Religie & Samenleving wil een podium bieden aan hen die zich bezig houden met de bestudering van de veranderingen in religie en religieuze organisaties in de Europese samenleving van de laatste twee eeuwen. Daarmee wil het tijdschrift een bijdrage leveren aan het debat over de rol van religie in de hedendaagse maatschappij. Religie & Samenleving kiest voor een multidisciplinaire benadering om zo het gesprek tussen de sociale wetenschappen onderling en tussen wetenschap en de samenleving te stimuleren. Vanuit dit brede perspectief wil het ook beleidsmakers en het geïnteresseerde publiek informeren over de veranderingen in religie in relatie tot de sociale, culturele en historische context. Het tijdschrift biedt daarom een plaats aan – in toegankelijke stijl geschreven – wetenschappelijke artikelen en essayistische bijdragen uit verschillende disciplines. Recente themanummers (2025)
Remundt, Jos van. 2025. Spirituele verbeelding. Ontdekkingen op het kruispunt van hoop en fantasie
Copyright (c) 2026 Lieke Wijnia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Ekris, Kees van. 2025. De magie van het geloof. Theologie over bezieling en betovering
Copyright (c) 2026 Viggo van Uden https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Oort, Hans van. 2025. Israël? Wat Jezus, apostelen en evangelieschrijvers werkelijk zeggen
Copyright (c) 2026 Hubert Mooiman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Motieven van jonge bekeerlingen in orthodoxe kerken in Nederland
In recent years, there appears to have been a cautious increase in the number of young converts (Generation Z) to Christianity in several Western countries. Relatively little is known about the motivations of these young converts. In public media, their conversion is often associated with a broader trend of increasing conservatism among young people, and the COVID-19 pandemic is sometimes identified as a period during which many young individuals began searching more actively for meaning and purpose. This article represents an initial step towards investigating these motivations. It is based on semi-structured interviews with eight young converts to Orthodox Christian communities in the Netherlands. The findings of this exploratory study underline the general trend towards conservatism, the crucial role of the internet, and the significance of biographical crises in conversions. These findings may serve as a foundation for future, larger-scale research.
Copyright (c) 2026 Mette van Hell, Stefan Paas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Joas, Hans. 2024. Why the Church? Self-Optimization or Community of Faith
Copyright (c) 2026 Ton Bernts https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Wagemakers, Joas. 2024. Hamas. Palestijns nationalisme en militant pragmatisme
Copyright (c) 2026 Razi Quadir https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This essay responds to Peter van Rooden’s critical review of the report God in the Netherlands 1966-2024 in this journal. Besides minor criticisms of the scope and methodology of the study (the research was limited to Christianity, as in all previous editions, and the authors’ commentaries were primarily intended to be informative, leaving interpretation and further research to specialists), Van Rooden criticizes the report’s characterization of Dutch ‘civil religion’ as a serious error. The use of this concept — which he associates with right-wing extremism — without examining Muslims ‘stinks of a brown sewer’. Because he emphasizes he is giving a political judgement of a scholarly work for the first time in his academic career, this response brings back to mind Van Rooden’s own interpretation of the so-called ‘purple unity’ of the Dutch religious regime, magnifying non-Christian liberalism while neglecting Islam and orthodox Protestantism (Van Rooden 1996). The critic falls on his own sword.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fred van Lieburg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Geen bronnenkritiek, nauwelijks interpretatie, falend politiek oordeel
God in the Netherlands 1966-2024 is the sixth installment (since 1966) of an investigation of the religiosity of the Dutch, basically documenting the continuing decline of the mainline Dutch Christian churches from their peak around 1960. It is based on mass-surveys. The new edition brings nothing new or surprising. It is marked by a singular lack of reflection on the reliability of the data produced by its survey and hardly interprets its results. For instance, 55% of the Dutch are of the opinion that people ought not to be free to dress religiously at work. The highly probable interpretation that they are thinking of Muslim girls is not discussed. Dutch Muslims (some 6% of the population) were excluded from the survey on weak methodological grounds, although they are probably a larger religious group than either the committed main-line Protestants or Catholics. In the current political context, where extreme right-wing political forces all over Europe seek to exclude Muslims from full citizenship, this is a deplorable decision.
