State Church and Religious Equality: A Comparative Study of Competing Logics during the Process of Changing Relations between State and Church in Sweden and Norway

Abstract

In recent decades, the religious landscape in the Nordic countries has changed. Transforming from traditional homogeneous Evangelical-Lutheran societies into more religiously and culturally diverse, there have been reforms creating new relationships between the states and the traditional state churches. Taking a comparative approach, this article analyzes how institutional logics guided the church and state reforms in Norway and Sweden. Analyzing governmental documents through the theoretical lens of institutional logics, the article makes a distinction between the logic of state church and the logic of religious equality. The article shows how the former acts as a foundational logic within policymaking even though there has been a movement towards more religious equality in legislation. Though there are differences in how Norway and Sweden facilitate their arrangements for support to faith communities, the ideas informing the arrangements are similar. We point towards an increased discrepancy behind the ideas informing policymaking and the practical implications of those policies.