Religious Identity and National Heritage : Empirical-Theological Perspectives [1 ed.] 9789004228788, 9789004228757

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Religious Identity and National Heritage

Empirical Studies in Theology Editor

Johannes A. van der Ven

VOLUME 21

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/est

Religious Identity and National Heritage Empirical-Theological Perspectives

Edited by

Francis-Vincent Anthony Hans-Georg Ziebertz

LEIDEN • BOSTON LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data International Society for Empirical Research in Theology. Conference (2010 : Rome, Italy) Religious identity and national heritage : empirical-theological perspectives / edited by FrancisVincent Anthony, Hans-Georg Ziebertz. p. cm. -- (Empirical studies in theology, ISSN 1389-1189 ; v. 21) Includes index. ISBN 978-90-04-22875-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Identification (Religion)--Congresses. 2. Nationalism--Religious aspects--Congresses. I. Anthony, Francis-Vincent. II. Ziebertz, Hans-Georg, 1956- III. Title. BL53.I595 2010 201’.7--dc23 2012007323

This publication has been typeset in the multilingual "Brill" typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.nl/brill-typeface. ISSN 1389-1189 ISBN 978 90 04 22875 7 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 22878 8 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper.

CONTENTS List of Contributors��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� vii International Empirical Research on the Influence of National Culture on Religious Identity������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 Francis-Vincent Anthony and Hans-Georg Ziebertz PART ONE

MULTI-RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE Christian Identity and Indian Heritage: Integration or Disintegration?������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 13 Francis-Vincent Anthony The Importance of Agency and Contextual Sensitivity for the Future of Palestinian Christians�����������������������������������������������������������������33 Raymond J. Webb and Jack Curran Searching for Religious Identity between national and religious heritage and Global Expansion������������������������������������������������������� 49 Sabine Zehnder, Taylor Christl, Aristide Peng, Kathrin Brodbeck, Christoph Kaeppler and Christoph Morgenthaler The Relation of Religious Identity and National Heritage among Young Muslims in Germany�������������������������������������������������������������������������������73 Christel Gärtner and Zehra Ergi PART TWO

MULTI-DENOMINATIONAL PERSPECTIVE English Anglicanism: Construct Validity of a Scale of Anglo-Catholic versus Evangelical Self-Identification������������������������������� 93 Andrew Village

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National Heritage and Spiritual Awareness: A Study in Psychological Type Theory among Visitors to St Davids Cathedral��������������������������������� 123 Leslie J Francis with Jennie Annis, Mandy Robbins, Tania ap Siôn and Emyr Williams, The Fate of the Rural Anglican Clergy: Caring for More Churches and Experiencing Higher Levels of Stress�����������������������������������������������������149 Christine Brewster Denominational Identity and Cultural Heritage: A Study among Adolescents Attending Protestant and Catholic Secondary Schools in Northern Ireland������������������������������������������������������������������������������171 Mandy Robbins Two Alienation Scenarios: Explaining the Distance between Catholics and Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands���������������������195 Kees de Groot PART THREE

SECULAR-MODERN PERSPECTIVE Values Heritage and Diffused Religion��������������������������������������������������������������� 213 Roberto Cipriani Confirmation Work in Europe Religious Identity, National Heritage, and Civil Society: Insights from an International Empirical and Comparative Study in Seven Countries�������������������������������������������������������� 227 Friedrich Schweitzer Teachers’ Attitudes on Religion in Modernity and its Impact on Belief����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 245 Daniela Popp and Hans-Georg Ziebertz Atheism and Secularism: Cultural Heritage in East Germany�������������������� 269 Kornelia Sammet Secularization as National Heritage? Empirical Research on Religious Education in Eastern Germany���������������������������������������������������� 289 Dorothy Bonchino-Demmler, Thomas Heller and Michael Wermke Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 309

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS The Revd Dr Jennie Annis is Honaray Research Fellow, St Mary’s Centre in North Wales. Dr Francis-Vincent Anthony is Associate professor of Fundamental Practical Theology, and Director of Institute of Pastoral Theology at the Salesian Pontifical University, Rome; Visiting professor at Scalabrini International Migration Institute, Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome; at Institute of Religious Sciences, St. Thomas Pontifical University, Rome; and at Kristu Jyoti College, Bangalore, India. Dorothy Bonchino-Demmler is a PhD Candidate at the Graduate School ‘Laboratory of Enlightenment’ at the University of Jena, Germany. The Revd Dr Christine E. Brewster Priest-in-Charge of Llanwnog and Caersws with Carno and Visiting Research Fellow in Pastoral Sciences at Glyndwr University, Wrexham, Wales. Kathrin Brodbeck is a Research Associate in the Department of Practical Theology, University of Bern, Switzerland. Dr Roberto Cipriani is Professor of Sociology at the Roma Tre University, Italy. Taylor Christl is a Research Associate in the department of social and emotional development in rehabilitation and education/mental health and behavioural problems, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany. Dr C.N. de Groot is lecturer at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology at the Department of Practical Theology and Religious Studies, The Netherlands. Dr Jack Curran, Ph.D., Social Work, is Assistant Professor and Vice President for Development at Bethlehem University, Bethlehem, Palestine. Zehra Ergi is PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at the Graduate School of the cluster of excellence “Religion and Politics in Pre-Modern and Modern Cultures” at the University of Münster, Germany. Dr Christel Gärtner is Director of a junior research group at the graduate school of the cluster of excellence “Religion and Politics in Pre-Modern and Modern Cultures” at the University of Münster, Germany.

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Dr Thomas Heller is a Research Assistant at the Faculty of Theology and manager of the Centre for Research in Religious Education at the University of Jena, Germany. The Revd Dr Leslie J. Francis is Professor of Religions and Education, University of Warwick, England, Canon Theologian in Bangor Cathedral, Wales, Visiting Professor at York St John University, and Visiting Professor in Glyndŵr University, Wales. Dr Christoph Käppler is Professor for social and emotional Development in Rehabilitation and Education/mental Health and behavioural Problems, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany. Dr Christoph Morgenthaler is Professor em. of Practical Theology, Pastoral Care and Pastoral Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland. Aristide Peng is a Research Associate in the Department of Practical Theology, University of Bern, Switzerland. Daniela Popp is a Research Associate at the Department of Practical Theology/Religious Education, University of Wuerzburg, Germany. Dr Mandy Robbins is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Glyndwr University, Wrexham and Associate Fellow, Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick. Dr Kornelia Sammet is Sociologist and Director of the research project “Worldviews in Precarious Conditions of Life” at the Institute for Cultural Sciences, Universität Leipzig, Germany. Dr Tania ap Siôn is Executive Director of the St Mary’s Centre in North Wales and Senior Research Fellow in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick, England, and visiting Senior Fellow in Glyndŵr University, Wales. Dr Friedrich Schweitzer is Professor of Practical Theology/Religious Education, University of Tuebingen, Germany. The Revd Dr Andrew Village is Senior Lecturer in Practical and Empirical Theology at York St John University, England. Dr Emyr Williams is a Lecturer in Psychology at Glyndwr University, Wrexham and Associate Fellow, Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick.



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Dr Raymond J. Webb is Professor of Pastoral Theology in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Illinois, USA. Dr Michael Wermke is Professor of Religious Education, Faculty of Theology and director of the Centre for Research in Religious Education at the University of Jena, Germany. Sabine Zehnder is a Research Associate at the Department of Practical Theology, University of Bern, Switzerland. Dr Hans-Georg Ziebertz is Professor of Practical Theology/Religious Education, University of Wuerzburg, Germany.

INTERNATIONAL EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON THE INFLUENCE OF NATIONAL CULTURE ON RELIGIOUS IDENTITY Francis-Vincent Anthony and Hans-Georg Ziebertz In some parts of our world, religion is on the wane, losing its thrust of doctrinal authority and communal bonds. In other regions, it is gaining public significance as a powerful social, cultural and political force. Secularization theories are less successful in accounting for these differences in religion’s role. Other theories describe religion in terms of social capital to be invested whenever it offers certain personal, social or political benefits and market opportunities allow smart choices. Still other theories simply hold that religion corresponds to an inborn need or stable disposition that guarantees a culture’s identity and reflects a natural equilibrium of social cohesion. There are also critical theories that point to the intrinsic relationship of religion with power and conflict and identify it as a major cause of tension and conflict. How is it that in some countries religion has become a museum  relic at best, whereas in other regions it represents a vital public force contributing to national cohesion and social innovation, or to unrest and turmoil? In addressing this question, ISERT Conference in Rome (2010) sought to bring together two fundamental notions: religious identity and national heritage. Religious Identity Religious identity refers to a religion’s self-interpretation as recognized by a supportive audience. Thus, we speak of a person’s religious identity or a religious community’s identity because of one’s recognition and appropriation of a religious concern. Certain beliefs and practices are deemed significant to the extent that one labels oneself as a religious individual or community. This identification may be total, but generally identity is partial, contingent, temporary, relative or vague. The notion of recognition and appropriation reflects a dynamic process in which religious ‘data’ in the form of texts, rituals, events, values, norms, symbols, metaphors and the like are evaluated and related to the concerns of everyday life. There they are

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‘believed’ and ‘practiced’ as significant or insignificant ways of self-referral. Distinctions may depend on the agent or the issue at stake. The agent may be a person, a group or an institution. With regard to the spectrum of theories, one probably needs to discriminate the more objective aspects of a religion’s self-definition and practiced confession from the more subjective mental and social processes in which we evaluate these elements for the relevance they have in the day-to-day life-world. The flexible character of religious identity probably co-varies with what seems to be a discriminate aspect of religion, namely the normative or metaphysical markers that highlight one’s identity and turn it into something of ultimate concern, at least in a certain set of situations. Thus religious identity is marked by its valence, priority, centrality and coherence, obligation, and resistance to change within the overarching set of an identity(-system). What is more, its stretching over time gives religious identity a perennial credibility inclusive of both nature’s origin and history’s destiny, surpassing the contingencies that appertain to biographical, political or other immanent notions of identity. This strongly felt credibility may lend itself to emotional or ideological support for worthy and unworthy causes. In one way or the other, conceptual and empirical surveys of religious identity are a prerequisite to study its relationship with a nation’s heritage. National Heritage National heritage is a country’s framework of traditions that it deems crucial for its socio-cultural cohesion and political autonomy. The national heritage is a country’s vision of the world, comprising products of thought, morality and art. It is not so much a showcase; it rather reflects the ethos or lifestyle of a people according to which they practice, protect and pass on their national traditions with keen interest to subsequent generations. More specifically, a national heritage has both a descriptive side in a country’s diverse customs and ways of life (the practiced culture), and a prescriptive side as reflected in a country’s morality, its do’s and don’ts, its norms and taboos (the envisaged culture). These two sides connect in an implicit or explicit order, a canon, code or structure that represents the function or authority base of a nation’s heritage. The actual way of life and prescribed morality interact and influence the monolithic or plural expressions of national identity in a vividly dynamic manner. Cultural or religious majorities may dominate over minorities, or they may be successful in reaching consensus or promote forms of peaceful coexistence. Whereas national



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history simply points to significant events of the past, a heritage connects the past to the present in symbolic ceremonies, educational programs, museums, music, and etc. This heritage may be employed for righteous or ambiguous ends. It may favor the integration of (ethnic, family, religious, local, folk) subcultures, group traditions into a whole, and thereby overcome cultural fragmentation, or act as a source of conflict among social subpopulations, each bound to its own cultural or ethnic memories. Interplay The relationship of religious identity and national heritage can be rather complex and needs to be perceived and described at the macro level of the state, the meso-level of groups and communities, and the micro level of the person. First of all, at the macro level of national institutions, religious identity can be crucial to a national heritage in several ways, for instance in national religions (the Lutheran tradition in Sweden, Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia); in sharp distinction with heritage (the ‘laicité’ tradition in France, Atatürk’s reform in Turkey); or in typical mixtures (the pillar and polder traditions in the Netherlands, Hindu pluralism in India). Apart from these national varieties of state-church relationships there is the religious expression of national identities as can be observed in liberal civil religion (‘Bushism’ and ‘Obamaism’ in the United States) or in the types of full-blown conservative identification in religious fundamentalism (Shia theocracy in Iran, Hindutva in India). Against these mergers of religion and national heritage the conception of ‘enlightened neutrality’ holds an ideology of mutual independence as it expels religion from the public to the private domain. Questions can also be raised regarding globalization: does it accept this ideology of neutrality or does it further religious pluralism and national interest? Secondly, a religious identity can be observed at the meso-level of group culture, that is, of shared ethnic descent, shared language, shared tradition, shared history and shared habits and lifestyles. The processes of globalization, migration and communication tend to break the traditional bond between religion and national heritage. Thus, the populations of countries increasingly transform into multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic audiences that profile themselves socially or that lose touch with religion or national heritage altogether. The global villages of internet communities, tourist travel or migration settlements illustrate a growing interaction of national culture and religious profile. Depending on

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the origin of these groups, questions may arise regarding multiple nationalities and multiple loyalties. This is not only a question of descent but also of socio-cultural tactics: governments, political parties and interest groups may cherish inclusive or exclusive policies in order to deal with cultural plurality. Here, a complex mixture of politics, juridical legislation, cultural prescriptions and social tact interacts in the relationship between religion and national heritage. Thirdly, at the micro level a personal religious identity interacts with a national heritage. Here, identity-building and socialization processes can be studied from various interpretative perspectives that focus on the individual: the constructionist theory perhaps being the most suitable. How does the process of enculturation of individuals in a national heritage take place, and how do indigenous or foreign religious beliefs and practices intervene? What are the consequences of globalization in terms of a ‘deterritorialized identity’? Which beliefs and practices prevail and which are lost in the process? What are the typical identity problems and to what extent do they need professional care? Can socialization-strategies maintain or develop a sense of social cohesion that offers a robust sense of identity? On the basis of the above framework proposed by the ISERT Board, over forty papers were presented at the conference in Rome (15–17 April 2010). Taking into account the complexity of interplay between religious identity and national heritage we have selected and organized fourteen papers in three interrelated perspectives: multi-religious, multi-denominational and secular-modern. In the three parts of the volume that highlight these perspectives, the contribution of the authors bring into play the macro level of states, the meso-level of groups and communities, and the micro level of individuals. The references to national heritage and the empiricaltheological thrust in the papers have also brought together a wide variety of concrete national and international situations, predominantly European, but including in its purview also Asian and Middle East countries such as India and Palestine, and the growing immigrant population from these and other geographical areas. Part One: Multi-Religious Perspective The interplay between religious identity and national heritage can be particularly intricate in a multi-religious context where majority and minority religious traditions have been coexisting for centuries even before the



