Christianity without Faith

10:30 A.M, the organ is played, accompanied by the choir with their dulcet voices. The assembly stands up and turns fixing the entrance door. It opens slowly and the priest walks in gradually, making her way to the chancel. She is dressed in a long black dress with a white-collar pipe around her neck. She stops at the centre, silent, giving her back to the congregation and facing an impressive statute of Jesus on a cross.

The room is peaceful, the organist has stopped playing. For few seconds, you can only hear the wind knocking on the pictorial windows. Then she prays. The prayer done; the congregation replies with a sounding “Amen”. She turns around and with a big smile on her face welcomes the assembly. It is Palm Sunday; three baptisms will be celebrated at St. Johannes Church in Aarhus.

Denmark is known as a Christian country. Since the introduction of the democratic constitution of 1849, the Lutheran Church, which is the Danish People’s Church (“Folkekirke”), has been established as one of the four pillars of Danish society. Moreover, throughout the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Danes used to practice Christianity and follow Christian dogmas faithfully. During that period, Christianity was part of their everyday life. But in recent decades, like in a number of European countries, Denmark has been experiencing a steady decline in church attendance and Christianity consciousness as a whole. According to Denmark official statistics, only 2% of the population attends church at least once per week and many parishes can barely fill a single pew.

Women losing interest

Following recession and unemployment in the 1930s and chaos during the Second World War, the Danish economy saw a robust upturn in the 1950s. Industry became the principal occupation. It overtook agriculture. The Danish workforce increased by almost 1 million from 1960 to 1990, of which roughly 850,000 were women. At that time, it became acceptable for married women to take on paid employment outside the home in order to supplement the family income. Thus, financial constraint pushed women especially housewives to work in other to support their families.

The sociologist Phil Zuckerman states in his research paper - ‘Why are Danes and Swedes so irreligious?’ that historically women have kept their children and husbands interested and involved in religion. On all measures, they are more religious than men.

Women are the ones who push their husbands and children to get up and go to church on Sunday mornings, to keep praying dutifully and study their bibles. They also instill piety in their families and keep the candle of faith lit in their homes. Therefore, if women were to themselves become less interested in religion and have a lower level of faith in our case Christian faith, then a general loss of religion would occur throughout society.

Previous studies have proved that women in paid employment are less religious than women working at home. As we have discussed, women are the pillar of faith in the household. Thus, since Danish women began working, the pressure on the family to follow the religion devotedly vanished gradually. Religion was not the priority anymore but the ability to sustain the family financially was. So looking at the Maslow hierarchy of needs, we can say that Danish women were more concerned about satisfying their physiological needs and safety needs, relegating religion at a lower position.

Also, Zuckerman explains a perspective which states that when people in a given society experience a low degree of security, they tend to be more religious and when they experience a high degree of security, they tend to be less religious. It is known that Danes experience a high degree of security. Denmark is ranked among the happiest countries in the world according to Legatum Institute and Forbes. Danes enjoy generous welfare benefits as well as redistributions of wealth; system which was put to place by the socialist government. Likewise, the country has well-funded and organized school systems and highly educated populations.

Thus, with the women not playing their role but rather shifting their attention to reaching financial satisfaction and the strong welfare system provided by the government, Christianity in Denmark is pushed away and it has become less relevant. Zuckerman stresses that it is more probable for someone who had enjoyed a religious upbringing to adhere to the church, takes part in church life and believe in God. Hence, in Scandinavia, low attendance rates among the young and post-war generations were already the norm in 1990 since the strong emphasis on Christian faith has decreased.

Sociological studies have consistently shown that the more educated a person is; the less likely he or she is to accept supernatural religious beliefs. Sociologist David Voas in his essay - The Rise and Fall of Fuzzy Fidelity in Europe stresses that countries in Europe with higher level of education and higher income exhibit a lower degree of denomination membership, attend church and believe in God less frequently. Also, most European governments have zealously promoted the secular while regarding religious faith as a bit backward.

But where is the work of the state church in order to create the balance?

Lutheran church and the withdrawal crisis

As of the first quarter of 2016, about 4.4 million Danes were members of the Lutheran Church, amounting to 76.9 percent of the population and according to the 2012 statistical yearbook, the percentage was higher, about 80 percent of the population and ten years ago, the number was 83.1 percent. All Danish citizens automatically become members of the Church of Denmark when they are baptised. Moreover, the Lutheran church is partially funded by the Church Tax (Kirkeskat) which is automatically drawn from the normal tax contributions of its members. It varies between 0.5 to 1.5 percent of its members’ incomes, depending on the municipality.

Danes have a high level of confidence in religious institutions which is about 74%. But they do not relate to the Sunday preaching of the priests. For those who seek spiritual solutions to their issues or even want to inquire deeply about the Christian faith, they often do not find it in the Sunday’s preaching which leads to dissatisfaction towards the church or discouragement. According to the Chief-editor of Udfordringen, Henri Nissen, most theologians of the state church have not had a personal experience of the spiritual realities. Some even believe that you can be a priest without believing in God. Moreover, they have not seen much else than their theological books which makes the preaching very abstract and philosophical, turning the message of Christian faith into a humanist theory. Consequently, people will definitely not go to church on a Sunday to listen to perspectives or theories they can read in books or find on the internet.

