship between the number of Christians and the number of hospitalized patients.

Contains fulltext : 221351.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) The aim of this study was to find out if the typical spread of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in The Netherlands, with significantly higher levels in the Dutch Bible belt and the southern, traditionally Catholic provinces, is related to the specific religious composition of the country. To do this, government statistics regarding the level of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 per municipality were combined with statistics regarding church attendance and church membership rates. Results showed that in the Dutch Bible belt the level of patients with COVID-19 was strongly related to church attendance, but in the southern, traditionally Catholic part of The Netherlands nominal church membership mattered more than church attendance. On the basis of these findings, the conclusion was drawn that religion probably facilitates the spread of the virus in both a direct and indirect way. It facilitates the spread of the virus directly through worship services but also indirectly by way of endorsing more general cultural festivities like carnival and maybe even by strengthening certain non-religious social bonds. Epidemiologists monitoring the spread of the virus are called upon to focus more on these possible indirect or latent effects of religion. 12 p.

While the Dutch state sets formal aims and requirements for all major school subjects, it remains neutral in view of religious and worldview education. This paper critically assesses this neutral position of the Dutch state and argues that the state should take more responsibility for the aim and content of religious and worldview education in school. To do this, this paper offers a description of the current position of religious and worldview education in the Dutch educational system and also shows that this position is no longer in accordance with the present-day Dutch religious landscape. By comparing the Dutch situation with the position of religious and worldview education in the educational systems of Denmark, England, Russia and Sweden this paper makes a nuanced plea for more state interference with religious and worldview education in school, while the paper at the same time warns for the danger of politicizing religious and worldview education or of ignoring the basic right of parents to opt for religious or worldview education for their children in conformity with their own convictions.

Why has the Netherlands witnessed such a strong process of secularization? This article examines this process very extensively. Based on modernization theory, it follows several social cultural developments in Dutch society over the last 50 years and distinguishes between effects on the individual level as well as on the level of society. We are able to do so because of rich data availability, derived from micro‐level longitudinal surveys (God in the Netherlands, Social and Cultural Developments in the Netherlands) enriched with macro‐level statistics (Statistics Netherlands). With this integrated approach, we provide explanatory insights into the transition of the Netherlands from a predominant Christian nation to a predominant secular nation. Our analysis clearly shows that macro‐level educational expansion has affected this process of secularization in the Netherlands, supplemented with the increase in social security, as a so‐called cohort effect. Moreover, the long‐term effect of Christian socialization is waning; Dutch people who were raised in a religious way increasingly lapse later in their life.

Contains fulltext : 201291.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) This study tries to find out why certain congregations in the Netherlands have a more committed membership than other congregations and, thus, are less affected by processes of religious disaffiliation. To do this, data gathered among members of six evangelical megachurches together with data from a national probability sample are analyzed to address two questions. First, to what extent are Dutch evangelicals more committed to their religious organization, in terms of money and time spent at church, than members of mainline churches in the Netherlands? And second, which decisive factors determine these instances of organizational commitment of Dutch evangelicals? Results show that evangelicals indeed spend more money on and time at church than mainline Christians. As regards the second question, it turns out that donating money is mainly determined by income, whereas time spent with church groups is mainly determined by the degree of embeddedness in socio-religious networks. 30 p.

RE in Russia has been recently introduced as a compulsory regular school subject during the last year of elementary school. The present study offers a critical analysis of the current practice of Russian RE by comparing it with RE in Sweden, Denmark and Britain. This analysis shows that Russian RE is ambivalent. Although it is based on a non-confessional religious studies approach, Russian RE also serves the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church, which aims to educate students into Orthodox Christianity, as well as the interests of the Russian state itself, which turns RE in a kind of citizenship education focusing on the patriotic upbringing of students.

Religious education (RE) has been recently introduced into the Russian educational system as a compulsory regular school subject. The present study offers a critical analysis of one of the most pop...

