Religions of Europe: An Introduction

Research output

Complete citation

Nykvist, Martin, and Emin Poljarević. “Religions of Europe: An Introduction.” In Religions of Europe: Selected Texts Presented at the Euroculture Intensive Programme 2021, edited by Martin Nykvist, 5–14. Studies in Religion and Society 24. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2025. ISBN 978-91-513-2415-9.

Status

Published (2025)

Publication type

Scholarly book chapter

Overview

This introductory chapter frames the study of religion in Europe through the continent’s historical plurality, changing political institutions, and contemporary patterns of mobility and belonging. It resists accounts that equate Europe exclusively with Christianity or with a straightforward process of secularisation. Instead, it approaches European religion as a field shaped by established churches, minority traditions, migration, legal arrangements, public controversies, and diverse forms of lived practice. The chapter introduces the volume’s comparative contributions and explains why religion remains consequential for European identities even where formal affiliation and participation have declined. Its contribution is to provide an accessible conceptual orientation for interdisciplinary study, connecting historical change with contemporary questions of pluralism, citizenship, secular governance, and the public visibility of religious communities.

Research question or central concern

How should religion in Europe be studied when inherited Christian institutions, secularisation, migration, minority traditions, and lived religious practices coexist and interact?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The chapter rejects singular narratives of either Christian Europe or linear secular decline. Through an interdisciplinary and comparative framing, it presents European religion as historically layered and institutionally diverse. Its principal contribution is a conceptual map linking religious change to citizenship, pluralism, migration, and public life.

Keywords

Europe; religion; secularisation; religious pluralism; migration; citizenship; lived religion