Multiple religious belonging in the Netherlands: an empirical approach to hybrid religiosity

J.T. Berghuijs

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    Dutch society is highly secularized in terms of decreasing church membership and church
    attendance. Meanwhile, there are many ‘religious creatives’ who fulfil their need for meaning by using
    multiple religious sources. This paper presents an empirical investigation into the occurrence and nature of
    hybrid religion in the Netherlands, seen as ‘multiple religious belonging’ (MRB). After a number of global
    indications of the importance of MRB, this is the first attempt to quantify and detail MRB in a population.
    A new approach to ‘religious belonging’ is developed, not in an exclusive, ‘property’ sense, but in terms
    of being related and feeling at home. This approach leads to a number of ‘modalities of belonging’, that
    can be measured per religion. To do so, a survey among a representative sample of the Dutch population
    was used. The survey results indicate that MRB is present among at least 23% of the population in varying
    combinations and intensities. They also highlight the tendency to emphasize the relatedness between
    religions, and the permeability and even blurring of the boundaries between them.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)19-37
    Number of pages19
    JournalOpen Theology
    Volume3
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

    Funding

    Acknowledgement: This study is part of the project ‘Geloven in veelvoud’ of the research programme ‘Religie in de moderne samenleving’, which is financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

    FundersFunder number
    Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

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