Contains fulltext : 204692.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) In many secular Western countries, women continue to demonstrate higher levels of religiosity than men. But why does this religious gender gap persist? In this research note, we set out to explain the religious gender gap in the Netherlands for three dimensions of religiosity: belief in God, frequency of prayer and frequency of church attendance. Using high quality national representative survey data from LISS (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social sciences), an empirical model is built combining social and psychological determinants. We find that the experience of health restrictions, the personality trait conscientiousness and the gender orientation masculinity contribute to an explanation for the gender gap in the Netherlands regarding all three dimensions of religiosity. For belief in God and frequency of prayer, an additional psychological explanation comes from the gender orientation femininity. 28 p.

Towards non-confessional worldview education in a pillarized education system: a plea from the low countriesIn this article the claim is raised, that the pillarized education system of Belgium and the Netherlands interferes with the way the challenges of modern secular and plural society are addressed in worldview education in school. After a brief sketch of the education systems of both countries and the way worldview education is formally embedded in these systems, a critical analysis of the actual practice of worldview education in Belgium and the Netherlands reveals four major problems: it is organized along religious and ideological dividing lines, it is fragmented, it is no longer desired and its content is faded. Following this critical analysis, the authors make a plea for non-confessional worldview education for all pupils in all schools organized and supervised by the state.

Contains fulltext : 182827.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Evangelicals are generally considered culturally conservative regarding issues like abortion or homosexuality and sometimes also economically conservative regarding issues like tax reduction. But does this image also apply to Dutch evangelicals who live in a secular environment in which they constitute only a tiny fraction of the number of church members? This article explores the political attitudes of Dutch evangelicals with the help of two research questions: (1) Do Dutch evangelicals hold more conservative political attitudes on economic and cultural issues than Catholics, mainline Protestants and non-church members? and (2) Which decisive factors determine the supposed conservatism among Dutch evangelicals as compared to Catholics, mainline Protestants and non-church members? Analyses of survey data show that Dutch evangelicals are indeed culturally conservative, but more liberal in economic matters. In addition, results also show that their cultural conservatism is related to their religious convictions, while their economic attitudes are unrelated to religion. 30 p.

This article reflects on the place of RE in a pillarised education context, taking into account the fact of religious diversity and pluralisation among the school population on the one hand, and the freedom of religion and education of faith-based schools on the other. Particular attention will be given to Belgium and the Netherlands, which do not only have a comparable pillarised education model, but also have a quite similar religious landscape. After a brief historical sketch of the educational systems in both nations, attention will be given to the present situation and to the challenges of religious diversity and secularism in faith-based schools. In order to meet these challenges, recent developments concerning RE in Belgium and the Netherlands are discussed. In conclusion, we will outline some suggestions for the future of RE in faith-based schools in a pillarised education context.

Contains fulltext : 174176.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Dutch society is characterized by a high degree of religious dis-affiliation and non-affiliation and most religious communities are facing hard times in the Netherlands. But there are also exceptions. Against the contemporary current of ongoing secularization, some religious communities seem to thrive like never before and even attract new members. But why is that? Why do some religious communities succeed in retaining and also attracting new members while others fail? This article focuses on successful evangelical congregations in the Netherlands and tries to account for their relative success. On the basis of a subcultural identity theory, it is argued that the success of evangelical congregations is largely due to the fact that they offer protective umbrellas of conservative belief in an otherwise very secular context. This line of thought is substantiated with empirical findings from a current research project into thriving evangelical congregations in the Netherlands. The article closes with some theoretical reflections on the future of evangelicalism in contemporary Dutch society. 23 juni 2017 24 p.

The primary aim of this paper is to offer an overview of current research into the relationship between religion and family life and to offer suggestions for future research. In order to do this, the paper distinguishes between research in which religion is a dependent variable, labelled as socialization research, and research in which religion is an independent variable, referred to as research into family functioning. With regard to these areas of research, the paper, first, offers an overview of the most important insights existing research has generated thus far, after which some important shortcomings are identified and suggestions for future research are proposed. Subsequently, the paper offers some reflections on methodology and points out some strengths and weaknesses of existing research and offers methodological advice for future research. The paper closes by discussing how research into the relationship between religion and family life may contribute to an overall understanding of religion as such.

