How Did the Dominant Religions (or Secularism) in Your Country Shape The Culture and Mindset of the People?

12 comments

1. That’s a very interesting question because traditionally, Switzerland has two parallel cultures when it comes to religion. The rural, more sparsely populated Cantons are traditionally Catholic. Examples would be St. Gallen, Schwyz, Uri, Glarus, Ticino, Wallis/Valais, Fribourg and Jura. Protestants quickly took control of the more urban and more densely populated Cantons, such as Zurich, Bern, Basel-Stadt, Waadt/Vaud and Geneva.

   For several centuries, these catholic and protestant Cantons lived together in a functioning but oftentimes highly unstable union. During the reformation, both sides attempted to achieve total control by attacking their enemies in various battles. In the end, however, both the catholics and the protestants had to recognize that the power balance was simply too equal. Both were too strong to be defeated but neither side was strong enough to defeat the other.

   During the 30-years War, Switzerland was not an active combatant (technically neutral) but of course the mutual slaughtering all across Europe didn’t exactly help to calm tensions in Switzerland. Instead, they further increased.

   What finally brought the decision was the Industrial Revolution. Naturally, industrialization had its centers in the big cities, almost all of which were protestant. Within less than a century, the scale suddenly tipped massively in the favor of protestants. They had more money, better infrastructure and more modern technology. Yet, animosity only seemed to grow. Catholics now did not only view protestants as heretics but also as rich, arrogant snobs who tried to grab all the power while ignoring the rural, conservative Cantons. In 1847, this powder keg finally exploded. When the protestant (and politically liberal) Cantons declared the foundation of a modern Swiss Confederacy in the spirit of the 1848-ideals (democracy, a modern justice system, civil righs, laicism etc.), the catholic, rural, conservative Cantons rebelled. At first, politicians from both sides tried to find a compromise and solve the problem peacefully but it soon became clear that this time, after 400 years of fermentation, the hostility and violence could no longer be contained. The catholic Cantons created a Confederacy of their own, which they called the “Sonderbund”. It was clear for the liberals that they couldn’t tolerate this, so they declared war. Switzerland’s very first General was called Henri Dufour and he won a quick and overwhelming victory for the protestants/liberals. Contrary to the Civil War in America, Switzerland’s civil war (Sonderbundskrieg) only lasted around 27 days and killed an estimated 400 soldiers, only about 100 of whom actually died in battle. What made Henri Dufour a truly great General is the fact that, contrary to the spirit of that time (think Treaty of Versailles) – he had no intentions of humiliating his opponents. In fact, he tried his utmost to cause a few casualties as possible. Before attacking a town, he would send messengers to warn the civilian population and give them time to escape. He also punished soldiers who stole food from farmers or destroyed people’s homes. His aim was to win this war but in a way that it would leave as few open wounds as possible. It is largely thanks to Dufour’s efforts that in 1848, Switzerland could be founded. As soon as the liberals had won the war, they reached out their hand to the conservative catholics. They wanted to make them understand that even though they had lost the war, they were also needed and wanted in this new union.

   After that, the tensions between catholics and protestants significantly decreased. Some old ressentiments remained into the mid-20th century. For example my grandma told me of a friend from her youth who wasn’t able to marry her big love because her parents were devout protestants and that guy’s parents were devout catholics (so, all four parents opposed the marriage). But generally speaking, there were no big religious arguments post-1848.

   Since you’ve asked about the culture: one very interesting aspect is that of which different Cantons developed differently based on what dominant religion they had. Before, I mentioned how the Industrial Revolution helped the protestants. That’s true – but it could also be viewed the other way around. Protestants brought about the Industrial Revolution. Due to the cultural difference, people also had different values. A great example for this are the two Cantons of Appenzell. While Appenzell-Innerrhoden remained catholic, Appenzell-Ausserrhoden changed to protestantism. This impacted various aspects of life. In Appenzell-Innerrhoden, there are considerably more holidays than in Appenzell-Ausserrhoden. These days, people don’t celebrate them anymore and they’re not public holidays but in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, this difference was very important. While the catholics laid down their work to go to church, the protestants continued working. I once read that in catholic Appenzell-Innerrhoden, people got off work for almost 3 months per year because of all the church holidays. Catholicism always put a very high value on tradition and local customs. This meant that people largely continued to live the way they had lived for centuries before. Meanwhile in protestant Appenzell-Ausserrhoden, strict work ethics became very important. Getting up early, working all day long, being precise, punctual and efficient were all important protestant values. But not just that. Being humble while smartly investing your money were also protestant values and – perhaps most importantly – making constant innovations. So, while the catholics continued to live their relaxed, easy-going, traditional lives as farmers or shepherds, the protestants became craftsmen, merchants and eventually entrepreneurs. It is also partially because of this that Zurich, Bern, Basel and Geneva became such important places in Switzerland. If things had been the other way around, maybe Freienbach, Stans, St. Gallen or Sion would now be the cultural, financial and political centers of our country.