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formation of the modern nation-state, as for example is the case in India of the  majority religion Hinduism, and the minority religions, Islam and Christianity. The interplay between religious identity and national heritage takes a different turn where long standing religious difference has become crucial to the conflictive process of nation-state formation and emigration, as in the case of Palestine. In the traditionally Christian European nationstates, such as Switzerland and Germany, immigration brings with it religious pluralism and triggers a different interplay vis-à-vis national heritage. The four papers in Part One address the complex interplay between religious identity and national heritage in a multi-religious perspective, keeping, however, the focus on Christian communities on the one hand and on young people on the other. In his keynote address, viewing national heritage as a dynamic evolving phenomenon with historical roots, Francis-Vincent Anthony briefly traces the unfinished task of defining Indian heritage. While a relatively small but powerful elite seeks to define Indian heritage in terms of its Hindu tradition, namely, Brahminical tradition, the rest of the population comprising lower caste communities and tribal and religious minorities struggles to establish its rightful place in the construction of the nation and its heritage. In such a volatile situation, can the Christian community, a small but active minority, contribute to the evolving Indian heritage through its intrareligious and interreligious efforts vis-à-vis Hindu majority and Islamic minority communities? The author seeks to answer this question by highlighting the relevant empirical-theological perspectives emerging from two different researches (one intra-religious and the other comparative) done among young Christian, Muslim and Hindu students in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The contribution of Raymond Webb and Jack Curran shifts the question of religious identity and national heritage to the multi-religious context of Palestine, focusing its attention on the situation of the declining Christian population in Palestine (West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem). Exploratory data from young Christian and Muslim Palestinians provide an outline of self-perception regarding control of life and future. On the basis of empirical research, some assertions are made in regard to the contribution that active agency and contextual sensitivity might make to the Palestinian Christian future. In the third chapter, a team of researchers, Sabine Zehnder, Taylor Christl, Aristide Peng, Kathrin Brodbeck, Christoph Kaeppler, and Christoph Morgenthaler, explore the interplay between religious identity and national heritage in the multi-religious context resulting from immigration in

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Switzerland. Empirical research brings to light some interesting features: for young people with an immigrant background, the connection to their religious community appears to be more important for their global identity than for those without an immigrant background. With regard to the young people with an immigrant background, religious identity is of particular importance among the Muslim and Jewish participants. Adolescents with an immigrant background who belong to a religious minority show a stronger connection between ethnic-national and religious identity than those in the Swiss state-supported churches. In their essay, Christel Gärtner and Zehra Ergi focus their attention on young Muslims of Turkish origin, born and brought up in Germany. Religion and national heritage remain an important component of identity for both migrants and their children. This differentiates the young Muslims from their German, mostly Christian-secularized, peers, for whom religion does not play an important role in their lives. Another difference between the autochthonous youth and the young Muslims is that the latter grow up with, or between, two cultures: the Islamic-national culture of their family’s origin and the German secularized culture. During adolescence young Muslims have to position themselves within these two cultures and integrate them into their identity. This can lead to a further transformation of both cultures. Part Two: Multi-Denominational Perspective In the second part of this volume, the question of religious identity and national heritage is addressed from a multi-denominational perspective converging on English Anglicanism, Protestantism, and Catholicism in England, Ireland and the Netherlands. The first three papers focus on the complexity of Anglican identity, the spiritual experience made possible in Cathedrals which serve as national symbols, and the experience of the Anglican rural clergy. The fourth article compares the cultural tendencies among the Catholic and Protestant young female students in Ireland. The last one deals with the growing divide between the ecclesiastical organizational behavior and the national culture in the experience of Catholics in the Netherlands. In his keynote address Andrew Village elaborates on the complex reality of English Anglicanism influenced over many years by a range of religious, cultural and political movements. This has resulted in a church which includes people of diverse beliefs and practices that identify with different



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traditions notably Anglo-catholic, Broad church and Evangelical. Drawing on the data from 6187 respondents who took part in a survey organized by the Church Times, the author examines how a seven-point church tradition scale ranging from ‘catholic’ to ‘evangelical’ is related to variables measuring religious expression, beliefs and attitudes. He concludes that the ‘Anglocatholic – Evangelical’ polarity continues to reflect important differences in attitudes, beliefs and practices among ordinary members of the Church of England. Addressing the question from a psychological perspective Leslie J Francis, Jennie Annis, Mandy Robbins, Tania ap Siôn, and Emyr Williams view the Cathedrals of England and Wales as both emblems of national heritage and as windows on spiritual awareness. Empirical research based on the data provided by 2,327 visitors to St Davids Cathedral in West Wales show that over two-thirds of them report having felt a sense of God’s presence during their visit to the Cathedral. Moreover, the likelihood of having this spiritual awareness was significantly higher among ‘feeling types’ than among ‘thinking types’. In her paper, Christine Brewster underlines that the identity of rural England is closely associated with the village church and with the village parson. Sir Francis Galton (1872) described the life of a country parson as one of ‘easy country life and family repose’, and in his perceptive history of the clerical profession, and his subsequent profile of the rural church, Russell (1980, 1986) demonstrates a strengthening synergy, during the nineteenth century, between Anglican clergy and rural life. On the contrary, empirical research among 658 rural clergy suggests that, following the amalgamation of many rural churches into multi-church benefices, rural clergy in the twenty-first century experience an unacceptably high level of stress. The study concludes that the survival of the traditional connection between the Anglican Church and rural life is now highly fragile, unless other forms of ministry can be encouraged to re-invigorate a sustainable pastoral and liturgical presence. Taking a comparative stand, Mandy Robbins situates the question of denominational identity and cultural heritage in Northern Ireland, which has been and perhaps remains one of the most deeply divided countries in Europe. The historic division between Catholics and Protestants is maintained in the two parallel systems of schooling, which reflect and reinforce distinctive worldviews and distinctive cultural frameworks. Empirical analysis of the data provided by 1,514 young females attending Catholic or State (Protestant) secondary schools in Northern Ireland demonstrate that there are significant similarities in aspects of the worldviews of young women

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shaped within these two highly distinctive religious and cultural environments of Catholic and State schools, as well as wide ranging differences. While in some ways young women remain ‘worlds apart’, in other ways they inhabit the common universe of adolescent experience. The final chapter in Part Two by Kees de Groot refers to the growing divide in Catholic identity, namely, the distance between Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. Recent scholarly literature tends to focus on the role of church leaders in explaining this process. Two scenarios that blame it all on the pastor may be distinguished. One scenario holds restorative ecclesial policy after the Second Vatican Council responsible: church leaders alienated ordinary Catholics by resisting church renewal. The second scenario claims that, on the contrary, it is this very church renewal that has alienated the flock. On the basis of empirical data the author seeks to link explanations on the level of organizational behavior with explanations on the level of national culture. Part Three: Secular-Modern Perspective In a secular-modern and global world, the question of religious identity and national heritage takes on different hues. The first chapter of Part Three offers an overall view of the values heritage and diffused religion in the contemporary secular context, particularly European. The following two chapters shed some light on the question of religious identity in the secularmodern European context by analyzing in several countries the Confir­ mation experience of Protestant youth and the attitude of Catholic religion teachers. The last two chapters situate the analysis of religious identity in the most secularized region of the world, East Germany. In his keynote address Roberto Cipriani elaborates on values heritage and diffused religion in the global secular context. In his view today we are faced not only with a religion based on values largely diffused through primary and secondary socialization, but that these very values can be seen in themselves as a kind of religion. Such a religion has lay, profane, secular threads. In other words, we have gone from a dominant church religion to a majoritarian diffused religion, and then to a religion compounded of values. In any case, it is not easy to distinguish between diffused religion and the religion of values: the former is included in the latter which, in turn, embraces a larger section of any population that is characterized by different levels of belief. In effect, diffused religion as such concerns a category of people who



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do not regard religion as their raison d’être but who, nonetheless, fall back on the values of religion when they have to make important decisions that require more ethically relevant choices. Contrastively, in his comparative study of Confirmation, Friedrich Schweitzer sees in it a fascinating example of a religious tradition and ancient ritual that appears to have resisted all secularizing influences of social and cultural modernization. He offers an overview of the insights and results from a recent study on Confirmation work conducted in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, and focuses his attention on those aspects and results that refer to the contribution of Confirmation work to society. The theoretical insights as well as the empirical results are interpreted in reference to the question of religious identity, national heritage, and civil society. The following chapter by Daniela Popp and Hans-Georg Ziebertz also takes a European perspective, but is concerned with Catholic teachers. According to the authors the situation of religion in the modern European society can be described by the processes of religious deinstitutionalization and pluralization. The study investigates to what extent the individual’s attitude towards these phenomena is related to a certain style of belief. A survey of 1636 Catholic teachers of religion from seven European countries shows that the individual’s perception of religion and religious plurality in modern society and his/her religious belief are significantly related. The contribution of Kornelia Sammet refers to East Germany, one of the most secularized regions in the world. Religious traditions have lost their importance for the population and church members are a minority in Eastern Germany. On the basis of biographical interviews with recipients of welfare benefits and of group discussions conducted in Eastern Germany, the study examines how contingencies are perceived and described by the interviewees and if the consciousness of contingency is connected with references to religious semantics. In a second empirical step, negative references to religion are analyzed as an expression of an atheistic and secular worldview in East Germany. The final chapter by Dorothy Bonchino-Demmler, Thomas Heller and Michael Wermke also takes up the issue of secularization in Eastern Germany. It presents the results of three comprehensive empirical research projects that have been conducted in the Faculty of Religious Education at the University of Jena. These research projects offer an insight into the unique relationship between religious identity and national heritage in the

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territory of the former GDR, and contribute to the process of coming to terms with the political and ideological past. *** A number of people have been instrumental in creating this volume. In the first place we would like to place on record the prompt collaboration of the authors in reworking the papers on the basis of the conference theme and debate. Among the authors we would like to make a special mention of Raymond Webb for the editorial assistance offered with much generosity. We are particularly grateful to Sylvia Scheller, who as staff of the Institute of Practical Theology, Würzburg University, not only assisted in the organization of the ISERT conference in Rome, but also accompanied the whole editorial process up to the publication and Verena Diekers, who compiled the index.

PART ONE

MULTI-RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE

CHRISTIAN IDENTITY AND INDIAN HERITAGE: INTEGRATION OR DISINTEGRATION? Francis-Vincent Anthony

This paper seeks to address the theme of “religious identity and national heritage” in the specific multireligious, multicultural, multilingual and multiethnic context of India. Viewing national heritage as a dynamic evolving phenomenon with historical  roots, we briefly trace the unfinished task of defining Indian heritage since the struggle for independence and nation formation. While a relatively small but powerful elite – as during the pre-independence era – seeks to define Indian heritage in terms of its Hindu tradition, namely, Brahminical tradition, the rest of the population comprising lower caste communities and tribal and religious minorities struggles to establish its rightful place as citizens in the construction of the nation and its heritage. In this mutable situation, religious traditions may pave the way for mutually enriching integration or for self-destructive disintegration. Our focus here is on the problems and prospects of the Indian Christian community in contributing to the evolving Indian heritage through its intra-religious and interreligious efforts. Against the backdrop of this theoretical-contextual framework we highlight the relevant empirical-theological perspectives emerging from two different researches (one intra-religious and the other comparative) done in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The objective of the intrareligious research was to identify the concrete modes and underlying theological core concepts favourable to the cultural integration of Christian faith (namely, inculturation). The objective of the comparative research was to establish how the intra-religious variables, prescriptive in nature (i.e., religious practice, and mystical experience), and interreligious variables, descriptive in nature (i.e., interpretation of religious pluralism, and religiocentrism) contribute to conflictive/disintegrative and participative/ integrative interaction among adherents of Christian, Islamic and Hindu traditions.

While Christianity as a religious phenomenon appears to be losing its grips in its traditional stronghold, namely, Europe, it seems to be striking deeper roots in Africa and Asia. In diverse contexts, Christianity – like other religious traditions – is faced with intricate challenges to its survival and growth posed by the peculiar configuration of local history and heritage. This explains why we situate the general theme of “religious identity and national heritage” in the specific multifaceted Indian context. The focus on “Christian identity and Indian heritage” brings to the fore the underlying question of integration that the Christian community faces in shaping its own future and that of the nation.

