Guidelines for Teachers

Introduction for teachers

Contemporary Europe is characterized by a growing religious diversity combined with a coexistence of people coming from various cultural backgrounds. The religious map of the hour is the product of a thousand-year history, on one hand, and on recent migration flows, on the second hand. Old religious map had been forged by two historical major splits: firstly, the split between the Latin (Catholic) world and the Greek (Christian Orthodox) world during the Middle Ages and, secondly, the split within the  Western world between Catholic and Protestant Europe at the time of the Protestant Reformation (16th century). This map is also marked by the history of the last two centuries since most of European countries have passed through a process of secularization and/or laicization in which religious plurality meant the coexistence between denominations, religions and non-religious convictions within a secular framework: the secular State claims to be neutral faced with all religious and convictional belongings of its citizens. But during the last three decades, the new immigration has led to a new kind of religious plurality which has been challenging the compromise passed between traditional religions and the secular States.
Moreover, religious forms of belonging, practice and belief have become ever more diversified rendering religious diversity one of the dominant axes of cultural difference in European cities. This diversification is mainly the result of two processes: firstly, the growth of religious movements and new forms of spirituality thanks to a liberalization of the so-called “religious market” and to the expansion of consumer society which modifies religious demands; and secondly, the growth and increasing internal differentiation of the religious traditions of migrant groups. This new diversity challenges ancient religious maps characterized by the prevalence of one denomination (Northern Europe, Italy, Spain), or by a coexistence between two main denominations belonging to the same religious tradition (for example Germany, the Netherlands).
Before any attempt of understanding causes and consequences of diversity in religious matters, it is important to clearly distinguish two notions that are often confused in political speech: “religious diversity” as a purely descriptive notion and “religious pluralism” as an evaluative or normative notion: indeed, most countries of the world are experiencing a certain level of religious diversity, because no society is completely homogeneous, especially at a time of worldwide migrations, but in some of them this diversity is denied, rejected, or presented as a danger to fight. On the contrary, in countries based on democratic principles and liberal practices, like the European countries, religious pluralism is legitimated by domestic law and by international conventions (or European treatises). As a principle, it is positively considered in the European political tradition. Nonetheless, in many European countries, there is now a vigorous political and ideological debate about the nature and the extent of the rights which may be afforded to communities (beyond the rights afforded to individuals only).
The concrete forms of religious pluralism observed in the various European countries have been and are related to the various religious traditions present in these countries, and to the history of relationships between the State, society, religion and anti-religious groups. The kind of religious pluralism accepted and favoured in a country is in link with the process of nation-state building proper to this country, and their way to integrate the new religious diversity issued from recent migrations.
In some countries like France, marked by an ancient tradition of strong affirmation of the State (before and still more after the Revolution of 1789), and by a political tradition of distrust toward any risk of encroachments of religious power on the political field, we can observe a reluctance of the centralized State to acknowledge and, still less, to give a role to intermediate communities whatever they are grounded on religious identity or not. In this model (labelled as “Republican model” in France), religious pluralism is accepted at the individual level mainly with few collective rights afforded to communities. This model has been challenged since the 70s and since then, in relation to the renewal of community affirmation in some religions (Jews and Muslims notably).
In some other countries like Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the State has been weaker for different historical reasons and often was grounded on a compromise between two or more political-religious forces : Catholic versus Protestant in Germany and the Netherlands, Catholics versus Liberals non- or anti-religious parties) in Belgium.
Faced with the new forms of diversity, European societies and European States debate about different answers to give ranging from the assimilationist model where cultural differences are destined to a progressive vanishing in the mainstream to, at the opposite, the multiculturalist model that is the idea that cultural and ethnic diversity should be fully recognized by contemporary nation-states. Multiculturalism is a recent society model as a political answer to the issues raised by the new cultural and religious plurality. It was primarily developed in Canada and was then advocated in some European countries like Sweden or Great Britain, notably in the beginning of the decade 2000. In the more recent period, some other models that put on community cohesion have taken precedence over multiculturalism while an assimilationist model still prevails to some extent in other countries like France. Whatever the model favoured, the coexistence of different ethnical and religious groups within a same nation-state is a matter of fact and should be addressed by national as well as local policies.

So, regardless to the process of secularization, often seen as the decline of religious beliefs and practices in modern societies and as a process of mutual estrangement between the political and the religious systems, these societies are much more multi-religious, plural and complex than before. The much debated and controversial problem of the presence of religion in public spaces assumes great importance, for scholars and involved actors, with references to their status of citizens or public, cultural and political institution representatives.

Objectives (knowledge)

• Objective 1: Know the main characteristics of religious plurality in Europe
  Objective 2: Understand the roots of the present pluralistic situation of Europe
  Objective 3: Know some fields where debates on pluralism are particularly sensitive

Skills

• Objective 1: Be able to distinguish between descriptive and normative concepts (between plurality of religions and cultural traditions and multiculturalism as a political model) and use them properly
  Objective 2: Be able to use and connect in a critical way the information gained through this module to other disciplinary and cultural context.