Copyright (c) 2025 Peter van Rooden https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This study examines the relationship between religiosity and various aspects of social cohesion in the Netherlands: social trust, institutional trust, social participation, and political participation. Does religion have a positive influence on social cohesion? In this respect, do we see differences between religions in the Netherlands? And what do these insights say about the future of social cohesion in the Netherlands? To answer these questions, data from over 5,000 respondents from the 2023 survey 'The Netherlands in Focus' (Nederland in Beeld) was analyzed. What we see is a mixed picture. The behavioral aspects of religion, in particular, are positively correlated with various aspects of social cohesion. Whether people consider themselves religious plays a minor role. However, the position of religious minority groups in the Netherlands is significant, both with regard to social and institutional trust and with regard to social and political participation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maroesjka Versantvoort https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Redactie https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article analyzes the media reception of the 2025 report God in the Netherlands and examines how Dutch newspapers and broadcasters have framed its findings. While the report highlights nuanced shifts in Generation Z’s attitudes toward religion—showing slightly greater openness to belief and church membership than previous cohorts—most media coverage reduced these complexities to sensational claims of a ‘religious comeback’. An analysis of newspaper headlines reveals that nearly 80% framed the study as evidence of renewed religiosity, especially among youth, while overlooking continued secularization, declining church authority, and alternative forms of social cohesion. This selective framing not only simplifies but also politicizes the data, often conflating ‘religion’, ‘Christianity’, and ‘faith’. Yet, rather than dismissing such frames as distortions, the article argues for a strategic engagement with them. Media moments like these can be used to advance more nuanced, interdisciplinary discussions on religion, identity, and belonging in contemporary Dutch society.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ernst van den Hemel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The longitudinal study God in the Netherlands 1966-2024 confirms the trends of secularization and religious individualization with respect to Christianity. These trends coincide with developments in the law with respect to religion. Paradoxically, religious individualism coincides with a stress on equal treatment regardless of religion rather than on freedom of religion itself; religious individualism coincides with increasing significance of institutional freedom of religion; and controversy over moral issues in society coincides with a more or less effective guarantee of freedom of religious conscience in these areas. In the sphere of government, the trends of secularization and religious individualization coincide with rapprochement towards religious organizations. This contribution highlights and explains these developments.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sophie van Bijsterveld https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article critically reviews the concept of religion underlying the research God in the Netherlands. This research is conducted every ten years in the Netherlands. The research was first conducted in 1966, when the Netherlands were still predominantly Christian. Since then, the Netherlands became more secular: (Christian) religious beliefs and institutions declined. The question that is central in the 2024 edition is: what holds Dutch society together, given the decline of Christian religiosity? It argues that civil religion connects Dutch people today. Indeed, Christianity, more precisely, Protestantism, functioned as a public religion already in the Dutch Republic. However, I argue that we need to understand civil religion in connection with white Christian nationalism.
Copyright (c) 2025 Janneke Stegeman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Waardevolle traditie die toe is aan verbouwing
This article evaluates the latest edition of God in the Netherlands, confirming the continued decline of Christianity and increasing fragmentation within the religious landscape. It recommends further investigation of Generation Z, in response to emerging signs of a potential shift in religious engagement among this generation. Moreover, based on concerns regarding the concept of religion and formulations of Christian belief used in this study, the author proposes a fundamental redesign of future research, including a broader and more inclusive understanding of religiosity, the inclusion of Muslim and Jewish populations, and a mixed-methods approach integrating quantitative and qualitative data. Finally, the article advocates for a multidisciplinary symposium for scholars from various disciplines to develop a shared framework for a comprehensive and inclusive study to succeed God in the Netherlands by 2035.