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Insofar as national heritage is not a static given reality, but a dynamic phenomenon with historical roots and with open avenues for further development, we briefly trace the unfinished task of defining Indian heritage since the struggle for independence and nation formation and the role religions play in it. In consonance with the underlying concern and methodology of this volume, we shall complement the theoretical-contextual perspectives (1) with relevant empirical-theological perspectives emerging from two different researches done in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu (2) and a conclusion at the end of this chapter (3). 1. Theoretical-Contextual Perspectives The three basic interrelated concepts, namely, ‘Christian identity’, ‘national heritage’ and ‘integration’, call for some clarification with reference to the specific Indian context. Hence, our conceptual framework begins with the contemporary debate on ‘Indian heritage’ as a dynamic phenomenon and goes on to clarify ‘integration’ as a mutually enriching interaction among religious traditions. This is then followed by a brief analysis of the problems and prospects related to integration of ‘Christian identity’ in the Indian context and by a synthetic overview of the intra-religious and interreligious perspectives on cultural integration of Christian faith and enrichment of Indian heritage. 1.1. The Dynamic Phenomenon of Indian Heritage Indian heritage is logically linked to the Indian nation. India as a nationstate, recognized by other nation-states, has a brief history of over half a century (it became independent in 1947 and a republic in 1956). What is the heritage of this young nation-state? G. Aloysius aptly sums up his interpretation of the struggle – extending for almost a century and a half – that led to the independence of India, in the title of his book Nationalism without a Nation in India (1997). The author with great acumen and clarity lays bare how in the struggle against the colonial British rulers local forces were vying with each other to define Indianness or Indian heritage. A small minority of elite who formed the Indian National Congress in 1885 tried to impose the Brahminical (ascriptive and hierarchical) tradition as the basis of nationhood and its identity. The vast majority of the lower castes, outcastes, tribal population, and the religious minorities like Muslims, Sikhs and Christians saw in this move of the elite upper castes a clever ploy to re-establish their traditional hegemony, so much so that the majority of the underprivileged



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would have preferred the continual of colonial rule rather than succumb again to the oppressive caste system with Brahmins in command. Thus the struggle for freedom implied defining Indianness in opposition to the outside oppressors (colonizers) and, for the lower strata of society and the minorities, also in contrast to the inside oppressors. In fact, in the preindependence period we see other leaders emerging alongside M.K. Gandhi, who gave a national thrust to the freedom struggle but made only grudging allowance for the claims of Muslims (championed by S.A. Khan, Iqbal and M.A. Jinnah) and lower castes and tribal population (championed by J. Phule and B.R. Ambedkar). Regional leaders focusing on linguistic and ethnic differences also mounted their own critique of the Brahminic nationalism. One such leader K.V. Ramaswamy Naicker (known as Periyar, the great one) from Tamil Nadu propounded his rationalistic critique of Brahminic hegemony taking the cue from European Enlightenment and Buddhist rationalist tradition. Among these subaltern leaders, there was “a search for a non-hierarchical religio-cultural framework either through a rediscovery of the different forms of non-Brahminical Hinduism, or by forsaking the whole of Hinduism itself or rarely, by taking to atheistic, rationalist ideologies” (Aloysius 1997, 77). As the author underscores: “The political awakening of the lower caste groups of the Indian subcontinent under the colonial rule was premised by an implicit (often also made explicit in the sayings and writings of the prominent leaders) vision of a new nation, of a new form of congruence between culture and power, and a new way of relating the self with the other” (Id. 83). Paradoxically, the reforms set in motion by the British to bring the traditional society into some congruence with the requirements of a modern political structure were seen by the elite group as “interfering with national religion with intentions of destroying national cultural legacy, traditions and civilization” (Id. 100). Such an attempt to identify Indianness with Hindu (Brahminic) hegemony ultimately also led to the creation of Pakistan as a separate nation-state for Muslims under the British India. In the postindependence period the emergence of Hindu nationalism, namely, Hindutva ideology, testifies to the continued intent to identify Indian heritage with Hindu (Brahminic) hegemony, and thus branding other religious minorities like Muslims and Christians as anti-nationals, communalists, sectarians or ‘foreigners’. The struggle to build up a nation, to construct Indianness, to ensure unity in diversity, still goes on. In this sense Indian heritage does not stand merely for the diversified ethnic, religious, cultural, and linguistic traditions of the past, but also for the project of integrating  the best of these traditions through mutual acceptance and critique

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without, however, falling prey to homogenization of heritage in one form or another. 1.2. Integration as a Mutually Enriching Interaction When followers of diverse religious traditions constantly rub shoulders with each other – as in the Indian context – they feel on the one hand the urge to preserve their own self-identity and heritage, and on the other, the eagerness to establish meaningful rapport with other religious traditions. Such an impulse to conserve self-identity and to expand it in interaction with others can give rise to one of the four models of interreligious interaction (Van der Ven/Anthony 2008). In figure 1 the horizontal dimension indicates the extent to which a religious community tries to uphold the vigour of its self-identity and heritage. The vertical dimension represents the extent to which it is willing to engage with other religious communities and expand its identity and heritage. By relating the two dimensions we can construct four ideal types in the Weberian sense: integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalisation (Berry 2006, 34f). The typology includes scales in both dimensions, ranging from positive (+) to negative (-). ‘Integration’ (cell 1) refers to a community’s desire to keep its own identity and heritage alive and at the same time maintain intensive, lasting interaction with other communities. In other words, integrative process results from strong self-identities in critical-dialogic interaction. ‘Assimilation’ (cell 2) also stands for a community’s aspiration to interact with other religious communities, but without the concern for its self-identity and heritage. When a community with weak self-identity indiscriminately assimilates elements of other religious traditions, it engages in a selfdestructive syncretistic interaction. In ‘separation’ (cell 3) the concern for a community’s identity and heritage is vitally present, but the willingness to interact with others is lacking. In other words, ‘separation’ results from strong self-identity of communities with no wish to interact with others. Such a stand can degenerate into communalism and conflict. ‘Marginalisation’ (cell 4) is characterised by a community’s lack of concern for its own identity and that of others. Marginalisation can gradually give way to indifferentism and diffused identity. Generally, religions tend toward ‘separation’; they tend to affirm their identity and heritage and strengthen their religious organization to enhance their clout in society (Amalorpavadass 1988, 41). “While a religious tradition can be integrative, of a social group as well as of the individual psyche, its symbolic order sometimes persuades its believers in various ways to set



christian identity and indian heritage17 Maintenance of community’s self-identity and heritage +

Openness to

+

interaction with other

–

(1) Integration

(2) Assimilation

(Critical dialogue)

(Syncretism)

(3) Separation

communities –

(Communalism)

(4) Marginalisation (Indifferentism)

Figure 1. Models of interreligious interaction themselves apart from the followers of other traditions, laying the basis for communal identities” (Saberwal 1992, 341). The insulation of the symbolic order of rituals easily gives way to residential separation and autonomous communal life comprising “such elements as educational institutions, social service organization, political and quasi-political formations, journals, ceremonies, and so forth” (Id. 350). In this way, religious traditions tend to express their communal identity and organization in all aspects of social life. But when this entails total separation or isolation of religious communities from each other in a multireligious context, it turns into ‘religious communalism’. In the Indian context, religious communalism stands for the sectarian propensity particularly among minority communities, such as Islamic and Christian, to isolate themselves by establishing autonomous socio-cultural organizations on the basis of their religious identity, claiming their rights, focusing on their own interest and even engaging in communal violence (Singh 1993). But the pre-independence struggle and the experience during the past two decades show that the Hindu majority’s communal tendency can also reach the heights of communal fascism, as exemplified by the rise of Sangh Parivar and the related movements of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal (Mukherji 2007). As opposed to the separatist tendency of communalism, among religious traditions there is also the tendency to indiscriminate assimilation of the other, namely, syncretism. In the Indian context, syncretism emerges as a spontaneous phenomenon among people who adhere to multiple religious traditions without drawing a clear boundary between their religion and

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that of others (Das 2003). To a certain extent, world religions (i.e., metacosmic religions) are not immune to it as they tend to assimilate the cosmic or tribal religions into their sphere of influence (Pieris 1988). The internal variations in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and even Christianity are said to result from this process. These are generally viewed more as crossfertilization of religious ideas, cultural values and expressions than as indiscriminate assimilation. The volume edited by Das presents case-studies and empirical evidences of “how religious ideas and cultural traits mediate between diverse ethnic communities, religious communities, sects and cultural regions, and give rise to complex unity. The complex cultural unity of India is built up through the protracted inter-relationship of the diverse cultural traditions, both literate and pre-literate.” (2003, 33). The underlying question is to what extent these cases of syncretism represent critical integration or cross-fertilization. In its extreme form syncretism can relativize both religious traditions or evolve into tradition of a third kind (Anthony 2003). Indiscriminate fusion of religious traditions may also give rise to conflictive situations as exemplified in the spontaneous syncretism of Islamic and Hindu traditions (Roy/Rizvi 2003) among Mehrat, Kathat and Cheeta communities of Rajasthan (reported by Jyotsna Singh on the BBC News website, 11 July 2008). Their mixed Hindu-Muslim identity which permitted individuals to freely celebrate Hindu and Muslim festivals and worship both local gods and Allah has been brought under question by some organized Hindu groups (like the Viswa Hindu Parishad) and Islamic groups (like the Jamaat-e-Islami) who feel that this confusion of religious identity must be rectified by a return or ‘homecoming’ (ghar wapsi) to the Hindu fold (according to the former group) or by a proper education in their Islamic tradition (according to the latter). The two extremes of communalism and syncretism lay bare that integration is a question of critical dialogue that results from the recognition and appreciation of the other’s difference as a source and stimulus for further humanization by challenging inhuman aspects of one’s own and the other’s traditions. Communalism with its proneness to fundamentalism and communal violence can pave the way for social disintegration. Likewise, indiscriminate syncretism by obfuscating the religio-cultural identities of communities can pave the way for religious conflict and disintegration. In other words, disintegration can result from communalism, syncretism and last of all from indifferentism. The latter refers to the situation of marginalization resulting from indifference to one’s own identity and to that of others. Diffused identity and the lack of interaction with others can lead to



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a fragmented, disintegrated, ‘liquid’ society that seems to characterize the post-modern world. 1.3. Problems and Prospects of Integrating Christian Identity In the Indian context an all-evident trait of the Christian community is that it forms a small minority, just 2.3% of the population as opposed to Muslims (11.7%) and Hindus (82.4%). In the attempt to restrict Indianness as essentially Hindu, there is a pervasive and perverse tendency to accuse the Christian tradition of having an alien origin and of being a prolongation of the Western cultural colonialism. As S. Sarkar clarifies: “The charge persists, despite the fact that the origins of Christianity in one part of India (Kerala and Tamilnadu) go back to the early centuries of the Common Era, preceding, incidentally, the conversion of England to Christianity and indeed the formation of most living forms of Hindu tradition” (2007, 360). What is resented most is the Christian community’s condescending attitude to Hindu culture and religion, despite the ‘accommodation’ attempts made by Jesuit missionaries like Roberto De Nobili during the early seventeenth century and the ‘inculturation’ efforts being made by Indian Chris­ tian communities since independence and the Second Vatican Council (in the case of Catholics). Notwithstanding the cultural and linguistic contribution of the missionary and native scholars through the centuries, rooting Christian faith in the Indian cultural context and transforming the unjust social structures like the caste system – to which in some way Christian communities have succumbed – remain a challenge to be confronted fully. A related question, central to Christian identity but viewed by the nationalist Hindus as problematic and a hindrance to integration, is conversion, denounced by them as indiscriminate and perfidious proselytism. As Kim illustrates: the debates associated with the Constituent Assembly, the Niyogi Report, the Hindu personal laws and the legislation of conversion in post-Independence India shows that there was a cumulative and conscious attempt by nationalist Hindus to identify Indianness and Hindu-ness. The nationalist Hindu arguments that the assertion of Christian identity through conversion was a disturbing factor in forming a wider Indian identity assumed that Indian identity was a static and unified concept, and moreover somewhat ‘neutral’ so that all Indians could share it, regardless of their religious orientation. They argued that common identity as Indians must be based on the Hindu heritage, and within that the religious dimension was vital” (2003, 191).

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The underlying apprehension is that the growth of Christian communities through denationalizing conversions can alter the bedrock of Indian heritage and undermine the future of the nation. The accusation is that Christian communities take undue advantage of the non-proselytizing nature of Hindu religion, its spirit of tolerance and the national choice of secularism. The intricate nature of these allegations needs to be considered briefly. If Hindu religion is non-proselytizing as is held to be, then “Where did all the Buddhists of ancient India go, for instance? And how did Hindu icons and myths spill over large parts of Southeast Asia? Across centuries, but in accelerated manner with modernized communications, Brahminical Hindu rituals, beliefs, and caste disciplines have spread across the subcontinent, penetrating and transforming communities with initially quite different practices and faiths” (Sarkar 2007, 358). Further, as Sarkar clarifies, under the cover of ‘sanskritization’, ‘reclamation’ (shuddi, purification), ‘reconversion’ (paravarta, returning home), the claim is being made by Hindu movements such as Sang Parivar to ‘reconvert’ people to their ‘natural state’. It is held that “Muslims or Christians, ‘convert’, Hindu groups only ‘reconvert’, since everyone on the subcontinent is somehow naturally Hindu in a more or less sanskritized manner” (Ibid). Such crossing of boundaries has become a sensitive issue since the late-colonial era with the tightening of community boundaries favoured by the politico-administrative, economic, and communicational integration across the subcontinent; and has brought into question the significance of traditional tolerance and modern secularism for national integration. In his analysis of the origins and development of secularism and fundamentalism in India, Cherian (2007) offers a panoramic view of these interrelated ideologies. Although the concept of secularism had its origins in the West, it has acquired a specific meaning in India due to the secular fabric that can be traced back to the time-honoured tolerance among theistic and atheistic currents of thought and communities. The religious tolerance that existed at the time of the two great rulers, namely, the Buddhist Ashoka (3rd Century before the Common Era) and the Islamic Akbar (16th Century), testify to the general secular fabric of the Indian heritage. The Western view of secularism inspired by scientific humanism that advocates the separation of state and religion, found its way into the Indian context during British rule in educational and juridical systems. During the struggle for independence, in the face of the Hindu fundamentalist turn of some factions, other nationalists like M.K. Gandhi and J. Nehru laboured to create a secular democratic state in India. Gandhi, a deeply spiritual person,