This paper tries to identify the characteristics of viable religious communities in modern, Western society. Developments regarding church membership and church attendance in the Netherlands and the United States show, that especially liberal and mainline communities are affected by religious disaffiliation, while conservative and orthodox communities are far better able to resist the secularizing forces of modernity. This difference is explained in terms of strictness and the adoption of a more absolutist religious stance. Thus it is argued, that viable religious communities in the West will eventually become more sect-like. That is to say, these communities focus on establishing strong social bonds between their members, reject common ‘Western’ values like tolerance and relativism and emphasize the personalistic aspects of faith. These sect-like characteristics result in strong religious communities that consciously exist in a high degree of tension with the wider social environment and that, in this way, are able to recruit and preserve a small but loyal group of followers.

During the last three decades church membership and church attendance have dropped significantly in the Netherlands. Over this period, however, the proportion of the Dutch population volunteering for a non-religious organization decreased at a much slower pace. A rather paradoxical situation given the strong association between religious involvement and volunteering. In this article we try to account for this apparent paradox by addressing the following question: Why has massive and ongoing religious disaffiliation in the Netherlands not resulted in a similar drop of the relative number of volunteers in non-religious voluntary associations? In view of this question, we propose that the negative effect of secularization on volunteering has been counteracted by a positive effect of educational expansion. We test this hypothesis with the help of longitudinal data by looking for possible changes in the behavior of specific groups, i.e. church members and higher educated people volunteering more, and for changes in the composition of the population, i.e. an increase in higher educated volunteers compensates for the loss of volunteering church members. Our findings indeed show, that secularization results in a drop of the relative number of volunteers and that this negative effect is counteracted by a positive effect of educational expansion. However, our findings also show that the opposite effects of secularization and educational expansion on non-religious volunteering are weak, since both church members and higher educated gradually volunteer less over time.

Abstract Religious disaffiliation, a major phenomenon in the Netherlands, is predominantly a generational matter. Each successive birth cohort is less involved in institutional religion than the previous one. Parents do not seem to pass on a lasting religious commitment to their offspring, which might indicate an overall shift in parental values from conformity to autonomy. In this article we use panel data to test the assumption and to compare parenting goals and their effects on the offspring’s church attendance over two generations of parents. Our research question is: To what extent is the intergenerational transmission of religious commitment affected by a change in parental values from an emphasis on conformity to an emphasis on autonomy? Results show that while there is indeed a shift in parental values from conformity to autonomy, this barely affects the offspring’s church attendance — which is determined, rather, by the parents’ church attendance, irrespective of the goals they pursue.

Contains fulltext : 159907.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Following the earlier work of the Dutch political scientist Middendorp on conservative views among the Dutch population, this study tries to find out if there is still a relationship between conservatism and religion. Earlier research revealed that also church members became less conservative over time and that the gap between church members and non-church members is closing in this respect. Only orthodox Christians continued to hold more conservative views over time. A distinction which still exists today as the results of this study among evangelical Christians show. This group of orthodox Christians distinguishes itself from both mainline Christians and the secular Dutch not so much by having a conservative outlook on economic matters, but by upholding conservative views in pro life issues. 24 p.

Contains fulltext : 157505.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) During the last three decades Dutch church attendance rates dropped considerably, while the relative share of volunteers in non-religious organizations decreased at a slower rate. This is an unexpected development given the positive association between religious involvement and volunteering. In this article, we try to account for this development by addressing the following question: Why has a massive and ongoing decline of church attendance in the Netherlands not resulted in a similar drop in the relative number of volunteers in non-religious voluntary organizations? In view of this question, we wonder if the negative effect of declining church attendance on volunteering is perhaps counterbalanced by a positive effect of educational expansion. Our findings reveal that this is indeed the case, but these counterbalancing effects are only modest. 24 p.