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Implicaties voor rollen en competenties van geestelijk verzorgers
As chaplaincy is situated on the intersection of institutional religion and the public domain, societal changes in religion affect the position and meaning of chaplaincy care. Recent research shows that while secularization in Dutch society continues, other developments can be observed, such as increasing religious illiteracy, cultural homogenization and heterogenization, fragmentation, and a growing discrepancy between the official perspectives and creeds of churches and the lived faith of church members. Reflecting on these developments, we argue that some roles and competences of the chaplain will become more important or will change from character: the roles of interpreter and spiritual guide, hermeneut, representative, moral counselor, and ritualist. To prepare future chaplains to accompany persons in their existential needs in Dutch society, some competencies will become more important to acquire in chaplaincy training.
Copyright (c) 2025 Niels den Toom, Anke I. Liefbroer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Nederlandse christenen met een niet-westerse migratieachtergrond
For the first time, the study God in the Netherlands 1966-2024 has taken migration background into account in its analyses. This reflects the changes in Christian communities in the Netherlands as a result of migration since 1966. Around one million Christians with a migration background now live in the Netherlands. This article focuses on how the developments outlined in God in the Netherlands are affecting Christian communities with a non-Western migration background in the Netherlands. I highlight a number of themes that are relevant to these communities. For each theme, I summarize the information that can be obtained from God in the Netherlands, supplementing it with data from other studies and practical experiences. While many of the developments addressed in God in the Netherlands are relevant to non-Western migrant Christians, their starting point is different. First generation migrants are rarely socialized in a secular or secularizing society—they enter it at the moment of migration. This article highlights some of the implications of this.
Oude en nieuwe fundamenten voor onderwijs en schoolidentiteit in Nederland
Between 1966 and 2024, Dutch schools have experienced significant changes. Due to processes of secularization, individualization and pluralization, many confessional schools now find that most students no longer base their life perspectives and personal identities on Christianity. The rise in mental health issues among young people might be partly linked to these processes. Confessional schools have been developing new fundamental principles to shape their educational identity. By grounding their school identity in Christian-human values, the authors suggest that these schools can be viewed as part of ‘civil religion’. Religious education has also undergone major transformations: most schools no longer adopt the ‘learning into religion’ approach and instead focus on ‘learning from religion’. It is interesting to observe emerging trends among Generation Z. This generation appears somewhat more religious than previous generations. Providing religious education for the diverse students in the classroom seems more relevant than ever for society’s future.
Copyright (c) 2025 Juliëtte van Deursen-Vreeburg, Monique van Dijk-Groeneboer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article argues that churches should be vulnerable spaces where seekers of God encounter honesty, rest, and formation rather than rigid certainty or endless discussion. Drawing on the report God in the Netherlands 1966-2024, it highlights the surprising openness of Generation Z (17-25 year old) to faith and the church. Unlike earlier trends, Gen Z shows stronger interest in religion, often shaped by social media and influencers, though actual participation in practices like prayer and church attendance remains limited. This development challenges small orthodox Protestant churches, such as the Dutch Reformed Churches (NGK), to create hospitable and intergenerational communities. Renewal, however, cannot come from repeating old methods but requires reflexivity – the willingness to question and adapt practices. Young people are not seeking entertainment but depth, tradition, and experiences of the sacred. Sustainable church life thus calls for distinctive leadership that nurtures openness, dialogue, and shared discovery across generations.