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proposed a spiritual secularism based on Sarva dharma samabhava (goodwill towards all religions). This concept did guarantee equality and tolerance for all religions. Nehru, a self-declared agnostic, advocated a nonreligious perspective based on science and socialism, guaranteeing equal rights and opportunities for all. In his view, secularism was to be based on social and political equality of every person. Therefore a caste-ridden, gender discriminative society was not really secular. In relation to religion, secularism implies equality of all religions and atheistic or agnostic currents of thought. All religions are to be respected and no religion is to be favoured. Secularism as enshrined in the Indian constitution (Articles 15, 16, 25–28) entails neutrality and impartiality of the state towards all religions, distancing the state from all religions and yet recognizing the value of religion in society. Hence, secularism in the Indian context does not imply irreligious or anti-religious stand. On the contrary, as Sen (2005, 294–316) underscores, ‘symmetric treatment’ of religions can be the distinctive mark of a truly secular state in a religiously plural world; but such a secular stand paradoxically can also give rise to religious claims and clashes. Religious conflicts are said to have their roots in modern secularism and traditional Hindu tolerance, since conversion or crossing over to other religions is facilitated by these. As Kim (2003, 187–190) clarifies, a closer examination reveals that the traditional tolerance of Hinduism is more operational within its sphere of influence than with religions like Christianity and Islam that do not share its overall vision and perspective on life and reality. It was the awareness of the limitation of traditional religious tolerance that exposed the need for a secular state that takes equal distance from all religions. At the same time, the emergence of ‘religious nationalism’, as represented for example by Hindutva ideology, attests that secularism in itself cannot guarantee neutrality in front of religions. There is a growing conviction that secularism needs to be complemented by a renewed understanding of the traditionally acclaimed virtue of religious tolerance as respect and recognition of the other along with commitment to one’s own beliefs and values (Balasubramanian 1992; Kim 2003, 189, note 4). 1.4. Intra-Religious and Interreligious Perspectives on Integration The foregoing theoretical-contextual analysis brings to light that Indian heritage like any other national heritage is not a static reality. It presents itself as a complex phenomenon in which interpenetrating communities diversified on the basis of ethnicity, religion, culture, language, caste,

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class, gender, etc., rub shoulders constantly with each other in shaping its evolution. Indian heritage, originating in the traditions of diversified communities, is more a project under construction than an already established reality. It refers to the unity or integration that is being forged amidst a wide variety of diversity. It is truly a national heritage and a national project, when all communities in their incommensurable differences can interact as equal partners and contribute to the refining, defining and realization of human wellbeing and development of all who form the national community and subsequently the worldwide community. In this sense, national heritage itself has to be viewed in association with the heritages of other nations forming the human family, namely, with the world heritage. Although in a democracy the majority community, the Hindu community in the Indian case, has a special thrust in shaping the national heritage, the latter cannot be merely identified with the Hindu heritage, worse still with the Brahminical hegemony. It means that minority communities  must also equally share the responsibility for the Indian heritage. Consequently, on its part the minority Christian community must play its role in the common venture of forming and shaping the national heritage. This in turn entails, on the one hand, an intra-religious effort to integrate the Christian faith in a critical manner with the local socio-cultural context, and on the other, an interreligious engagement with other religious traditions within the local context. In other words, the process of integration implies on the part of closely interacting religious traditions an intra-religious and an interreligious effort aimed at mutual enrichment and growth (Kim 2003, 183). The intra-religious effort – in the case of the Catholic Church – to meet the religio-cultural differences of the local context is referred to as inculturation. As we have elaborated extensively elsewhere (Anthony 1997, 31–208), inculturation is an encounter between the two poles of ecclesial faith and societal culture: a diachronic, dynamic, dialogical, diacritical and dialectical correlation leading to a creative synthesis. Such a process can help the Christian community to sink deep roots into the Indian culture and context and play a significant role in building up the Indian heritage in critical dialogue with other religious traditions that share it. In this vein, the comparative study of religious traditions can be viewed as indispensable for the interreligious endeavour of mutual enrichment and growth. As regards integration and disintegration, the focus can be on how religious traditions are favourable to cross-religious ritual practice and to power-driven religious conflicts, respectively. Since we have presented elsewhere the theoretical framework on cross-religious ritual practice



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(Anthony et al. 2010) and on power-driven religious conflicts (Hermans et al. 2010), we do not deal with them here. 2. Empirical-Theological Perspectives If Indian heritage is an evolving phenomenon being shaped by interacting contemporary communities, then the importance of an empirical approach to it is self-evident. In this section we highlight the findings pertinent to the construction of Indian heritage emerging from two empirical researches, one undertaken from an intra-religious perspective and the other from a comparative perspective. Both empirical surveys were situated in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu with a population of over 62 million distributed among the three major religions as follows: 88.7% Hindus, 5.7% Christians, and 5.5% Muslims (Government of Tamilnadu, Statistical Handbook 2003). The objective of the intra-religious research was to identify the concrete modes and the underlying theological core concepts favourable to the cultural integration of Christian faith (namely, inculturation). The objective of the comparative research was to establish the intra-religious and interreligious factors that contribute to conflictive/disintegrative or participative/ integrative interaction among adherents of Christian, Islamic and Hindu traditions. 2.1. Intra-Religious Approach to Integration The concept of integrating Christian faith with the local socio-cultural context, namely, of inculturation, was operationalized in the hermeneutic, critique, participation and utilization modes of correlating the two poles (Anthony 1997; 1999). A total of 1380 senior catholic students (990) and catholic teachers (390) from 14 State Board Catholic Higher Secondary Schools distributed in the then existing 14 Catholic dioceses of Tamil Nadu formed the sample (with data collection between October and December 1990). Without going into the details of the findings, here we highlight the emerging empirical perspectives for nurturing integration between Christian faith and Indian societal-culture: • The native Christians must engage in three types of hermeneutics in correlating ecclesial faith and societal culture (comprising traditional and modern culture): Christian hermeneutic with ecclesial meaning system as the source, and cultural and scientific hermeneutic with traditional and scientific meaning systems as the source respectively. It  means that if Christians constantly draw from the Christian,

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francis-vincent anthony cultural  and scientific vision of reality in their day-to-day praxis of interpreting events, circumstances and outcomes, they would be progressively contributing to the integration of Christian faith and Indian societal-culture. • Similarly, Christians must engage in three types of critique in correlating ecclesial faith and societal culture: Christian critique with ecclesial value system as the source, and cultural and secular critique with traditional and secular value systems as the source respectively. It means that in their evaluation of persons, events and circumstances, if Christians constantly draw from the Christian, traditional and secular values, they would be contributing to a greater integration of Christian faith and Indian societal-culture. • In the mutual participation mode, the correlations between the expressive system of ecclesial faith and that of societal culture merge into one. In other words, for the Christian community, its participation in the expressive system of societal culture and the insertion of cultural expressive systems within its ecclesial life mean the same. Consequently, if Christians participate in the cultural and secular spheres of life and the elements of these spheres find a place in their Christian life, they would be contributing to a better integration of Christian faith and Indian societal-culture. • The participation mode of correlation can be distinguished from the utilization mode in that the latter tends to lay emphasis on the Christian theological perspective and permits only an adaptation of ecclesial elements to the local cultural context and a selective accommodation of non-religious cultural elements into ecclesial life. However, the utilization mode of adaptation and accommodation may be considered as an initial step toward integration. • In the encounter between ecclesial faith and societal culture, the hermeneutic of two core concepts is found to play a regulative and complementary role with regard to the tendencies in the critique, participation and utilization modes. The concept of Salvation is found to play a restraining/critical role whereas the concept of Godexperience (anubhava) a fostering/facilitating role. Consequently, a better grasp of these two central theological notions can nurture a critical integration of Christian faith and Indian societal-culture.

As a dialectical process, the dynamics of inculturation is said to evolve in  terms of participation (i.e., identification or ratification) and critique (i.e., distinction or refutation) – both of which imply also a hermeneutic



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moment – giving rise to a creative advancement (i.e., symbiosis, convergence, integration, and transformation) with new possibilities for both ecclesial faith and societal culture. In this sense, inculturation represents a process of integration in which the societal culture is ratified, challenged and transformed, just as the ecclesial faith is affirmed, challenged and enriched. This innovative and transformative aspect is the hallmark of inculturation. Important and crucial as it may be, the intra-religious effort to integrate Christian faith and Indian societal culture is not free of ambiguity. For the adherents of other religious communities, particularly Hindus, it may appear as a clever ploy to convert others or as a ‘theological vandalism’ that adds to religious mystification undermining the other religious identities. Integration of Christian faith as part of Indian heritage then requires that this intra-religious endeavour be complemented by dialogue with other religious communities that share the same Indian heritage. Intra-religious effort then must be sustained by interreligious concern. As I. Hirudayam would put it, inculturation must be accompanied necessarily by conculturation, namely, by mutual interaction among religious and secular communities that share the same heritage (Anthony 1997, 47f). 2.2. Interreligious Approach to Integration One of the essential ways of reinforcing the intra-religious thrust on integration is to complement it with a comparative approach to the study of religious traditions. The empirical research in a comparative perspective was done with the participation of 1920 Christian, Hindu, and Muslim students frequenting 16 colleges and the Madras University in Tamil Nadu (with data collection between October 2003 and January 2004). Among our respondents 45.3% were Christians (28.1% Catholics, 12.8% Protestants, and 4.4% from other Christian denominations), 41.1% Hindus, and 13.3% Muslims. The objective of the comparative research was to establish how the prescriptive intra-religious variables, i.e., religious practice (Anthony et al. 2007) and mystical experience (Anthony et al. 2010), and the descriptive interreligious variables, i.e., interpretation of religious pluralism (Anthony et al. 2005) and religiocentrism (Sterkens/Anthony 2008), contribute to conflictive/disintegrative or participative/integrative interaction among adherents of Christian, Islamic and Hindu traditions. Without getting into the details of the findings, here we limit ourselves to some emerging empirical perspectives relevant to integration and disintegration, focusing our attention particularly on Christians.

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Factors Contributing to a Conflictive/Disintegrative Tendency Our research findings (Hermans et al. 2011) bring to light two possible understandings of religious conflicts: ‘power-driven religious conflicts’ and ‘empowerment-driven religious conflicts’. The scale for the first type has been established in our analysis; the elements of the second have to be explored further. The level of agreement with power-driven religious conflicts for all students tends in the direction of much agreement, and we find no significant differences between Christian, Muslim and Hindu students. Here we focus our attention only on the Christian respondents. Three descriptive beliefs are found to influence Christian students’ agreement with the concept of power-driven religious conflicts: a lower positive ingroup attitude, a higher negative attitude towards Hindus and a lower agreement with differential pluralism, i.e. the belief that one could learn from the differences between religions. One prescriptive belief about religious actions, namely, a stronger preference for institutional religious practice, is a predictor of a higher agreement with religious conflicts. A lower positive in-group attitude leading to power-driven religious conflicts needs some explanation, for it is generally the higher positive in-group feeling that leads to conflict. A low positive in-group attitude points to an endangered or corroded self-esteem. In this case, violent activism becomes a means to boost the in-group attitude: if our positive in-group feeling is low, we can restore our self-esteem through religious conflicts. The psychological mechanism which can explain this process is the feeling of shame. People feel ashamed to be part of a group which is less ‘good of character’ than it should be. Feelings of shame can produce other-directed anger because aggression tries to externalize the shame by blaming the other. Violent actions are a means to neutralize the feelings of shame. It means that the Christian community must examine the reasons for its low self-esteem. Perhaps this is related to the fact that majority of Christians in Tamil Nadu belong to the lower castes and lower class groups and economically lag behind others. To overcome the conflictive tendency linked to low self-esteem, a link between socio-economic status and Christian identity has to be recognized and appropriately dealt with in the process of education. Paradoxically, higher education of the mother – pointing to a higher economic status – was found to be a strong predictor of agreement with power-driven religious conflicts among Christians. Higher negative attitude towards Hindus was found to be another factor leading to a conflictive tendency among Christians. Negative view of Hinduism is a legacy that has its roots in the missionary preaching of the



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bygone days. With the changes that have come about in the second half of the twentieth century with regard to the understanding of other religious traditions, there is a need for a conscious effort to critically examine the prejudices that condition the Christian community’s rapport with Hindus. In this vein, it may be said that a proper understanding of the difference between Christianity and Hinduism can contribute to a more mutually enriching and peaceful interaction, for it was found that a lower agreement with differential pluralism seems to favour power-driven religious conflict among Christians. We also found that a strong preference for institutional religious practice in the case of Christians favours agreement with power-driven religious conflict. Institutional religious practices are certainly indispensable for nurturing and preserving one’s religious identity. But if such institutional practices tend towards religious conflict, then the nature and expression of these practices must be examined. It could mean that these institutional practices isolate the Christian communities from other religious communities; it could also be that these institutional practices are culturally alienating, hence the need for inculturation, or cultural rootedness of Christian communities. With the view to contributing to social cohesion and Indian heritage, the Christian community must then address the above mentioned factors that tend to favour a conflictive interaction with other religious traditions. Factors Contributing to a Participative/Integrative Tendency Taking a comparative perspective we investigated the tendency among Christian, Muslim and Hindu students to participate spontaneously in each other’s religious rituals (Anthony et al. 2011). In the interaction among religions, the presence or absence of such cross-religious ritual participation implies the orientation of these religious groups toward integration or separation respectively. According to the conceptual framework confirmed in our research, cross-religious participation comprises the ‘socio-religious’, ‘socio-cultural’ and ‘socio-political’ spheres of rituals. Here we limit ourselves to socio-religious rituals which are central to religious identity. Although none of the religious groups show on average much participation in others’ religious rituals, Hindus manifest clear favourableness to participation in others’ religious rituals and differ significantly in this respect from Christians and Muslims. Hindus thus manifest a greater tendency towards ‘integration’ than Christians and Muslims, which also implies that followers of the Abrahamic religions show some tendency toward ‘separation’.