Sociologist of religion, Peter Lüchau explains that Christian faith has the strongest influence on church attendance. This means that the level of church attendance reflects the level of Christian faith. Despite the fact that 76.9 percent of Danes are members of the Lutheran church, only a minority really believe in God whereas the others would believe in something or a force that is difficult to describe or define. According to a 2010 poll, 24 percent of Danes are atheists, 47 percent believe more vaguely in “some sort of spirit or life force”, and only 28 percent believe in God.

In 2016, Between April and June, 10,000 people left the state church following a nationwide advertising campaign by the country's atheist society (Ateistisk Selskab). It was the highest number of registered withdrawals since 2007. The previous year, it was 9,979 people who left the church. On that advertising campaign website, it was stated that the average Dane will save about 133,000 kroner in church taxes over their lifetime. It had a link through which the necessary paperwork can be completed in order to withdraw. The campaign showed the Danes that it was beneficial for them to leave the Lutheran Church. And since, they were personally dissatisfied with the institutions, they realised that it is better to stay at home and save money since they do not get fulfilment from the church.

On a typical Sunday morning, most of Denmark's 2,100 parish churches are lucky to attract 20 worshippers each. Most Danes attend church on Christian holidays such as Christmas or Easter. They also go to church to support families and friends for baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and funerals. For them, it is more a continued participation in church life-cycle rituals than practicing the Christian faith. In that sense Christianity has become a tradition and a culture, therefore losing its essence. One thing about tradition is that, you can decide if you want to keep on follow it or not. Then, most Danes are realizing they do not really want to follow the tradition of their fathers but desire to form their own. This is supported by Lüchau who states that Danish religiosity is changing.

Also Jakob Wilms Nielsen, pastor of Kvaglung Church, agrees that very few Danes are practising Christians. He argues that Danish people have not ceased to believe, but they have stopped letting their faith shape how they live; therefore the Faith in Jesus has become some kind of belief system and tradition. When, then, a tradition is regarded as backward, it is rejected and abandoned by society. That is why the churches are getting empty, forcing the municipalities and the priests to transform them into museums and tourists sites. But is it possible to change the situation?

Going back to the church

Zuckerman argues that Danes have thus generally lost interest in religion over the course of the 20th century. They are simply becoming less religious which is the case in most European countries. But since Danes have a Christian culture according to Nissen, it can be possible to see a rise in church attendance.

Pastor Jakob says that an increase in attendance can be noticed in his church and the rise can be possible across the society. To make it possible the message should be changed. People need to know that The Faith in Jesus is the most wonderful and freeing experience you could find. He continues by saying: “I think that one of the big shifts in thinking that have to take place both among believers and traditionalists is the way we see and think church because like one pastor put it recently, church is not an event to turn up to, it is a family you belong to.” Thus the message is the key in order to make people understand the relevance of God and demonstrate his existence.

This message base on the existence of God and his purpose for mankind should be preached not only on Sunday but every day through the use of information technologies such as radio, TV and so forth. Opened debates need to be organised in other to really teach and explain to the people what Christianity is and what it implies. Gaute Holm-Hansen, a student, says priests should be more involved into communities. They should not wait for the people to go to them but they should go to the people. According to Nissen, people should believe and practice Christianity from what the Bible teaches. They need to know the importance of God and how he is useful for their lives. Then, they will start fill churches again. Some of these techniques are developed by other Christian groups.

According to Lüchau, Church attendance is not declining currently, it is actually rising. But the number of Danes affiliated with the Danish Lutheran Church, on the other hand, is declining. He stresses that Danes today are less likely to be members of the Danish Lutheran Church but more likely to attend church. Thus, Danes are leaving the state church to join other churches and protestant groups. Christian and Christian-oriented groups count for about 3 percent of the population which is clearly insignificant compared to those who are members of the state church. It is then normal that the rise in attendance in those churches have not been noticed at the national level.

Nissen stresses that the Folkekirken is old fashioned in its form and very traditionalist. There is no open door for the new. He recognised that Denmark has such a great stand in social care, in honesty, in education and a lot of other areas – and this is all because of the Christian culture that has formed the country and the people during 1000 years. But as culture-radical have influences a lot the last 50 years, Denmark now is a country without this important basis and soon the good ‘fruits’ of Christianity will disrupt. But he is not worried about Denmark becoming a Muslim country but rather an atheist one.

A Pew Research Centre report, published in 2010, showed that 4. 63 million people identified themselves as Christians, 650,000 as without a religion and 230,000 as Muslims. While Denmark’s Christians and “none” are projected to dip by 2050, the country's Muslim population is expected to double over the same period, from 230,000 in 2010 to 500,000 in 2050. Even then however, Islam will remain a distant third to Christians and the unaffiliated.

This argument is supported by Lüchau, who says a lot of Danes are afraid of Muslims and hold many prejudices against them, but Muslims as a group is not growing to any large extend and they will most likely never become a majority. And Nissen sees the presence of Muslims as a good thing because many Danish Christian traditionalists are starting to explore their own faith in response to the new presence of other religions (especially Islam).

The walls of the St. Johannes Church are white, decorated with statuettes and at some places paintings of the last supper are drawn. The chandeliers hang low from the ceiling. The congregation is standing; the priest pours water on the last baby’s head after his family and his godfather and godmother have promised to raise him according to the Christian faith. Surprisingly, he does not cry. His eyes are wide opened; he looks at her as if he is listening attentively to the words that are coming out of her mouth – I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy-spirit.