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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.

Traditional religious groups are frequently under attack in contemporary society. This paper examines the negative framing found in social media. We look into the frame ‘haatbaard’ (‘hate beard’) for fundamentalist Muslims, ‘kleuterneuker’ (‘child fucker’) for clergy sexual abuse, and ‘pannetje soep’(‘soup pot’) for charity. Using framing theory, the paper shows how diagnostic and motivational framing are used to evoke strong negative responses toward orthodox religious groups. The anti-Muslim frame plays primarily on fear, whereas the anti-Catholic frame plays on anger. After examining these frames, the paper discusses the relation between religion, the state, and the public sphere and concludes by discussing the space for orthodox-religious groups in contemporary society and the frames needed to accommodate that.

This paper starts from the thesis, recently suggested by various sociologists and historians, that the Netherlands are no longer a country of minorities, but a country with a dominant liberal majority. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct this majority ideology. This ideology can be characterized as partly liberal and partly republican (in the French tradition of republicanism). We may discern seven characteristics of this ideology: 1. a strong emphasis on liberty in the private sphere; 2. a privatization of identities; 3. a voluntaristic understanding of identities; 4. an understanding of equality as conformity with the average or standard citizen; 5. a French republican view on citizenship; 6. rising moral expectations; 7. a Protestant understanding of religion (e.g. a focus on religious texts and on orthodoxy). In this contribution the argument is put forward that the rise of this new moral majority leads to a diminishing understanding and a diminishing empathy not only for religion, but for everyone who is not similar to the standard of a white, Dutch/speaking, secular and straight male. This has implications for liberal politics, for democratic minority rights and for liberal Protestantism: their bases of support are vulnerable.

The pillarization of Dutch society is a much-studied phenomenon. Generally, four theories explain the rise of this societal constellation: emancipation of religious minorities, protection of religious minorities, modernization and mobilization, and pacification of minorities’ interests. This paper evaluates these four theories with the case of the social activists of Berne Abbey. This abbey is part of the Norbertine order and between 1890 and 1940, it hosted four priests who were deeply engaged in the social question, particularly concerning farmers, small entrepreneurs and employers. They founded and organized catholic professional organizations and cooperations for members, and ultimately contributed to catholic corporative society in the Netherlands. The conclusion is that before 1906-1916 – when bishops ordered exclusively catholic organizations – emancipation thesis is valid, but after that period the protection thesis. Also: for members modernization thesis can explain the case, but for leaders in the movement, social pacification was an important motivation. The pillar was not a monolith, and originated in reaction to external and internal tensions.

European students and teachers both seem to lack a precise knowledge of European Values. The European Value Education (EVE)-project therefore developed educational materials that would help secondary teachers to discuss these values in schools. These materials were made available for free online. They were developed in such a manner that would allow teachers to apply them directly in their own classes. The EVE-project envisioned the materials to be also used by teachers of religious education (RE), since the materials discuss topics that are traditionally addressed in RE-classes. However, no RE-teachers were involved in the EVE-project. Recently, value education, especially in the context of citizenship education, has received more attention in the Dutch curriculum as a whole and the RE-curriculum in particular. The EVE-materials could help teachers in secondary education to study values together with their students. This paper analyses the didactic activities and sources provided by the EVE-project in order to ascertain their usefulness for Dutch teachers of RE. It analyses the ways the materials support their goals and the way they approach the topic of religion in order to provide some guidepost on how to use them in the Dutch RE-classroom.

This paper analyses the tensions perceived in the political debate between the freedom of education and the status of publicly funded denominational schools in the Netherlands on the one hand and the limitations flowing from the principles of separation of church and state and state neutrality on the other. It is argued that public funding of these schools is not incompatible with these principles – attention is drawn to a recent law which ensures some structural funding of religious instruction even on public schools – and that there are no good reasons – perceived risks with regard to issues of quality, segregation, indoctrination – to put an end to such funding.

The importance of social sciences for church policy is the reason for a fierce debate in this journal. In the case of the Dutch Roman Catholic Church, the conflictuous events of its history are considered in the discussion. This paper shows that it is more fruitful to investigate small-scale case studies to establish the role of social sciences in church policy. Here, the Pastoral Plan for the inner city of Amsterdam (1969) is presented as an example. The plan foresaw the closure and re-functionalization of many churches because of the expected restructuring of the inner city of Amsterdam. As this restructuring did not take place as expected, the whole plan soon became superfluous. The role of social sciences in this Plan is clear at every possible level, but the concrete influence has to be established by more, and ecumenical, case studies.

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.

This paper investigates (trends and determinants of) individual combinations of religious believing and belonging in Europe from a cross-national and longitudinal perspective. Individual level data for the period 1981-2007 in 42 countries derived from the European Values Survey and the European Social Survey are harmonised and enriched with contextual characteristics, constituting a more comprehensive data base for Europe than any previous research. Complementary hypotheses from modernization and market theories are derived systematically and tested rigorously. We find differential trends. In western societies, the popularity of secularity and consistent religiosity has persisted. In former communist societies, the popularity of consistent religiosity has increased whereas secularity has decreased. In both western and former communist societies, solitary religiosity has been a clear yet small phenomenon, somewhat increasing in western societies and somewhat decreasing in former communist societies. A crucial hypothesis derived from modernization theories, stating that financial and social security would decrease consistent religiosity is empirically supported.

Johannes Aengenent was sociology-professor at Warmond seminary until 1928 and bishop of Haarlem until 1935. This paper investigates the characteristics of his sociology. In the first section, Aengenent is placed in the historiography of early sociology. It appears that he belongs to the ethical or normative sociology, that in this early phase was an integral part of sociological science but gradually disappeared from what became the sociological discipline. The second section discerns the main themes of his sociology with the help of the ‘sociological reviews’ that he published regularly. This section confirms his interest for the socio-economic problems that came with the modernization of Dutch society at the turn of the century. The last section describes what he saw as the ‘catholic’ aspects of his sociology. In the conclusion, the relevance of normative sociology for present-day sociology is discussed.

This article focuses on the theory put forward by Donald Capps in his The Depleted Self (Sin in a narcissistic age. Minneapolis: Fortress Pres, 1993) stating that there is a particular link between narcissism and the commitment of particular deadly sins. The data in the research reported in this paper robustly validate the idea that the psychological consequences of the bureaucratic consumer society, understood as a lack of individual well-being leading to a narcissistic defense, show the theological relevance of the deadly sins. In essence: narcissism seems to be the most important variable in explaining the two factors of sin: resentment and desire.