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Considering the factors associated with cross-religious participation, a higher institutional religious practice among Christians (to some extent also among Muslims) tends to be unfavourable to participation in the religious rituals of the other two religious traditions. Moreover, in the case of Christian and Muslim respondents, the negative effect of religious monism on cross-religious ritual participation is twice as strong as the positive effect of commonality pluralism and differential pluralism. It means that their unfavourableness to participation in religious rituals of other traditions seems to be strongly influenced by their understanding of the uniqueness and universality of their religions and by the underlying epistemology, as suggested by Panikkar (1988). In other words, the unfavourableness of Abrahamic religions to cross-religious ritual participation seems to be linked to their claim of being chosen and to their defining their identity by differentiating it sharply from others. Monistic interpretation of other religions – in its hard variety of exclusivism and more moderate variety of inclusivism – is thus found to have an adverse effect on cross-religious participation and ultimately on integration. This unequivocal and reliable finding brings up a dilemma. If a monistic approach to other religions is closely bound to Abrahamic religious identities, can they renounce the claims of their identity without being untrue to themselves? Can Abrahamic religions, insofar as they are characterised by religious monism, contribute to integration in a multi-religious society, or encourage only greater separation? Given that religious rituals have a social (integrative) function, the Abrahamic religious traditions on the one hand cannot ignore the potentially negative consequences of religious monism on integration in a multi-religious society. On the other hand, they cannot meaningfully engage in cross-religious ritual participation if it means uncritical syncretism or loss of self-identity (cf. Schreiter 1985; Gort et al. 1989). Cross-religious participation, therefore, may not always be desirable or necessarily advisable; but ritual participation as such can certainly contribute positively to societal integration when they become the means for religious communities to reach out to each other in justice and civic friendship as foreseen by Aristotle (Mayhew 1997), or to engage with each other as a whole in relation to a whole on the basis of the moral infinite as underscored by Kierkegaard (Matthis 1981). However, further empirical research is necessary to shed more light on the possible interconnection between religious monism, (fear of) syncretism, and (absence of) cross-religious participation. On the contrary, Hindus’ openness to cross-religious participation does not depend on the models of interpreting religious pluralism, but – such is our hypothesis – on the absence of authority structures that define the



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doctrinal and ritual confines of religious identity. Consequently, in the face of the monistic approach of Abrahamic religions that is strongly unfavourable to integration, Hindus may resort to politicized forms of religion to safeguard their religious heritage, as suggested by the popular support for Hindu fundamentalist groups, particularly in North India (Jha 2007). In order to contribute to integration in the multi-religious context of Tamil Nadu and India as a whole, the Abrahamic religions should then reconstruct the claims underlying their monistic convictions in an innovative manner without having to contrast their identity with others, perhaps in the direction of differential pluralism. 3. Conclusion The questions that we sought to address in the paper are: Can Christian identity contribute to the construction and development of Indian heritage? Will the encounter between Christian faith and Indian societal culture favour integration of the two or the disintegration of one or the other? On the basis of our theoretical-contextual framework and empiricaltheological analysis, we may draw some conclusions. In the first place, the Christian community must be strongly convinced that, notwithstanding its minority status and estranged cultural expressions, Christian tradition is an integral part of Indian heritage, on the basis of its long history that dates back to the beginnings of the Christian era (with well-established churches already in the 6th century). This historical consciousness has to be then translated in terms of intra-religious and interreligious responsibility in shaping the evolving national heritage. If the Christian community is not to appear as a residue of the colonial era and a camouflaged agent of neo-colonialism, then it must re-interpret and re-express its beliefs and practices, namely, it must engage in inculturation by correlating Christian faith with the varied local Indian cultures and languages. As it has been acknowledged in missionary practice since the 16th century, insertion in the local languages is a crucial area of integration. A critical integration of cultural concepts, values, and expressions can build up a community that is ‘fully Indian and authentically Christian’ (Van Leeuwen 1990). Consequently, the cultural productions of the Christian community that give expression to its vision and values can contribute to the enrichment and transformation of Indian heritage. At the same time, as a minority community, Indian Christianity cannot ignore the other religious communities, particularly the majority Hindu community. A total separation would not only favour communalism and

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fundamentalism within its fold but also foment conflict and violence among religious traditions resulting in social disintegration. At the same time, indiscriminate syncretism will tend to dissolve its identity and integrity, culminating in its own disintegration and that of other religious traditions. Therefore the option that remains for the Christian community, as also for other religious communities, is to engage in mutually critical and enriching interactions that can favour, on the one hand, the growth of  religious traditions, and on the other, the transformation of Indian heritage. As we have seen, in the intra-religious and interreligious approach to integration the following empirical perspectives can play a significant and favourable role, particularly in the case of the Christian community: • If Christians in their day-to-day life are appropriately formed to engage in hermeneutic, critique and participation approaches to the local culture and context holding on to the complementary core concepts of salvation and God-experience (anubhava), they would be contributing to a greater integration of their faith with the Indian societal culture. This intra-religious effort could be the basis for the interreligious perspectives. • While keeping watch over the factors that can lead religious traditions to engage in ‘power-driven religious conflict’, Christians should not however fear ‘empowerment-driven religious conflict’, namely, the struggle resulting from the empowering of the oppressed and the downtrodden. • Cross-religious participation among religious traditions in the ‘socioreligious’, ‘socio-cultural’ and ‘socio-political’ rituals should be encouraged among religious traditions without however endangering or compromising their self-identity. In dealing with “Christian identity and Indian heritage” we may fall prey to a theoretical and empirical fallacy that Indians can be neatly grouped and categorized on the basis of their religious affiliation. Such a view blatantly ignores the multi-dimensionality of an individual’s identity (Sen 2006) and the history of Indian heritage. Indians are not just qualified by their religions; however central they may turn out to be. They are at the same time qualified by an ethnic group, linguistic group, caste group, class group, professional group, ideological group, etc. Therefore reducing an individual’s identity to his/her religious identity does not do justice to the complexity of the individual and of the society as a whole. Although for the purpose of our study, we have isolated the religious dimension of a person’s identity, in the



christian identity and indian heritage31

effort to forge greater social cohesion, we need to view it as one among the multidimensional character of an individual’s identity. In other words, besides the religious groups, the interpenetrating ethnic, linguistic, caste, class, professional, and ideological groups also need to play their role holding on to equality and rationality in giving shape to a just and progressive Indian heritage (Sen 2009). References Aloysius, G. (1997), Nationalism without a Nation in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Amalorpavadass, D.S. (1988), Sharing worship. Its relevance in a multi-religious society and in an inter-faith sharing of life. In: Puthanangady, P. (ed.), Sharing worship. Communicatio in sacris. Bangalore: NBCLC. 35–58 Anthony, F.-V. (1997), Ecclesial praxis of inculturation. Toward an empirical-theological theory of inculturizing praxis. Rome: LAS. Anthony, F.-V. (1999), Faith and culture in Catholic schools. An educational-pastoral research on inculturation in the Tamil/Indian cultural context. Chennai: Deepagam. Anthony, F.-V. (2003), Churches of African origin. Forging religio-cultural identity of a third kind. In: Third Millennium, 6, 1, 24–44. Anthony F.-V./Hermans, C.A.M./Sterkens, C. (2005), Interpreting religious pluralism. Comparative research among Christian, Muslim and Hindu students in Tamil Nadu, India. In: Journal of Empirical Theology, 18, 2, 154–186. Anthony F.-V./Hermans, C.A.M./Sterkens, C. (2007), Religious practice and religious socialization. Comparative research among Christian, Muslim and Hindu students in Tamilnadu, India. In: Journal of Empirical Theology, 20, 1, 100–128. Anthony F.-V./Hermans, C.A.M./Sterkens, C. (2010), A comparative study of mystical experience among Christian, Muslim and Hindu students in Tamil Nadu, India. In: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 49, 2, 264–277. Anthony F.-V./Hermans, C.A.M./Sterkens, C. (2011) Cross-religious participation in rituals and interpretation of religious pluralism. A comparative study among Christian, Muslim and Hindu students in Tamil Nadu, India. In: Francis, L.J./Ziebertz, H.-G. (eds.), The public significance of religion. Leiden: Brill. 379–412. Balasubramanian, R. (1992) (ed.), Tolerance in Indian culture. New Delhi: Indian Council of Philoso-phical Research. Berry, J. (2006), Contexts of acculturation. In: Sam, D./Beryy, J. (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of acculturation psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 27–42. Cherian, M.T. (2007), Hindutva agenda and minority rights. A Christian response. Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary Christianity. Das, N.K. (ed.) (2003), Culture, religion and philosophy. Critical studies in syncretism and inter-faith harmony. Jaipur: Rawat Publications. Gort, J./Vroom, H./Fernhout, R./Wessels, A. (1989) (eds.), Dialogue and syncretism. An interdisciplinary approach. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Government of Tamil Nadu (2003), Statistical Handbook. In: http://www.tn.gov.in/deptst/ Tab16_3.htm (21/02/2005). Hermans, C.A.M./Anthony F.-V./Sterkens C./Van der Veld, W. (2011), How Christian students in Tamil Nadu think about power driven religious conflicts A meaning system approach. In: Francis, L.J./Ziebertz, H.-G. (eds.), The public significance of religion. Leiden: Brill. 343–377. Jha, D.N. (2007), Constructing the Hindu identity. In: Habib I. (ed.), Religion in Indian history. New Delhi: Tulika Books. 210–237.

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Kim, S.C.H. (2003), In search of identity. Debates on religious conversion in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Matthis, M.J. (1981), Kierkegaard on the infinite in community and society. In: Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, 55, 135–147. Mayhew, R. (1997), Part and whole in Aristotle’s political philosophy. In: The Journal of Ethics, 1, 325–340. Panikkar, R. (1988), Chosenness and universality. Can both claims be simultaneously maintained? In: Puthanangady P. (ed.), Sharing worship. Communicatio in sacris. Bangalore: NBCLC. 229–250. Pieris, A. (1988), An Asian Theology of liberation. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. Roy, S./Rizvi, S.H.M. (2003), Monotheistic Islam and pluralistic Islamic traditions of India. In: Das, N.K. (ed.), Culture, religion and philosophy. Critical studies in syncretism and inter-faith harmony. Jaipur: Rawat Publications. 142–153. Saberwal, S. (1992), Elements of communalism. In: Madan, T.N. (ed.). Religion in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 339–350. Sarkar, S. (2007), Christian conversion, Hindutva, and secularism. In: Needham A.D./Rajan R.S. (eds.), The crisis of secularism in India. Ranikhet: Permanent Black. 356–367. Schreiter, R.J. (1985), Constructing local theologies. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Sen, A. (2005), The argumentative Indian. Writings on Indian history, culture and identity. London: Allen Lane. Sen, A. (2006), Identity and violence. London: Allen Lane. Sen, A. (2009), The idea of justice. London: Allen Lane. Singh, V.V. (1993), Communal violence. Jaipur: Rawat Publications. Sterkens, C./Anthony F.-V. (2008), A comparative study of religiocentrism among Christian, Muslim and Hindu students in Tamil Nadu, India. In: Journal of Empirical Theology, 21, 1, 32–67. Van der Ven, J.A./Anthony F.-V. (2008), Impact of religion on social integration from an empirical civil rights perspective. In: Salesianum, 70, 317–338, 463–489. Van Leeuwen, J.A.G.G. (1990), Fully Indian - Authentically Christian. A Study of the First Fifteen Years of the NBCLC (1967–1982), Bangalore - India, in the Light of the Theology of its Founder, D.S. Amalorpavadass. Bangalore: NBCLC.

THE IMPORTANCE OF AGENCY AND CONTEXTUAL SENSITIVITY FOR THE FUTURE OF PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS Raymond J. Webb and Jack Curran Important background demographic data on the declining Christian population living in Palestine (West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem) and the writings of well-known Palestinians, specifically in the area of heritage, identity, and continuity, provide a context for this research. Margaret Archer’s work on agency, structure, culture, and reflexivity offers an important alternate framework for coming to understand the situation of Palestinian Christians and their prospects for the future. A review of journal subject matter data offers some outline of trends in relevant Christian-Muslim dialogue. Exploratory data from younger adult Christian and Muslim Palestinians provide an outline of self-perception regarding control of life and future. Then survey data from 165 Palestinian Christian young people (mean age = 17.5) indicate some actions and support of personal agency which could help in the shaping of their future. From these various sources, some assertions are made in regard to the contribution that active agency and contextual sensitivity might make to the Palestinian Christian future.

“If present trends continue, in a few years there will be no more indigenous Palestinian Christians, the living stones of the Holy Land.” This claim is made not infrequently. Bernard Sabella, Jerusalem sociologist and Palestinian Legislative Council member, sees Christians becoming “a relic of the past” (1999, 15). In this paper we first examine data and observations on demographics, identity, and emigration of Palestinian Christians as necessary background (1). In that material is contained the standard argument about the future of Palestinian Christians. However, we believe that there is another very important consideration to be taken into account when discussing the outlook for Palestinian Christians. So, our research question is: using Margaret Archer’s theory of structure and agency, rather than the more common demographic and socio-political perspectives, can a focus on the relationship of human agency with structure and culture offer a path to the continuity and strengthening of Palestinian Christian identity? (2) We look at the interaction as well as the uniqueness of Palestinian Christians in the overall Muslim societal and cultural context – a situation of engagement and negotiation.