2. There’s a lot you could say about such a huge question like this, but I’m going to mention the one that infuriates me the most: No shopping on Sundays. Literally every fucking shop in this goddamn country is closed on Sundays. It is such a pain in the ass. Especially because all the “smart” people go shopping on Saturdays so you can’t shop then either because fun fact: crowded does not even begin to describe what happens there.

3. The dominant religion in Denmark has been, for the last soon 200 years, an evangelical—yes, Evangelicals like in the US—evangelical Lutheran Christianity. Largely defined by the priest-poet-politician, N.F.S Grundtvig, and his teachings. That said, it has been a very political movement as well, and the Evangelical movement is the birthplace of the Danish liberal movement.

   Contrary to many American Evangelical movements, who would be called “woke” in the terminology of 19th century Denmark, the Evangelical direction that came to dominate here is a “happy” form of Christianity. As said, it was the furnace in which the liberal movement of Denmark was largely forged, and the teachings are mainly concerned with the beauty of life on Earth, community and cooperation. Things like the still hugely popular High School movement originated with Grundtvig, and almost all of the contemporary High Schools continue to have a Grundtvigian basis. Some theologists, who I disagree profoundly with their analysis, even go so far as to say, that a reason for the “success”—if one can even call it that—of the Danish welfare model, in part can be attributed to the prominence of the Evangelical Lutheran church.

   But it is still liberalism, and it is still Christianity, so while it preaches things like salvation for all* and to live autonomous and free life, it also preaches staying in one’s place—”_ved jorden at blive, det tjener os bedst_”—a certain agrarian supremacy over urban life, devotion to the nation, and so-on. It is very much a pro status-quo belief, and not some form of Scandinavian liberation theology.

   It’s influence perhaps peaked in the 1920es, and has since steadily fallen, but by then, it was deeply entrenched as the dominant institutional form of Christianity as well, preached from the national church in almost the whole country. Some Inner Mission communities held out in certain parts of the country, but they later migrated to Western Jutland, where they are still present and influential. Following the War, there began to be the first cracks of new theologies, a form of post-Kierkegaardian theology, combining Kierkegaards religious existentialism and Grundtvigs traditionalist theology, stated to appear. There was also a new renewal in certain parts of the Church that wanted to shed the traditionalism, but they have yet to be successful: the religiousity of most Danes is bound to traditions, without the rituals and traditions, they most likely wouldn’t retain their religiousity.

   How has it influenced the broader culture? Well, it means that we have a church that preaches that going to church is secondary. Hence why looking at church attendance as a measure of religiousity in Denmark isn’t possible. Most people who identify as Christian, go to Church for five reasons only: Baptisms, Confirmations, Weddings, Funerals and Christmas. But oh boy, do people go to church for Christmas! Most churches need to plan 3 or 4 services in order to satisfy demand.

4. First of all, Islam changed Turks soo much that we are have more in common with Middle Easterners than Turks in East Asia at this point (this is a controversial topic btw and this is my opinion). Think about it, Turks came as invaders and later claimed to became the protector of the religion they once fought against.

   Later, once we became secular. We started to have more commonalities with Europe but it was sadly not a people’s revolution to be secular, therefore it required tons of propaganda to stay alive. It still changed the mindset of people a lot. And there are tons of people who wants to stay secular no matter what.

5. Look at our vaccination rate (or almost all Orthodox Christian majority countries). Orthodoxy is a lot of times associated with nationalism and has produced a powerful herd mentality of Orthodox Nationalism.

6. Afaik, it created the Finnish work ethic, where first you do the required work all the way to completion, then you do necessary work to completion, and then you check if there’s any other work you could do, before doing the work that is not critical. Once those are done, you work on things that improve things. And then you finish work, and go home to do homework, and help kids do their homework, and go to sleep and have dreams of work. Then you wake up at 6 AM and prepare for work.