Item does not contain fulltext This paper proposes that the acquisition of meta-concepts and thinking skills in order to facilitate scholarly religious thought should be the principal aim of religious education in schools. As a result, the aim of religious education is primarily stated in cognitive terms and religious education is understood as closely related to education about religion. The educational value of this approach is explained in a cultural–historical perspective on learning. It is shown that there is a close connection between learning and development and that school learning especially contributes to development of pupils’ higher cognitive functions, if school learning aims at the acquisition of subject-specific meta-concepts and thinking skills. In order to apply these insights to religious education, the aim of religious education is reconsidered and some examples of meta-concepts and thinking skills that may serve as the content of religious education are discussed. 12 maart 2012 15 p.

This study was designed to explore the effect of authoritative parenting, over and above the effect of explicitly religious parenting practices, on the juvenile and adult church attendance of offspring. Data were collected as part of a panel study in which 474 Dutch respondents were questioned in 1983 as youths and in 2007 as adults. In 2007 the respondents retrospectively answered questions about how they were raised by their parents. Analyses revealed that juvenile church attendance depends mainly on parental and more specifically on maternal church attendance, whereas adult church attendance is largely an outcome of juvenile church attendance. No effects of an authoritative parenting style, that is, a simultaneous effect of responsiveness, strict control, and the granting of psychological autonomy as the three dimensions of authoritative parenting distinguished in this study, were observed. Only the dimension of strict control turned out to be a negative determinant of adult church attendance.

Contains fulltext : 102919.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) This is a study of teachers’ modelling of civic virtues in the classroom. It focusses on three virtues of good citizenship: justice, tolerance and solidarity. The aim is to explore the extent to which teachers can be regarded as models of these virtues. Questionnaires were developed for both students and teachers. Factor analyses showed that the three virtues could be empirically distinguished in teachers’ behaviour. The students rated their teachers higher on the justice and solidarity scales than on the tolerance scale. The teachers rated themselves as less just, but more tolerant than they were rated by their students. Furthermore, the correspondence between students’ perceptions and teachers’ self-ratings was not high: correlations were only found between ratings of teachers’ level of justice. The results of the study indicate that teachers need to become more aware of their exemplary function and the way they are perceived by their students. 17 p.

Contains fulltext : 102845.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Despite the fact that churches are still important sources of social capital in the Netherlands, the ongoing secularization of Dutch society has as yet not resulted in a drop of non-religious volunteering. In order to account for this apparent paradox, panel data are used to test the hypothesis that non-religious volunteering is in part an aftereffect of the religious socialization today’s volunteers enjoyed as youths. The following research question is addressed: To what extent does a religious socialization in Christian families during adolescence, independent of individual and collective religious characteristics, determine non-religious volunteering later in life? Results show that collective religious characteristics, i.e. being active in a religious community and religious affiliation, are the most important determinants in this respect. However, next to the effects of these collective aspects, also an independent effect of a religious socialization on non-religious volunteering is found. Especially a religious socialization which is not too strict was found to be influential on adult non-religious volunteering. 19 p.

The authors explore the effect of a religious upbringing on church attendance later in life. To this purpose, people who had been interviewed in 1983 as secondary students about their upbringing as well as other characteristics, were interviewed again in 2007 about the same topics. Comparisons between the 1983 and the 2007 data reveal that church attendance dropped significantly among these people during this period. Furthermore, it is shown that a religious upbringing is not a good predictor of church attendance later in life. These conclusions apply to Protestants and Catholics alike, as separate analyses for Catholics, Dutch Reformed and Re-Reformed reveal.

Several studies, conducted mainly in the United States, have revealed that parental religiosity influences the way parents raise their children. Against this background, the current study explores if such an effect is also discernible in the Netherlands. Data were gathered as part of a longitudinal study, in which 356 Dutch parents answered questions about their religious beliefs and practices, their parenting goals and parenting style. Analyses revealed that there is only a weak, ambiguous relation between parental religiosity and a preference for autonomy as a desirable value to be instilled in children. Parental church attendance is negatively associated with a preference for autonomy, but parents who are actively involved in a religious community tend to value children’s autonomy more positively. Effects of other indices of parental religiosity were not found, nor was there an effect of parental religiosity on parenting style. As far as this sample is concerned, the conclusion is that religion is not ...