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Our empirical sources are threefold (3). The themes found in the Englishlanguage Palestinian interreligious periodical, Al-Liqa’ Journal, offer the outline of a pattern of engagement. Exploratory data provided by younger adult subjects hint at their understanding of personal self-identity and active agency. Archer’s theory of agency, culture, and structure shapes our review of data from a survey of 165 Palestinian Christian young people.This chapter will end with a short conclusion (4). 1. Demographics The total number of Palestinians in the world is estimated at 8 million, half of whom live outside of mandatory Palestine (Israel, Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza). (The number of Christians in the Middle East is estimated at between 8 and 12 million.) There are between 500,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Christians, more than half living outside of Palestine. Bernard Sabella (1999, 15) says that Christians made up 13 percent of the population of the Holy Land in 1893. In 1948, 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of or fled present day Israel; a third of the Christians left (Sabella 2003, 32). Currently, there are 122,000 Palestinian Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and an estimated 240,000 Palestinian Christians in Jordan. Another 360,000 Palestinian Christians reside outside of these areas, principally in Lebanon, Syria, Chile, Latin America, the United States, and Australia. Christians represent 1.6% of the population of Israel and 1.37% of the population of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem (cf. Collings et al. 2008; Sabella 2005). The number of Palestinian Christians (50,000) in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem has held steady for several years – a “no growth” rate – while the number of Palestinian Muslims and Israeli Jews has increased. Muslims have a higher birthrate and a lower emigration rate than Christians (cf. Tarawneh 2003, 77). Identity When using the term Palestinian Christian, we are talking about a national and religious identity for people who do not yet have a state. Edward Said describes Palestinian identity as developing, much like Erik Erikson described adolescent identity development (1995, 15–19). The drive for panArabism has at times obscured the development of the distinct, specific Palestinian identity. Said also sees a politics of identity, somewhat playing out in the issue of pan-Arabism (now in decline) and also in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict (e.g. Israel refers to Palestinians living within Israel as



the future of palestinian christians35

“Israeli Arabs”). Rashid Khalidi (1997, 6) also believes that consideration of the specificity of Palestinian nationalism is challenging because Palestinian identity is intermeshed with identity on many levels: family, tribe, Arab, Christian or Muslim. But he is clear that the definition of Palestinian identity resides in Palestine (1997, 203). Violet Raheb (2003, 42) describes Palestinian self-identity as open and dynamic, having passed through different stages in the past 2000 years. She also understands Palestinians as native inhabitants of Palestine, rooted in the land, culture, and tradi­ tions (42). She describes the link of residents of Palestine with the diaspora as crucial to the community’s future (54). Christians see their religion as rooted in Palestine, the place where they believe Jesus rose from the dead after his life and death. The Arab culture is described as Islamic; Christians are very often recognized as having made significant contributions to the development of this culture, in language, transmission of knowledge, etc. One notes that Arab nationalism has roots in Christian tribal groups such as the Ghassan, which predate the rise of Islam (Shedadeh 2001, 4). Manuel Hassassian (1999, 318) and Haseeb Shedadeh (2001, 7) point to the contribution of Christians to the developing Arab and Palestinian identity and national consciousness, based on common language, culture, and territory. Suleiman Tarawneh (2003, 83) contends that Christians are not simply a minority but rather “a part of our texture.” Meir Litvak (1996, 15–17) argues that Hamas promotes an Islamic culture in which Christians might only be protected minorities, as in the days of Islamic dhimmi or the Ottoman millet system of autonomous groups safeguarded by the ruler but not having an equal status with Muslims. He seems to question whether Christians can prosper in the surely Muslim-shaped Arab Palestinian culture. Regrettably, the former prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, and others have attempted to deny Palestinian identity: “There are no Palestinians.” Shedadeh sees Palestinian Christians as important mediators between Eastern and Western Christianity. Christian consciousness in the past may have focused more on the particular denomination – Latin, Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Syriac, Protestant, etc. – than on the more inclusive “Christian.” Recently, there has been a more visible connection between the various Christian churches. Most Christian groups, including Latin Catholics, are members of the Middle East Council of Churches. Common statements are issued at times by the heads of the Christian churches. The proposed Palestinian Basic Law states: “Arabic and Islam are the official Palestinian language and religion. Christianity and all other

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monotheistic religions shall be equally revered and respected. The Consti­ tution guarantees equality in rights and duties to all citizens irrespective of their religious belief” (Palestinian Constitution (Chapter 1 and 2) 2003). The Palestinian National Council, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Palestinian presidency and ministries are at the macro level, even without formal statehood. For example, they negotiate for the Palestinian people toward the establishment of a state. The current prime minister is attempting to put into place the institutions necessary for statehood, including particularly the areas of security and the economy. Christians have had, at least by custom, reserved places in the Legislative Council. At the meso level, specific Christian denominations, ecumenical bodies and statements, institutions such as Bethlehem University and a variety of charitable organizations exist, usually with international financing and mixed local and international control. The Council of Higher Education, under the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education, unites and regulates the eleven Palestinian universities, one of which is Catholic (with a majority Muslim student body). Christian and Muslim feasts are part of the national calendar and holiday scheme, together with a few specifically national days such as Palestinian Independence Day. The national dance, the dubke, was banned for a time by the Israeli occupying authority, but is now a regular part of many weddings, celebrations, and performances by dance troops. A common language, cuisine, and geographic attachments further define cultural commonality. Calls to prayer by muezzins and by the bells of churches are a common feature of Palestinian settings. At the micro level individuals see themselves as Palestinian or Christian or a combination in a variety of ways, as we shall see below from our research. Raheb (2009, 101) describes herself: “I am an Arab in regard to my culture, tradition, and language; a Palestinian by nationality; a Christian by religious affiliation and by faith; and biologically a woman both body and soul.” She could add that the political situation forces her to be an Austrian citizen. Omar Massalha (2009, 97) says a Palestinian can be a citizen of various countries, with origins in a particular Palestinian place, and of one of several religions and political ideologies. Emigration Palestinian Christian emigration is particularly problematic at a time when their education, competency, and perspectives are needed to help build the state and its institutions (Sabella 1999, 15). The recently retired Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, links faith and patriotism: “When



the future of palestinian christians37

we speak about the position of the Church regarding emigration we mean the position of the patriot and believer together, towards the country and Church and the emigration away from them…. Circumstances are difficult and fraught with many sacrifices such as hunger, absence of opportunities for education, imprisonment and even death. These considerations themselves may be the ones which motivate some persons to emigrate, though these considerations themselves should be the ones to preclude emigration in favour of the option of staying, as everyone is in need of their brothers and sisters” (1992, 9, 12). Adnan Musallam (1992) notes the earlier emigration of Palestinians, due to economic and mercantile factors, to Central and South America in the first half of the twentieth century. Manuel Hassassian (1992), the current representative of the PLO to the United Kingdom, finds the roots of emigration in the creation and development of the State of Israel which has led to, in his opinion, the obliteration of Palestinian identity, the confiscation of political rights, negative social and economic conditions, and the confiscation of Palestinian land. In an extensive study of Haifa (Israel) Christian Arabs, Hatim Khoury (1992) found that 21–30 year old males were most likely to emigrate. Reasons given for emigrating were suitable employment, opportunity for specialized higher education, political stability, marriage, and general economic circumstances. Many went abroad to study, intending to return, but did not return. In a 1993 survey, Sabella found that Christians had slightly more years of education and better income, on average, than the rest of the population. He noted in 2000 that this situation, with limited opportunities, makes one a prime candidate to emigrate. Christians intending to leave usually had relatives abroad (Sabella n.d., 6). Sabella (2003, 29) adds contact with the outside world, a commercial spirit, and the attraction of other countries to the list of motivating factors for emigration over the past century. He also notes that Christians emigrate at twice the rate of Muslims (30). Based on his research, Sabella’s remedies are regional justice and peace, strengthening of religious and societal relations and values, and a positive change in the very difficult economic conditions (38). Emigration is obviously a threat to the strengthening of Palestinian Christian identity and to the contribution of the group to the ongoing development of national identity and contribution to statehood. In times of greater optimism, such as after the signing of the Oslo Accords (1993), there can be signs of reverse emigration and investment of resources gained outside of Palestine (e.g. in the Ramallah area).

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Palestinian Christian identity certainly depends on a dynamic presence in Palestine for its future. Economic opportunity (including work to match educational qualifications), educational opportunity, freedom to travel inside and outside, adequate land for a state, family considerations, political and social agency, and the freedom to live a normal life will be crucial to the vibrancy of the resident community. These issues are unavoidably political. Freedom to travel will be a two-way life flow for residents and the Diaspora. 2. Archer’s Theory Factors discussed above, such as economic opportunity, the attraction of other countries, emigration, the diminishing population percentage, family concerns, and the political situation, do appear to affect the situation and future of Palestinian Christians. However, there is the risk of being locked into a static consideration of the issue. This paper endeavors to consider other sources for looking at the situation. To this end, we believe Margaret S. Archer’s work can be a resource for understanding the data considered in the present study. The information presented in our earlier sections is more structural and cultural. What follows focuses on the agency of persons. A social theorist, Archer has been considering structure, culture, and agency and their interrelationship from a critical realist perspective for more than two decades. She argues that societal structures and particular cultures influence individual persons but do not determine their behavior (1995, 195; 1996, 281). In addition, persons and their socio-cultural activities can change societal structures and cultures (Archer 1995 209, 255). We are neither determined in our lives nor free from external influences. She cautions against conflation of structure and agency. Archer notes that structural interest groups can use cultural weapons against undesired change (e.g., “proper women do not do that”). Individuals can unite to exert group pressure toward cultural and structural change. Internal conversations mediate between structure and agency (Archer 2003, 132). Agency is critical to identity. Through internal conversations most of us “reflexively make our way through the world” (2007, 6). As “active” agents (Archer calls them “actors”), most people exercise some governance in their own lives, although one could be passive and simply let things happen (Archer 2003, 118; 2007, 6–7). But most persons do identify, develop, and define their ultimate concerns, what they care about the most. The concerns of some individuals will be fitting in, of others getting ahead, and of



the future of palestinian christians39

still others pursuing ideals whose actualization may be in fact in doubt (Archer 2007, 93). People act to promote their concerns (2007, 7). These “actors” develop “projects” and courses of action to accomplish their projects, factoring in and adjusting for the possibilities of realization (Archer 2007, 22). The two-way interaction between structure/culture and individual actors and groups exercising agency significantly contributes to the dynamic and emergent reality of both. The individual is not controlled by the structure and culture, although influenced by it. Nor are we simply individuals going our own way. And all of us will have to deal with the influence and, at times, constraints of structure and culture. In the Palestinian context, Christian survival and prosperity would seem to depend on a focus on active agency as well as awareness of and interaction with the societal structures and dominant culture. 3. Empirical Data The Al-Liqaʼ Journal Articles Dedicated to Christian-Muslim dialogue, the semi-annual (and at times annual) Al-Liqa’ Journal has been published in English since 1992. A con­ tent analysis of the themes of its chosen articles sheds some light on issues related to Palestinian Christian identity and the shape of a particular academic dialogical conversation (See Figure 1). During the first eighteen years of publication, from 1992 until 2009, 27 articles were concerned with specifically inter-religious dialogue, 19 were dedicated to identity (continually, one or two per year), 10 to emigration (none after 2003), and 14 to contextual theology (throughout the time span, but with only one during the period of greatest Palestinian-Israeli armed conflict). These were the most fre­ quent foci. As seen in Figure 1, the question of identity, “who we are,” has had steady attention during the period reviewed. The consideration of emigration – leaving the context – was strong in the beginning but is not a current focus. Interreligious dialogue – how one relates to one’s religious neighbors – was strongest during the period of increased armed conflict with Israel, almost replacing contextual theology. There is now a return to contextual theology – making one’s way in one’s native environment, whatever circumstances it may contain. Perhaps this is encouraged by a certain assurance from dialogue that one is in a partnership of sorts with the dominant culture. It could be argued that, while there is no doubt that Palestine will be strongly Muslim, there has been a slowly growing re-assertion by Christians

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raymond j. webb and jack curran 20

Number of Articles

18 16 14 12

1992\1997

10

1998\2004

8

2005\2009

6 4 2 0

Context

Dialogue

Emigration

Identity

Figure 1. Al-Liqa’ Journal Article Themes by time segment (6 issues per segment) that they can have a significant, though minority, role in Palestine. Agency and cultural sensitivity are in play, it seems. Younger Adult Questionnaire Data Forty-six Palestinians ranging in age from 18 to 46 (mean = 20.17) answered exploratory questions developed by the authors. Forty-one respondents were of university age. Nineteen identified themselves as Muslim and 27 as Christian. Most were from the Bethlehem-Jerusalem area. Nineteen were male and 27 female. Respondents were asked the degree to which they felt that they had control of their lives at present, how much control of their lives they believed they would have in the future, and the level of specificity of their dreams for their futures. Thirty-one identified themselves as Palestinian, 6 as Arab, 1 as Syriac, and 4 as “none of these.” All referred to themselves as Muslim or Christian. (Of the Christians, 4 specified Latin, and 2 Orthodox). Christians (mean = 3.96, “much control”) claimed significantly (p = .037) more present control of their lives than Muslims (mean = 3.25, “medium control”). Christians (mean = 3.85 = “definite”) also reported a significantly (p = .017) higher level of clarity of dreams for the future than did Muslims (mean = 3.16 = “an outline”). There were no significant differences in staying in Palestine for religious, familial, and economic reasons; future control of life; and plans to stay forever in Palestine. There were significant correlations between present control and future control (r = .376, p = .014) and between belief in future control and clarity of dreams about the future (r = .308, p = .047).



the future of palestinian christians41

In other words, if one had specific dreams one also tended to have a belief that one could control life in the future. Interestingly, 37.5% of Muslims but only 20.8% of Christians said they would leave the country forever if they had the chance, but about 40 percent of both groups said they would never leave. The survey data indicate an assertion of present and future control of life for both Christians and Muslims. For both there is a sense of agency. Both groups indicate a realization of factors causing emigration: familial, economic, and political, yet a general leaning against leaving and an attempt to control life despite external forces and circumstances. Both thus also indicate an awareness of the structural context of the present and future. Youth Survey A group of 165 Palestinian Christian young people (average age = 17.5) took part in a larger survey of attitudes, using the Values, Religion and Human Rights questionnaire, developed by Johannes van der Ven of Radboud University (Netherlands), and translated into Arabic from English. They were surveyed in secondary schools and youth clubs, most in the greater Bethlehem area. Here we consider certain items related to civil human rights, value preferences, personality preferences, and some religious attitudes. Muslim data are used for purposes of illustration and comparison of Christians with the dominant (Muslim) culture. Civil Human Rights In regard to support for civil human rights, particularly in the areas of freedom of lifestyle, assembly, religious expression, and moral speech, Christians indicated agreement with six of eight propositions (see table 1). We interpret this support for civil human rights as indicating a belief in support for freedom of human agency. Van der Ven and Anthony (2008, 334) interpret 3.4 and above as “Agree” and 4.2 and above as “Strongly Agree.” Values Self-reports of individuals’ attitudes toward the importance of 25 particular items indicated significant differences between Christians and Muslims only in six areas: “sharing time with my acquaintances, my partner or intimate friend, enjoying life, having fun, not being tied to rules, and

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Table 1. Youth Survey Civil Human Rights Attitudes Mean: Freedom of lifestyle Our laws should protect a citizen’s right to live  by any moral standard he/she chooses. Any form of sexual relations between adults  should be their individual choice. Freedom of assembly Minority groups should be free to use the town  hall to hold protest meetings. A cabinet minister should allow his striking  officials to meet in a ministerial building. Freedom of religion Politicians are not allowed to interfere with  religious communities. Prayers in public schools not be forbidden. Moral speech The community’s moral standards should be  critically debated in schools. Children should be free to discuss all moral  ideas and subjects in schools, no matter.

