CIVIL RELIGION IN A LOW KEY - THE CASE OF NORWAY

In this paper I examine Robert Bellah's thesis about civil religion as a universal phenomenon by applying it to Norwegian society. Two aspec ts of civil religion are considered. First, I study the presence of ci vil religion in Norwegian society. I ask: Is civil religion a phenomen on that exists and has existed in Norwegian history? Second, I disting uish between periods of social stability and of national crises. I att empt to assess whether national crises have a stronger effect on the p resence of a civil religion than periods of social stability. In the e mpirical analysis, I use historical data on national rituals and celeb rations from the period 1905-80. The main findings are: (1) Civil reli gion was found only in a low key in Norway during the years studied. ( 2) National crises only partially had an expected stronger effect on t he presence of civil religion. I found that the constitutional transfo rmations in 1905 did not have a stronger effect on the presence of civ il religion, whereas the German occupation in 1940-45 did have a stron ger effect on the presence of civil religion. (3) 1 found civil religi ous values among the middle class, the Lutheran state church and the r eligious lay movement until the late 1950s. Later, only the religious groups expressed civil religion.