The recent edition of God in the Netherlands presents an intriguing image of contemporary Dutch Catholics. Church membership, practice and salience are in decline, while the appreciation for the cultural role of religion and national pride are on the rise. In particular for Catholics and unaffiliated believers, Christianity tends to function as a civil religion. This aligns with a global trend, such as the rise of white Christian nationalism in the United States. Generation Z, with slightly higher church membership rates than Generation Y, takes part in the rising positive appreciation of the social and political role of religion. Catholics are underrepresented in Dutch Generation Z but in countries such as France, the popularity of Catholicism among this generation is growing. There is anecdotal evidence for an increase of baptisms in the Netherlands as well, next to a growing popularity of Catholicism in online culture. This calls for further research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kees de Groot, Nora Kindermann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Religie, levensbeschouwing en burgerschap op school
Education in worldview and religion (levensbeschouwing en religie) is in flux in the Netherlands and Flanders. With the revised 2020 law on citizenship education, the Dutch government made knowledge of diversity of worldview and religion a compulsory component of citizenship education in both primary and secondary education. Within the educational field, twenty partners have united to form the Expert Centre for Worldview and Religion (Expertisecentrum LERVO) to strengthen and develop teaching on worldview and religion. In Flanders, the government is planning to make integrative interreligious education compulsory for all pupils in secondary education. Against this backdrop, the four research articles, two project descriptions, and three book/rapport reviews of this thematic issue review how teachers, teacher trainers, and schools are busy reinventing worldview education in the Netherlands and Flanders. The pupils is central to all these projects and initiatives. The point is to provide pupils with the knowledge and insight that they need to navigate a religiously pluralistic society and to develop a personal worldview compass that can provide existential security and well-being.
The volume God in the Netherlands 1966-2024 documents developments in the religiosity of Dutch affiliated Christians. Against the background of continuing secularization and a diversifying religious landscape due to migration, this focus implies that the population under study is becoming increasingly selective over time. Rooted in migration studies, the present contribution argues that it is essential to take the Dutch population with a migrant background into account for a comprehensive understanding of ‘God in the Netherlands’ in 2025. After sketching the obstacles to a more inclusive research approach, the current state of knowledge of religiosity of the population of migrant origin is presented. The contribution ends with proposals for a research agenda that broadens the empirical scope both of the target population – beyond (Sunni) Muslims from specific origin countries – and of the conceptualizations and measures of religion, and beyond Christianity-based measures that ignore the different ways in which individuals reason about religion.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fenella Fleischmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Een andere ordening van religie en geloof
The latest edition of God in the Netherlands traces changing patterns of religious experience and church involvement. Although traditional structures are under pressure, subtle shifts point to new forms of religious expression and community building. Within the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, a tension is becoming apparent between institutional decline and renewal. A transition is underway from administrative membership to participatory involvement, for which traditional measuring instruments are inadequate. A reorganization of religion is taking place within a changing society, in which religion and faith are taking on different, less formally recognizable forms and raising new questions about vitality and relevance.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marten van der Meulen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Het programma Toekomst Religieus Erfgoed
The program Future of Religious Heritage, coordinated by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), is dedicated to ensuring a sustainable future for Dutch places of worship. The program leader of the Future of Religious Heritage program reflects on the book God in the Netherlands 1966-2024 from her perspective. This publication offers a historical-sociological overview of religiosity in the Netherlands and discusses, among other things, the Dutch population's declining connection with institutional Christianity. What remains underexplored in the book is the physical impact of these processes: the effect on places of worship. This is despite the fact that a church building is a place of gathering and also the direct expression of religious communities in the urban and social landscape. It is precisely the condition of buildings that reveals the secularization and decline in the number of believers. Due to secularization, approximately 150 churches lose their religious function every year, which raises questions about preservation, secondary use, and repurposing.
Copyright (c) 2025 Judith Toebast https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Sociologie ten dienste van maatschappijverbetering en kerkvernieuwing
On May 7, 2025, the sociologist (of religion) Mady A. Thung died, 98 years old. Thung’s academic work, as well as her work for church renewal, was based on a social commit-ment to justice and sustainability. She was a visionary but also committed to solid empirical research. Here, we offer an overview of Thung’s life and work as a sociologist and sociologist of religion. Thung was the driving force behind the Multidisciplinary Centre for Church and Society in the Netherlands and contributed in several roles to the development of the sociology of religion in the Netherlands.
Copyright (c) 2025 Herman Noordegraaf, Sipco Vellenga https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Baumgartner, Christoph. 2024. Religion in Liberal Democracy as a Form of Life: Free and Equal.