Christian

Muslim

3.86

4.08

3.65

3.35

3.30

3.25

3.58

3.63

3.66

3.48

2.82

2.32

3.74

3.71

3.58

3.65

Scale: 1 = “Strongly Disagree”; 5= “Strongly Agree” Bold = p < .05

experiencing new events” (See Table 2). Christians attached more importance than did Muslims to those six items, although both religious groups were strongly positive toward these six values. Areas of no difference included “the importance of my study, sports, my friends, my career, politics, my family, my religion or world view, having time for myself, being married, getting on in life, contributing to reduction of existing income differences, having children or raising them, promoting greater equality in society, deciding for oneself what is allowed and what is not, living in your family, being in a good financial situation, breaking through the existing relations of power, practicing an occupation, and being independent of anyone.” We think it can be argued that these findings point toward active



the future of palestinian christians43

Table 2. Youth Survey Attitudes about Importance of Values Mean:

Christian Muslim Significance

Sharing time with my acquaintances. My Partner or intimate friend. Enjoying life. Having fun. Not being tied to rules. Experiencing new events.

4.07 4.41 4.59 4.35 4.05 4.34

3.81 4.19 4.38 3.95 3.80 4.12

.002 .003 .005 .000 .006 .011

Scale: 1 = “Strongly Disagree”; 5= “Strongly Agree”

Table 3. Personality Characteristics Mean: Christian Muslim Significance Can you easily get some  life into a dull party? Do you tend to keep in the  background on social  occasions? Does your mood often go up  and down? Are you a talkative person? Were you ever greedy helping  self to more than your  share of anything? Enjoying cooperating with  other? Do other people think of  you as being very lively?

1.40

1.58

.000

1.81

1.74

.047

1.19

1.28

.05

1.22 1.66

1.35 1.75

.003 .034

1.02

1.12

.000

1.14

1.24

.014

Scale: 1 = Yes; 2 = No

agency in the Christian group, a certain taking control of life with a degree of independence from cultural and group norms, at least in certain areas of life. In addition, there is general congruence between Christian and Muslim lifestyle, arguing for a Christian ability to fit into a Muslim context, which is necessary for long term Christian identity survival.

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Responding to additional questions in the survey, 74 percent of Christians and 76 percent of Muslims indicated that there were political conversations within the home. Interestingly, among these young people, only 27 percent of Christians (mean rating on 5 point scale was 2.68, ns) and 33 percent of Muslims (mean rating on 5 point scale was 2.84, ns) thought that politics was important or very important. Though politics is certainly an arena for active agency, it is difficult to explain the political data. Whether the possible contradictions come from disinterest or from a fear of possible governmental access to personal data is unclear. One can, nevertheless, assert that political conversation is important to Christians and Muslims alike. Like Muslims, Christians have concern about the societal situation. Certain Personality Characteristics The differences between Christians and Muslims in regard to personality characteristics described here are largely in degree. Christians saw themselves as less moody, more talkative, more greedy, more enjoying coop­ eration with others, more seen as lively, more able to get life into a dull party, less tending to keep in the background. There is a kind of “Christian assertiveness” in all this. It could be argued that active agency is slightly stronger in the Christians. Religious Attitudes There are certain differences in general religious areas between Christians and Muslims (See Table 4). Christians more strongly agreed that, when people are friends that is God’s love at work, and when people live in friendship, God’s love is present. Muslims more strongly agreed that they referred to God in guiding every aspect of their lives than did Christians. Christians tended to agree and Muslims tended to disagree that God set the world in motion and left it to humans to take care of. This appears to be a Christian assertion of the requirement of active agency. Consistent with their religious traditions, the statement “God sent his son Jesus to earth” was strongly agreed to by Christians (mean = 4.54) and strongly disagreed with by Muslims (mean = 1.69). Clearly, religious identity has specific content in the Palestinian context. Notably, interreligious dialogue is viewed equally positively (mean = 3.52) by both Christians and Muslims surveyed. Additional results indicated that 89 percent of Christians and 92 percent of Muslims reported talking about religious matters within the home. Christians (mean = 3.51 = “several times a year”) reported significantly (p < .000) more frequent attendance at their place of worship than Muslims



the future of palestinian christians45

Table 4. Religious Attitudes Mean:

Christian

My religion/worldview has a great  influence on my daily life. My religion or world view is the only  access to authentic life. God set the world in motion and left  it to humans to take care of it. When people are friends that is God’s  love at work. When people live in friendship,  God’s love is present. God sent his son Jesus to earth. Interreligious dialogue.

Muslim

Significance

3.96

4.17

.022

3.74

4.13

.002

3.34

2.81

.000

4.33

3.83

.000

4.15

3.71

.000

4.54 3.52

1.69 3.52

.000 ns

Scale: 1 = “Strongly Disagree”; 5= “Strongly Agree”

(mean = 2.71 = “more than on feast days”). However, praying at home is perfectly acceptable for Muslims. So, 55.6 percent of Muslims report praying regularly and another 14 percent “more than now and then.” 39.9 percent of Christians report praying regularly and another 28.3 percent “more than now and then.” Prayer seems to have a similar place in the lives of these Christians and Muslims. These “religious attitudes” data argue that the context in which both Christians and Muslims live is perceived and acted upon as religious, although there are certainly differences in how that religiousness is understood. 4. Conclusion As has been described above, Palestinian identity has developed from local (e.g. village or tribal) focus, through regional consciousness, with a digression in the mid-1900s toward pan-Arabism, and now toward a national identity which is similar to other national identities. Christian identity is ancient. Inter-denominational cooperation and joint statements and action are more recent. Christians can enhance inter-church cooperation, to their mutual strength. They can creatively influence Palestinian identity with Christian accents, realizing that it will always have a Muslim flavor.

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In other words, they can keep doing what they have been doing for 2000 years in contributing to civilization and culture, and thereby their place in it. We believe that, besides the more common factors brought into the conversation about Palestinian Christian identity and its future, active agency, as well as engagement in the societal structure and culture, needs to be more prominently featured. The article content survey from the Al-Liqa’ Journal shows a consistent focus on Palestinian Christian identity and heritage, a move away from the question of emigration, an engagement in mutually – and contextually – supportive inter-religious dialogue (especially in a time of crisis), and continuing development of contextual theology itself, which focuses on being rooted in one’s culture, society, and location. The agency and engagement which we believe are necessary for a minority community to survive and perhaps prosper are indicated by the pattern of these topical areas. From the youth survey data, the Palestinian Christians could be described as outgoing, interactive, responsible for the world and less reliant on religious guidance. Personal agency would seem to be an important feature or value for them. The Christian youth surveyed exhibit a general pattern similar to that of the Muslims with whom they live, as well as a certain sense of adventurousness, a valuing of not being rule bound, and a freedom from societal constraint. This indicates some tendency toward action, through the exercise of agency to achieve what one wants. Similarly, general support for civil rights in the areas of lifestyle, assembly, freedom of religion, discussion of morals and values argues for the precence of individual agency in the midst of cultural and structural forces. Clearly, the limited group of younger adults recognizes a Palestinian and Christian identity. Though the young adult group was quite small (46), the Christian young adults, contrasted with the Muslims, indicated more present control of their lives, clearer dreams for the future, and less desire to leave if given the chance – indicators of the exercise of agency. The size of the group should lead to caution about general conclusions. These data from our three sources provide us with some evidence that Palestinian Christians exhibit a certain personal and group agency within their Muslim-influenced Palestinian Arab culture and society. So, if Palestinian Christian identity and Palestinian Christians themselves are to prosper in the future, they may well draw on their strength in attempting to take control of their lives and futures and provide mutual support in doing this. Though they are not the dominant group, they will recognize that they can continue to accent and strengthen the greater Palestinian culture and



the future of palestinian christians47

society as Christians have in the past. They can strengthen each other as persons, in extended families, in religious solidarity. They can contribute to state building through personal skills, experience, and education. References Archer, M.S. (1995), Realist social theory: the morphogenetic approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Archer, M.S. (1996), Culture and agency: the place of culture in social agency. Rev. ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Archer, M.S. (2003), Structure, agency, and the internal conversation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Archer, M.S. (2007), Making our Way through the World: Human Reflexivity and Social Mobility. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Collings, R. Al Q./Kassis, R.O./Mitri Raheb, M. (eds.) (2008), Palestinian Christian Facts, Figures, and Trends 2008. Bethlehem: Diyar Consortium. [email protected] Hassassian, M. (1992), The Economic and Political Motives for Palestinian Arab Emigration Since the Year of the 1948 catastrophe. Al-Liqa’ Journal 2 (Dec. 1992), 43–69. Hassassian, M. (1999), The influence of Christian Arabs in the National Movement. Patterns of the Past, Prospects for the Future: The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land. In: Thomas Hummel, Kevork Hintlian and Ulf Carmesund, (eds.), Patterns of the Past, Prospects for the Future: The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land, London: Melisende, 308–330. Khalidi, R. (1997), Palestinian Identity: the Construction of Modern National Consciousness. New York: Columbia University Press. Khoury, H. (1992), The Emigration of Christian Arabs from Haifa. Al-Liqa’ Journal 2 (Dec. 1992) 71–123. Litvak, M. (1996), The Islamicization of Palestinian Identity: the Case of Hamas. Tel Aviv University: The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, August, 1996. Massalha, O. (2009), Fragmentation of the Palestinian Identity. In Raheb, Mitri, ed. God’s Reign and People’s Rule: Constitution, Religion and Identity in Palestine. Berlin: AphorismA Verlags-buchhandlung, 97–99. Musallam, A. (1992), The Formative Stages of Palestinian Emigration to the Americas … Until the Eve of 1948 Catastrophe. Al-Liqa’ Journal 2 (Dec. 1992) 17–41. Raheb, V. (2003), Identity and Future of Christians in the Holy Land. Al-Liqa’ Journal 20/21 Dec. 2003, 42–55. Raheb, V. (2009), Shifting boundaries of the self: Reflections from the perspective of the Diaspora. In Raheb, M. (ed.) God’s Reign and People’s Rule: Constitution, Religion and Identity in Palestine. Berlin: AphorismA Verlagsbuchhandlung, 101–104. Palestinian Constitution (Chapter 1 and 2). (2003), In Raheb, M., (ed.) God’s Reign and People’s Rule: Constitution, Religion and Identity in Palestine. Berlin: AphorismA Verlagsbuchhandlung, 63–72. Sabbah, P.M. (1992), The Position of the Church in Regard to Emigration in Our Palestinian Society. Al-Liqa’ Journal 2 (Dec. 1992) 9–15. Sabella, B. (2005), Arab Christian Presence in Palestine. Al-Liqa’ Journal 24 (August 2005) 76–90. Sabella, B. (2003), Emigration of Arab Christians: Motivating Factors and Challenges of Survival. Al-Liqa’ Journal 20/21 (Dec. 2003) 28–42. Sabella, B. (1999), Millennial Challenges and Preoccupations: Palestinian Christians and the Tasks Ahead. Christian Voices from the Holy Land: Bethlehem 2000: Palestine year One? London: Palestinian General Delegation to the UK, December 1999, 14–20.

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Sabella, B. (n.d.), Palestinian Christians: Challenges and Hopes. http://www.albushra.org/ holyland/-sabella.htm Said, E.W. (1995), The Politics of Dispossession. London: Vintage. Shedadeh, H. (2001), Christian Arabs in the Middle East. Al-Liqa’ Journal 16/17, Dec. 2001, 1–15. Tarawneh, S. (2003), Role of Muslim Arabs in Supporting Christian Presence. Al-Liqa’ Journal 20/21 Dec. 2003, 71–84. Van der Ven, J.A./Anthony, F.-V. (2008), Impact of Religion on Social Integration from an Empirical Civil Rights Perspective (Part One). Salesianum 70: 317–338.

SEARCHING FOR RELIGIOUS IDENTITY BETWEEN NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS HERITAGE AND GLOBAL EXPANSION Sabine Zehnder, Taylor Christl, Aristide Peng, Kathrin Brodbeck, Christoph Kaeppler and Christoph Morgenthaler This chapter presents results from a study in which 750 German-speaking Swiss adolescents between 13 and 16 years of age were surveyed about religiosity and identity. Results will be presented on how young people construct their identities within a tension-filled context of national and religious background, current living situation, and new transnational and global horizons. With regard to the adolescents in this study, we see that the strength of an individual’s identification with his/her town, canton, country of origin, Switzerland, religious community and transnational references (Europe, the world) is very much dependent on his/her social and religious background. When looking at the entire sample, it is the connections to Europe and to Switzerland that are strongest. When the sample is broken down into the different religious groups, however, each group shows its own hierarchisation of the different aspects of collective identity. For young people with an immigrant background, the connection to their religious community appears to be more important for their global identity than for those without an immigrant background. With regard to the young people with an immigrant background, the religious identity is of particular importance among the Muslim and Jewish participants. Adolescents with an immigrant background who belong to a religious minority show a stronger connection between the ethnic-national and the religious identity than those in the Swiss state-supported churches.