This paper reports on a study of the relation between church membership and religious belief among a sample of Dutch forty-year-olds. First it describes developments in church membership between 1983 and 2007, using a longitudinal data set. This results in the identification of five groups: stable non-members, stable nominal members, stable core members, converts and apostates. Next the religious beliefs of these membership groups are studied from the perspective of two theoretical positions. From the perspective of secularization the assumption is tested that core members and converts will primarily endorse traditional, orthodox religious beliefs. From the perspective of religious individualization two alternative assumptions emerge. First, moderate levels of traditional religiosity will persist among nominal members and apostates and, secondly, nominal members and apostates will prefer alternative religious beliefs. The study supports the assumption relating to secularization, but is less clear about the assumptions relating to religious individualization.

Contains fulltext : 84959.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) The question explored in this article is whether religious schools can contribute to the formation of the civic virtues in pupils by means of citizenship education. It is commonly agreed that civic virtues are needed in pluriform Western societies to promote social cohesion and reduce hostile attitudes. However, some argue that religious schools cannot further this process: in such schools pupils do not learn to deal with people from other religious or cultural backgrounds, which is necessary for the development of civic virtues. In this article we investigate this supposition from a virtue ethical perspective. Using the example of a specific civic virtue (tolerance) and a specific religious educational context (Catholic schools), we argue that religious schools can make a positive and valuable contribution to citizenship education of pupils. We conclude with four implications for religious schools that wish to make such a contribution: (1) creating a moral community, (2) setting a moral example, (3) arranging moral practices, and (4) organising moral conversations. 15 p.

This article considers the desirability and legitimacy of denominational schools from the perspective of socialisation theory. It examines the popular criticism that nowadays the common reason for the existence of denominational schools – the religious socialisation of children – is endorsed by a dwindling number of parents, which renders the existence of these schools obsolete. It is shown, however, that this popular criticism is based on a traditional understanding of religious socialisation as the transmission of faith. Counter to this traditional understanding, the article presents a more modern conception of socialisation as personality development. On the basis of this interpretation of socialisation, the pedagogical function of denominational schools is reconsidered. It is argued that the pedagogical task of denominational schools today is not so much to transmit faith but rather to facilitate the formation of personal identity as a core aspect of contemporary socialisation processes.

Reflecting on Driessen's contribution to this volume, the author tries to probe trends in religious affiliation as described by Driessen, and to raise questions for further research. These religious trends are discussed mainly from the perspective of education and the social significance of religion. The former is of interest, the author argues, in view of the fact that all respondents are young parents of primary school children, while the latter perspective helps to explain the increase in the number of Muslims in relation to their socio-economic deprivation. The author tentatively concludes that these trends in religious affiliation probably reflect a religious transformation in the direction of vicarious and ethnic religion.

Contrary to the ongoing trend of secularisation in the Netherlands, some religious congregations have instead experienced exceptional growth, and are currently reaching megachurch proportions. This paper focuses on one such thriving Dutch congregation, calledDoorbrekers(‘those who break through’), and sets out to account for its appeal and attractiveness by analysing sermons delivered by the pastors ofDoorbrekers; with the help of a topic list based on cultural-market and church-sect theory explanations for the emergence of megachurches. The intention is to answer the question of whether elements of both lines of explanation are present in the sermons delivered in this Dutch megachurch. Findings show that this is indeed partly the case. As it turns out, the sermons delivered inDoorbrekersoffer a unique blend of theological conservatism and a more modern emphasis on the individual. Thus, the conclusion is drawn thatDoorbrekersrepresents a new form of privatised and strict Protestantism, which seems to go rather well with certain developments in the Dutch religious landscape.

As part of a large-scale inquiry into the religious and moral orientations of Dutch secondary school students, they were questioned about their religious and moral socialisation at home. More specifically the students were asked how important their religious and moral socialisation is/was to their parents. On the basis of the data thus acquired this paper explores differences in the importance attached to religious and moral socialisation by children in religious and nonreligious families and in churchgoing and non-churchgoing families. As expected, in both religious and churchgoing families the religious socialisation of children is deemed more important than in nonreligious and non-churchgoing families. Two rather unexpected results were that, firstly, moral socialisation was deemed more important in religious and churchgoing families than in their secular counterparts; and, secondly, religious and churchgoing parents considered certain aspects of their children's moral socialisation more important than related aspects of their religious socialisation. Apparently, children's moral socialisation is not only rated more highly in religious and church-affiliated than in secular environments, but in the former it is rated above their religious socialisation. This is a remarkable finding, which is discussed from the perspective of cognitive and evolutionary psychology in the final section of this paper.

