Table Of ContentGod After the Church Lost Control
This book combines insights from sociology of religion and theology to consider
thefundamentalchangesthathavetakenplaceinhowpeoplethinkaboutGodin
contemporary Western society. Itcan besaid that God has become irrelevant for
manypeople,oftenasaresultofwell-groundedethicalcritiqueofchurches.Here
the authors argue for the necessity of rethinking God-talk in a pluralist and
changing context and for thinking critically about hegemonic ways of speaking
aboutGodfroma moral andexperientialperspective,not onlyfromthepointof
view of abstract theology. Drawing on empirical material from a Norwegian
setting, the book advocates a critical-constructive theology with a notion of God
thattakes humanexperienceand socialchange seriously. Itdepictsa God who is
an enabler of moral maturity rather than an authoritarian moral instructor, a
God who is on the side of the marginalized and poor, and a challenge to unjust
hierarchies.
Jan-OlavHenriksenisProfessorofSystematicTheologyandPhilosophyofReligion
attheNorwegianSchoolofTheology,ReligionandSociety(MF)inOslo,Norway.
Pål Repstad is Professor Emeritus in the Sociology of Religion at the University
of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway.
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God After the Church Lost
Control
Sociological Analysis and Critical-
Constructive Theology
Jan-Olav Henriksen and Pål Repstad
Firstpublished2023
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DOI:10.4324/9781003306207
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Contents
Introduction: Why this book? 1
1 On God and change 3
2 Religious trends in Northern Europe – an overview 8
3 Does society shape God? 20
4 The changing Christian God 37
5 Thecrisisoftheology–andwhyitmattersforspeakingaboutGod 58
6 The morally intolerable God – and the alternative 73
7 The politically dangerous God – a God of love 81
8 God as she? Why can’t she be? 100
9 Pluralism challenges notions of God and religious truth 118
10 When God becomes irrelevant to society’s challenges 131
11 God as vulnerable love? 140
Bibliography 151
Subject index 158
Name index 160
Introduction
Why this book?
ThisbookisaboutsomeofthereasonswhyimagesofGodchangeandhowthey
doit.However,itisalsoabouthowtheconditionsforthinkingaboutandbeliev-
ing in God change, and how we need to critically ask how images of God are
construed and what they contribute to society. Moreover, we also want to make
criticalsuggestionsagainstthebackdropofthemorecriticalanalysesweoffer.
TofocusonimagesandconceptionsofGodisnotanobvioustask.Formany
in the Western world, religion, and its concomitant notions of God, represent
remnants of the past. This fact notwithstanding, images of God still impact
how people see themselves, the world, and religion – no matter if they believe
or not. This is a fact even if we do not decide on whether there is a reality
called “God” behind their beliefs, or lack of it. It is the images or notions of
God that shape our perceptions, and decisions about God’s existence or non-
existence cannot alter that fact.
We focus on notions of the Christian God, but without ignoring issues rela-
ted to religious pluralism. Our empirical material stems mainly from Northern
Europe, and it is possible that some of our problem formulations are primarily
relevant to the role of Christianity in the Western world. On the other hand,
the tension between Conservative Christianity and forms of Christianity more
open to change is also a trait in many non-Western parts of the world, as
shown in our discussions about liberation theology. Hence, elements in the
following may also be of interest to readers who live elsewhere than in the
Western sphere.
As is outlined in the following chapters, several elements contribute to the
change in how people think of and believe in God and how they practise their
faith.One ofthe conditions forsuch change isthe increasingreligious plurality.
The is no longer one exclusive, dominant, hegemonic image of God in Western
societies, but several, which live side by side, sometimes competing, sometimes
not. Hence, the Western world is marked increasingly by a plurality of see-
mingly changing, contingent, and sometimes unreconcilable ideas about God.
Moreover, it seems as if people’s ideas of God change all the time.
To think about such topics can be done with a basis in different scholarly dis-
ciplines. The authors represent several of these: Pål Repstad is a sociologist of
religion with a keen interest in theology. Jan-Olav Henriksen is a philosopher of
DOI: 10.4324/9781003306207-1
2 Introduction
religionandtheologianwithakeeninterestinthesocietalandculturalconditions
ofreligion.Thepresentbookresultsfromourconversationsandcooperationover
two decades, although it does not cover all we have been pondering about the
topic. Although we have of course had some division of labor when writing this
book,wehavecommenteduponandrewritteneachother’sdraftseagerly,andwe
bothstandbehindthebookasawhole.