1. Theoretical Introduction Since Erikson proposed his theory of psychosocial development (e.g. Erikson 1973), the search for an identity is considered to be one of the great challenges of adolescence. This phase of life represents one of transition, in which young people confront their parents and alter their relationship with them, develop more autonomy, and begin to orient themselves toward non-familial relationships, in particular with peers. Clothing style, music preference, and leisure activities are all areas in which the search for identity and the expression of identity are made visible: they exhibit belonging and create boundaries in the social sphere. Who am I? Who

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would I like to be? To which social groups do I feel connected and with which groups would I rather not be associated? In the period of adolescence such questions are posed with great urgency. Furthermore, this phase of cognitive development allows individuals to reflect more and more on such questions; it facilitates the development and juxtaposition of a self-concept and a concept of others. The changing social contexts challenge the young people of today with the task of reconciling the very different facets of their identity into one coherent entity. This requires a shifting of the collective, in particular the political, religious and national, aspects of this identity. Thus, the adolescents are challenged with creating an identity in the contradiction-laden and tension-filled context of one’s background, current life situation and expanding continental and global horizons. Contextual change and the search for (religious) identity: References to the national and religious heritage for the growth of young people and the development of a religious identity continue to be very important. The importance of the connections to national and religious heritage is, however, different for adolescents with and without an immigrant background. Identity is formed within a square-grid of present social references, in particular, the town/city in which one lives, the canton or state and the national context. Young people in this age group also become increasingly aware of social references to transnational contexts. Furthermore, the adolescents of today are growing up in a very dynamic religious landscape. As in the majority of Western Europe, the religious landscape of Switzerland has witnessed dramatic changes in the last few decades. Traditionally, two state-sponsored churches have been rooted in Switzerland, namely, the Protestant-Reformed Church and the Roman Catholic Church. In addition to these two Christian denominations, there has traditionally also been a small minority of Jewish and Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland congregations. Census data dating from 1970 to 2000, when taken together, show a number of developments: there has been a decline in membership of the state-sponsored churches; an increase in the number of individuals without religious affiliation; and, predominantly due to immigration, an increase in non-Christian religious groups. Thus, today’s young people are confronted with a myriad of associations and obligations that could be important for their identity experience. Identity work and collective identity: In the following we investigate how these collective associations are reflected in the adolescent search for identity. Keupp et al., who theorized the concept of identity used in this research, views identity as the result of an active process of continuous identity construction which is based on the experiences of discontinuity,



searching for religious identity51

fragmentation, breaks and transitions in a social environment characterized by social processes such as individualization, pluralization and globalization. This kind of identity work has both an internal and external dimension. The internal dimension relates to the synthesis work by the subject in which the focus is on the subjective connection between different associations, the construction of coherence and self-acceptance as well as authenticity and meaningfulness. The external dimension is related to one’s capacity to act as well as one’s acceptance and integration into a social environment (Keupp 2010 19–20). Keupp theorizes that the sense of belonging to and being accepted by a supportive social community is crucial for successful identity work. In this way, collective identity, as the sense of connectedness with a social group, can be viewed as one aspect of the external dimension of identity work. Since the adolescents of today have to communicate very different allegiances with one another simultaneously, internal identity work is also necessary for bringing these multiple memberships together into one subjectively cohesive entity. The authors of the present study understand collective identity to be the overall feeling of belonging a young person experiences in reference to a geographical place, political sphere or a cultural or social group, such as how strongly one feels he/she belongs to his/her town, country of residence, country of origin (in the case of individuals who have immigrated), or to a religious community. This felt belonging can encompass several different levels: for example, close friendships or familial relationships which are essential for the sense of belonging to a collective; knowledge and preservation of traditions in all areas of life as well as common value systems, mentalities, social rules and norms etc. Unfortunately, how these different levels relate to adolscentsʼ sense of belonging to different groups cannot be concluded from the data in the present study. Previous research on collective identity: In the past few years a number of research efforts looked at collective identity in terms of the sense of belonging to a collective, in particular, among young people with an immigrant background (e.g. Saroglou/Galand 2004; Raithel/ Mrazek 2004; Saroglou/ Hanique 2006; Weiss 2007; Bonfadelli et al. 2009; Baier et al. 2010). While the majority of studies investigated the differences between young people with and without an immigrant background or young people with different countries of origin, Saroglou and Galand (2004) and Sarolglou and Hanique (2006) studied the collective identities of members of different religious groups. Saroglou and Galand (2004) investigated three groups of young adults (students) in Belgium, namely, native Belgians, immigrants from Muslim-Mediterranean countries and immigrants from other countries.

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These three groups were compared on their individual identity, their collective identity, their religiosity and their values. Results showed that all three groups identified most with their country of origin (Belgium for the native Belgians, and the other respective countries of the other two groups). Interestingly, the Muslim immigrants reported a more pronounced Belgian identity than the immigrants from other countries. The authors interpreted this to be the result of better integration of Muslim young people than of those from other countries. The identification with the host country Belgium was weaker than the European identity in both immigrant groups. However, there were no significant group differences between the three groups in terms of their European identity. In a subsequent study, Saraglou and Hanique (2006) incorporated data from Jewish young people (16–19 years) into the comparison with native Belgians and Muslim immigrant young people living in Belgium. The data show that the Jewish young people identified most with their religious affiliation, while the Belgian, European and cosmopolitan identities for Jewish young people did not differ significantly. Furthermore, the Jewish young people did not differ significantly from the other two groups in their identity as world citizens. As with the Muslim young peo­ple, the Jewish participants identified themselves as Belgian as did the native Belgians in the study. There was no significant difference between the Muslim and Jewish young people in their identity as Belgian. Interest­ ingly, however, the Jewish participants identified themselves as being European to a lesser extent than the native Belgian and Muslim young people did (ibid. 239/240). National heritage and migration: As is clear from the Swiss population statistics, Switzerland is an immigration country. According to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office, in 2008, one-third (1 965 000 people, 30.6%) of the Swiss population aged 15 and above had an immigrant background which means they were either foreign nationals (66.9%), were naturalized citizens (29.7%), or were the children of naturalized citizens (3.4%). These profound shifts in the social context are of great importance for the question of identity associations in the context of national heritage and global expansion. This is certainly true for young people with an immigrant background. Migration is always associated with a long process that requires a new orientation and new positioning toward the country of origin of the migrants and toward the emigrant country. This positioning is a necessary process for both the generation that has migrated as well as subsequent generations. Here, each migrant is faced with several questions, including: how strongly do I feel connected to my country of origin? How much to my country of residence? How important are religious traditions? What role does religion



searching for religious identity53

play in my life and in my self-concept, in particular, when my own religion differs from that of the country of residence? Particularly in adolescence, in which we see the distancing from one’s family and the orientation toward other social groups, processes of identification with collective groups play a crucial role in identity development. Finally, immigration and processes of globalization and mobility have also triggered questions about belonging among native Swiss young people. Such questions and interests guided the researchers in the present study in both the data collection and the analyses of the data. These concepts and views were translated into quantifiable and testable research questions, which are presented in the following section. 2. Research Questions The research questions presented here focus on the aspect of collective identity. Within the VROID-MHAP Study1 young people’s value orientations were also investigated. These will, however not be presented here because they would go beyond the scope of this chapter (for information about the relationship between values and collective identity, see Flunger and Ziebertz 2010). The following analyses will be grouped into three sections: first, analyses will look at the entire sample; then young people from different religious groups will be compared with one another; finally, the collective identity of young people with an immigrant background will be focused on specifically. The following research questions will be investigated: 1. Aspects of collective identity in the whole sample: With which groups do the young people identify? Which role does religious affiliation play in young people’s identities? How are the feelings of connectedness to the different groups correlated with one another? 2. Aspects of collective identity according to religious affiliation: In which ways do the religious identities of young people who are affiliated with different religious groups differ? Do young people from different religious groups also have different identity profiles? 3. Aspects of collective identity among adolescents with an immigrant background: How significant is the sense of belonging to Switzerland, to the country of origin, and to the religious group of adolescents who 1  Values and Religious Orientations in Relation to Identity Development and Mental Health: Adolescent’s Perspectives. More detailed information about the study is available in Käppler et al. 2001.

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sabine zehnder et al. have immigrated or whose parents immigrated to Switzerland? Are there differences between different religious groups? 3. Methods Data Collection

The data for the present study were collected between April and July of 2008. This was the first (and most comprehensive) ‘wave’ of data collected within the VROID- MHAP Study. For the purposes of this chapter, only data from this first survey will be presented. The vast majority of the participants (89,8%) were surveyed in public schools. Adolescents affiliated with nonChristian religions were also recruited through religious organizations and religious educational institutions. Participants The sample includes 750 adolescents aged 13 to 16 years with a mean age of 14.99 years (SD = 1.02). The sample has a gender balance of 49.2% (n = 374) girls and 49.7% (n = 373) boys. In the remaining 0.4% (n = 3) of the cases this information was missing. The young people attended different types of schools: 40.4% (n = 302) attend secondary school A (Sekundarschule A), 34.5% (n = 258) attend secondary school B (Sekundarschule B), 21.7% (n = 162) attend Gymnasium, 2.5% (n = 19) attend a trade school (Berufsschule) and 0.2% (n = 2) attend another type of school. There was also a well-balanced distribution of participants from urban (51.8%) and rural (48.2%) areas. The distribution of young people with (46.5%) and without (53.5%) a migrant background is also satisfactory. To specify even further, 20.3% (n = 152) of the participants have one non-Swiss parent and 26.2% (n = 196) have two parents who were not born in Switzerland. The majority of the young people belong to one of the two statesupported churches (32.1% Protestant; 25.5% Catholic). A relatively large proportion of the adolescents (9.2%) reports having no religious affiliation. Another 9.9% describe themselves as Christian without giving a specific denomination. With 8.1% of the sample, the Muslim young people represent the largest non-Christian religious group. Some of the Muslim participants specified their religious affiliation even further; Sunni (n = 11), Shi’a (n = 2), Hanafi (n = 1), Alevi (n = 1). The other religious groups (including Hinduism, Judaism, free churches. and Christian Orthodox) each encompass between 2.3% and 3.3% of the sample. An additional, small group of



searching for religious identity55

Table 1. Sample according to religious affiliation n

%

No religious affiliation Christian, without specification Catholic Protestant Free church Christian orthodox Muslim Hindu Jewish Christian “other denominations” Other religious affiliation Religious affiliation unclear Missing data

69 74 191 241 21 22 61 25 17 5

9.2 9.9 25.5 32.1 2.8 2.9 8.1 3.3 2.3 0.7

8 9 7

1.1 1.2 0.9

Total

750

100.0

young people (0.7%) were categorized as ‘other Christian denomination ’. The proportion of young people in this study belonging to religious communities other than the state-supported Protestant and Catholic churches is in line with that of the Swiss population in 2000 (for more information see Baumann/Stolz 2007, 40). The category “other religious affiliation” includes individuals whose religious groups did not fit into the above mentioned categories. The affiliation of an additional nine young people was unclear (for instance, they crossed both Christian and no religious affiliation). Seven individuals did not answer the question. The religious affiliations of the young people in the sample are presented in Table 1. The analyses of the entire sample include data from all participants. Subsequent analyses, however, only include those groups that are large enough for statistical comparisons, namely: young people without a religious affiliation, Catholic, Protestant, free Church, Christian Orthodox, Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish young people. The young people who described themselves as Christian without further specification are not included in the subsequent analyses due to the lack of specificity of their affiliation. The young people who chose ‘other Christian denominations’ as well as those with unclear affiliations are not included in the analyses due to their small group size. Furthermore, the young people without religious affiliation are

56

sabine zehnder et al.

not included in the analyses of religious identity since their religious identity, in this way, cannot be reasonably interpreted. Measures Collective Identity: Based on Saroglou and Galand (2004), the collective identity was operationalized as the experience belonging to certain groups/ places: “How strongly do you feel… a) connected to your city/town? b) connected to your canton/state? c) Swiss? d) connected to your country of origin? e) like a European? f) like a world citizen? g) connected to your religious community?”. These questions were all to be answered on a five point Likert scale from ‘not at all’ (1) to ‘very much so’ (5). Religious affiliation: The participants given the following choices for answering the question “which religious community do you belong to?”: no religious community, Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Christian Orthodox, free church, another Christian community, Muslim, Sunnie, Shi’ae, Alevie, other Muslim community, Jewish, Jewish orthodox, Jewish liberal, other Jewish community, Buddhist, Hindu, other religious community, something else. The options written in italics gave the participants extra space so they could specify their answers. The young people could potentially choose more than one of the answer categories. This was done most often by the Christian participants who, for example, made an ‘x’ for both Christian and Catholic. In such a case, the young person was categorized as Catholic. The other groups (free churches, Christian Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu) were not divided further into sub-groups due to the small sample sizes of the sub-groups. Analyses The Data were analyzed using PAWS 18 (formerly SPSS). T-tests (both for independent and dependent groups) and analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used for carrying out group comparisons. 4. Results In reference to the previously mentioned research question, results will be presented in the following section that reveals the different religious identity profiles in the whole sample and in subgroups of the young people.



searching for religious identity57

Figure 1. Mean values on the different aspects of collective identity in the whole sample (***) (***) (*) (***) 5

(***) (**)

4

(**)

3

2

1 Europe

Switzerland

Town

World

Canton (State)

Religious community

Note: (*)=p