This article explores the moral consciousness of Dutch secondary school students. On the basis of a typology of six moral values a measuring instrument is designed, which is used to inquire after the moral orientations of these students. Theoretically these orientations are distinguished along two dimensions of moral reasoning, teleology and deontology, and three categories of moral values relating to first-person, second-person and third-person perspectives. In this way, this article not only focuses on the question whether or not these orientations are present in the student's minds, but also on the question as to how these orientations relate to one another. Especially this latter question is of importance, because it inquires after the structure of the students' moral consciousness. In addition, attention is also paid to the relationship between these moral orientations and certain religious characteristics. As it turns out, there is still a positive relationship between the students' moral consciousness and religion, wherby with certain religious characteristics relating especially relate to teleological, moral orientations.

This article explores the moral consciousness of Dutch secondary school students. It focuses on the question how teleological and deontological considerations function in processes of moral decision-making? Do young people especially refer to teleological considerations when asked to pass a moral judgment or to deontological considerations? Or do they refer to both? Analyses of the judgments passed by the students with regard to three bio-medical, moral dilemmas show that especially the latter is the case. In order to arrive at a considered judgment, the students are constantly balancing between the ideal of the good life and the moral norm. In this way, the students' moral reasoning displays what is often referred to as practical wisdom or phronesis. Furthermore, there also appears to be a positive relationship between the students' moral consciousness and certain religious characteristics. But at the level of content this appears to be a very specific relationship. That is to say, religious students especially tend to approach moral problems from a deontological perspective.

Starting from the current debate regarding the aim of religious education, the article states this aim in terms of religious identity formation. With the help of Ricoeur’s narrative approach to identity formation, the process of religious identity formation is, first of all, described as a hermeneutic task. Next, the process of religious identity formation is described as an educational task. The authors posit that the formation of a religious identity calls for a specific educational approach: i.e., action learning. Subsequently, the value of this specific educational approach is demonstrated by using it to re-evaluate the effects of a religious education curriculum concerning the problem of theodicy. The analysis shows that the limited effects of this curriculum are due to a predominance of guided learning as opposed to action learning. This finding supports the main thesis of this article, that the formation of a religious identity calls for action learning as an alternative to guided learning.

This article offers a survey of the religious consciousness of Dutch secondary school students. From an educational point of view, this survey is understood as a description of the actual, initial situation of the student population that the comtemporary religious educator faces. Against the background of this survey, the question is raised, therefore, what can still be a ligitimate, general goal of religious education in school given the fact that these students hardly have any affinity with any religious tradition anymore. In order to provide an answer to this question, three concepts of religious education are discussed: education in religion, education about religion and education from religion. However, on the basis of empirical data and a number of pedagogical and theological minimum requirements, it is concluded, then, that none of these concepts offers a sufficient basis for religious education in school today. As a result, an alternative conception of religious education, which focusses on the formation of a personal religious identity, is presented as a possible and viable concept for religious education in the future.

Every human being will sooner or later suffer some sort of evil predicament. Suffering, therefore, is an integral part of life; it's a reality which cannot be denied. As a consequence, everybody sooner or later also has to cope with suffering by attributing some sort of meaning to his evil predicament. Given this fact, the question is raised whether an educational programme can contribute to a person's ability to cope with suffering from a religious perspective. Is religious coping something that can be learned? As empirical research on the effects of an experimental theodicy course shows, this is indeed the case, but only to a limited extent. That is to say, by learning some specific theological concepts an individual becomes able to pass a theodicy judgment, which is identified as a cognitive operation pivotal in religious coping. In this respect, learning religious coping is limited in a cognitive sense to learning specific theological concepts prerequisite to theodicy judgment.