Copyright (c) 2025 A. Sophie Lauwers https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article explores the experiences of interreligious couples by analyzing preliminary findings from a research project in Belgium. It focuses on couples in which one partner is Muslim, and the other is non-religious, Christian or Jewish. ‘Mixedness’ is approached as potentially comprising various types of difference and inequality, because religious difference is often racialized and gendered. The article explores the narratives of 24 interviewees with the following research question: how is ‘mixedness’ negotiated in everyday life? It foregrounds the empirical themes of individual religious change, children’s education, family interactions and racism. First, the analysis shows that mixed couples are a relevant domain for exploring religious agency as a relational phenomenon. Second, it shows that the everyday life of mixed couples is co-shaped by notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ religion, which especially problematize Muslimness within mixed families. Ultimately, the article argues that mixed couples’ formations of individual selves and family life reinforce, contest and reimage the gendered religio-racial formations in which they are embedded.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nella van den Brandt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The longitudinal research project God in the Netherlands (GiN) concluded in its 2025 edition several contradictory trends. On the one hand, there are clear signs of secularization, while on the other hand there are higher levels of orthodoxy among believers. In society, religious values seem to be transformed in culture. As the authors were not able to bring these trends together in one theoretical framework, this article proposes the Luhmann-Beyer theory of functional differentiation as an explanation: as society differentiates and human society becomes prominent (secularization), religion becomes a differentiated system on its own (sacralization), and as a differentiated system it has to perform religious functions for the rest of society (culturalization). This implies, however, contrary to some critiques of the GiN research project that the research is too focused on institutionalized religion, that we have to focus on institutional religion to understand what role religion plays in modern society. In the conclusion, several directions for future research are sketched on the basis of the GiN research results and the Luhmann-Beyer theory.
Copyright (c) 2025 Erik Sengers https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Het publieke belang van religiewetenschap
This contribution explores the current debate about the societal value of the study of religion. It clarifies what it means to ask for the relevance, importance, or use of religious studies for society at large, and demonstrates how scholars of religion produce research with significant societal impact. The contribution concludes with a plea for research that serves societal needs, but also critically interrogates existing assumptions of what is in the interest of society. To be able to do that, robust positive academic freedom is needed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Christoph Baumgartner https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Dutch public secondary education, there is no mandatory subject dedicated to personal development and worldview education. At the same time, the revised 2020 law on citizenship education emphasizes the necessity of incorporating elements of worldview education into the broader framework of citizenship education. This study examines the content, methods, and skills offered within school-specific citizenship (or worldview education) courses in public schools. The findings indicate that these courses focus on societal issues, personal development, and worldview education, and that they employ specific pedagogical methods and skills, such as reflection, critical thinking, and decision-making. Based on these findings , we formulate recommendations for how public schools may implement a school-specific citizenship course that gives structural attention to the person-oriented part of citizenship education.
Copyright (c) 2025 Angelique Heijstek-Hofman, Marije van Amelsvoort, Monique van Dijk-Groeneboer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
‘Ik dien mijn God met het instrument van de duivel’
Dutch language street rappers who are Muslim frequently experience a double tension. On the one hand, the street life they describe in their lyrics often refers to matters like crime and violence, which their religion and they themselves condemn as sinful. Simultaneously, many rappers harbour strong doubts about the permissibility of instrumental music in general. Nonetheless, they express their Islamic faith through regular references in lyrics, often in direct contrast to the sinful ‘streets’ and music. This article fills a void in current literature about hip-hop and Islam by taking this tension seriously, building on recent efforts probing the role of Islam in wider street culture. Taking on Derrida’s ‘Faith and Knowledge’ (1998), I will argue that streetrap and streetculture function by the logic of the tele-techno-scientific capitalism, which both harms and enables the spread of religion in late modernity. I thus make sense of the presented tension by arguing that it can channel, strengthen or ground the religious experience despite uprooting it simultaneously.
Copyright (c) 2026 Floris Bosscher https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0