Itshouldbeaddedthatwehavenointentionofmakingafusionofsociologyand
theology.Forus,sociologyisstilladisciplinefollowingtherulesofmethodological
atheism,treatingreligionasasocialphenomenon.1Inthisbook,wedonotunder-
stand “God” as an independent variable, explaining social practices and social
change. It is a variable that depends on and is shaped by the societal context in
variousways,aswehopetoshow.However,wealsofollowBerger’sclassictextin
underlining that a sociological approach is methodological, it is not substantially
atheistic.Sociologyisapartialperspectivethatmaybesupplementedbyotherper-
spectives, such as ethical, aesthetical, political – and even theological approaches.
Sociologycansaysomethingaboutallkindsofreligion,butitdoesnotsayevery-
thing about religion. Based on our many dialogues over the years we believe that
conversations among different disciplines can be enriching for both theology and
sociology. Sociology can give theological reflections and interpretations of the
world,empiricallybased reminders, andeven corrections, whiletheology, with its
sensibility to normativity and the need for human orientation, can bring out into
the open the implicit normativity which often colours seemingly innocent socio-
logical descriptions. Moreover, the intersection of sociology and theology that we
aim atdevelopinginthefollowingbuilds ontheassumptionthatimagesandcon-
ceptionsofGodcanbestudied,analysed,discussed,criticized,anddevelopedbased
on insights that exist and emerge within both disciplines. Contemporary theology
thatisnotinformedbyempiricalandscientificfactswillsoonfinditselfirrelevant
andwillhavelittletosayaboutwhatmattersmostinpeoples’lives.Thus,thatkind
oftheologymaycontributetoincreasedsecularization.Furthermore,sociologythat
isopentotheinterplaybetweenimagesofGodthatbelieversholdandtheirsocial
conditions may have nuanced things to say about religion in society. The mutual
exchangebetweenthedisciplineswillbenefitboth.
We mentioned that this book is a result of many conversations between the
twoofusovertheyears.Wehaveofcoursealsotalkedwithotherpeopleabout
these matters. We would especially like to thank Linda Woodhead, sociologist
and theologian, for conversations over the years that have been important to
both of us, regarding both sociological analyses and theological challenges.
Note
1 PeterL.Berger,TheSacredCanopy (GardenCity,NJ:Doubleday, 1967).
1 On God and change
The dynamics behind believing in God today
It has probably always been the case that people believe in God in different
ways. However, tradition is not the only element that determines their beliefs.
Presently, the changes in how people in the Western world understand and
practise their beliefs in God are not only the result of the clergy or religious
teachers (or theology professors) telling them to change their views and think
otherwise. The societal context conditions how people understand and articu-
late their beliefs and the implications of these beliefs. Accordingly, how per-
ceptionsofGodchangeare,atleasttosomeextent,outsidethecontrolofthose
whoholdpositionsofreligiousauthority.Thepresentbooklooksintohowthis
is the case, and into ways in which religious beliefs in God are outside the
control of established religious authorities.
In a contemporary setting, the relationship between God and society is not
without problems. The following list of topics suggests some challenges that
believers will have to direct their attention to, given that they are interested in
maintaining a mode of belief in God that aligns with what is required in a
pluralistic Western society. Most of these features are discussed in more depth
in the following chapters. These challenges make visible the entanglement of
ideas of God with the contemporary complicated cultural and social situation.
Among the profoundly problematic ideas in theology and religion are the
following:
a ThatGodisonlyGodforsomeselectgroupofpeople,nation,race,class,etc.
b That insight into what is right and good is stewarded by specific groups
who have a textual source that can determine the decisions in these mat-
ters, and concomitantly, that holy scriptures can be seen as authoritative
because they are “the word of God.”
c That some ways of ordering society are right simply because God ordains
them.
d That one gender is more privileged than another because of God’s ordi-
nation, and that inequality between women and men can be justified
theologically.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003306207-2