7. The catholic church has played a major role in our country as the religious divide was one of the main reasons why we separated from the protestant Netherlands.

   After the independence, the catholic party has been ruling or part of the ruling government in 41 of the governments we had.

   Despite this, the influence of the catholic church has decreased significantly over the last decades, which allowed Belgium to usually being (one of) the first country to pass progressive laws regarding topics like abortion, gay rights or euthanasia.

   The French speaking aisle of the catholic party has changed their name already 20 years ago or so and replaced ‘christian’ with ‘humanist’ (lmao) because they knew ‘christian’ wasn’t selling anymore. In Flanders, that is traditionally more catholic and conservative, the party is still using ‘christian’ in their name but doesn’t really make lots of fuzz about it. They do have more conservative view though (e.g. for the formation of the current government – negociations that lasted more than a year – they blackmailed the other parties, saying they would only enter if the others would accept to not loosen up too much the abortion law – the aim was notably to extend the amount of weeks allowed for having an abortion).

8. It’s a tricky topic, because for such a long time religion was one of the dominant cultural and political forces in British history. How do you separate out the effects of something which was ingrained in to so much of the fabric of society?

   That said, the period of time where religion probably played its biggest role in Britain was between Henry VIII breaking away from Rome, through the English Civil Wars, and on to the Glorious Revolution. There were several really big effects of this:

   * In the initial period, the move was purely political. Henry VIII was not a protestant, and just wanted an independent Catholic style church in England. However, moving away from Rome caused big international breaks with near by countries, and would eventually lead England (and then Britain) to align itself with leading protestant states like the future Netherlands.
   * Later on there was a big struggle in England between those who wanted the CoE to remain Catholic in nature and those who wanted it to be more protestant. This divide was a big factor leading to the English Civil Wars, and those wars in turn saw an explosion in new religious denominations and sects. Many of those religious groups would go on to leave England for the colonies in America when the reformation closed the door on them achieving a dominant position in England.
   * An often under appreciated aspect to the English Civil Wars was the opportunity it gave for religious groups in Scotland to assert themselves, playing one English faction off against another. It was a big step in continuing to allow the Scottish church to evolve in a separate direction to the English church.
   * Many governments during this period would play up the popular fear of a Catholic invasion of Ireland. Cromwell’s campaigns in Ireland probably wouldn’t have played out in the same way without this, and the Catholic vs protestant divide would shape relations with Ireland for a very long time.
   * The threat of James II becoming Catholic, and having a Catholic heir, was enough for Parliament to do what we’d now call a military coup: the invitation of William of Orange to invade England in the Glorious Revolution. This event took the precedent set in the Civil War and made it permanent: Parliament can choose who should be monarch. This was a huge step towards the evolution of England, and then Britain, in to a parliamentary monarchy. It probably would have eventually happened anyway, but religion was the trigger moment for it happening at this point.

9. The English mentality is basically inseperable from ‘Protestant values’. We (in theory) value hard work, modesty, and thrift.

10. Religion in Ireland is very interesting. Early Christianity mixed with Celtic Mythology to make a strange mix. Celtic gods became Christian saints for example and Celtic art influenced religious texts and the building of churches. It made Irish Christianity very unique.

    Protestantism brought huge changes to Irish culture. Our imperial overlord was Protestant and tried to make us Protestant, and so we became much more attached to the idea of Catholicism and it became much more engraved in our culture. It has lead to a mindset in Ireland where you are always a Catholic regardless of where or not you even believe in God. [See Irish Comedian accurately explain my point.](https://youtu.be/FdolFXcNAH4)

11. The dominant faith in Hungary was, for the longest time, the catholic church. Church officials, especially the Arcbishop of Esztergom, had great influence over the country, but their power was often overshadowed by the king’s and the magnate’s.

    Religion played a huge role during the 17th century, when being catholic ment you are pro-Habsburg, being Reformed ment you were anti-Habsburg. It was made possible mostly by the religious tolerance of the Principalty of Transylvania, and our only non-catholic king János II.

    Hungary remained very diverse religion wise. Having large orthodox, reformed, lutheran, unitarian and jewish population. This may have helped that the various churches didn’t played a huge role during the 20th century.

12. On one side, there’s still a strong tie with religion both in law and ceremonies to the point you question if we’re actually a saecular state.

    On the other side everyone support freedom of belief or disbelief (by contrast blasphemy is still frowned upon, right for the “respect beliefs” attitude), I mean we have a Shinto temple and even tombstones with sickle and hammer.