Religious Otherness and National Identity in Scandinavia, c. 1790–1960

Amid the frequent assertions of Nordic secularism, it can be easy to forget that religion has been a central defining aspect of individual and national identities in the Nordic region for hundreds of years. Religion, in this respect, encompasses not only the Evangelical Lutheran institutions and theological principles that shaped public life in Scandinavia from the Protestant Reformation until at least the mid-twentieth century, but also the conceptions of individual and public morality that were deemed integral to full membership in each nation. Religious identity and belonging were thus a matter of intense emotion and ruthless political maneuvering, which resulted in certain non-Lutheran religious groups being positioned, at best, as existing outside the national community, or, at worst, as an imminent threat to the cohesion and security of that community. In Religious Otherness and National Identity in Scandinavia, c. 1790–1960: The Construction of Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits as Anti-citizens and Enemies of Society, Norwegian professor of history Frode Ulvund offers a thorough, well-documented survey of how and why religious otherness was constructed in Scandinavia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, outlining how Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits were, respectively and collectively, rhetorically positioned and officially treated as the “other” in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark between 1790 and 1960. Available as an open-access eBook as well as in hardcover, this is a very welcome expanded English-language version, translated by Adam King, of Ulvund's 2017 book Nasjonens antiborgere: Forestillinger om religiøse minoriteter som samfunnsfiender i Norge, ca. 1814–1964 (Cappelen Damm).Ulvund's research focuses primarily on official policies and legislative debates in Norway (as well as in Denmark and Sweden to a lesser degree) over the extent to which Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits should be excluded from or permitted to interact with Scandinavian national communities, but he also explores very productively how the parameters of these negotiations reflected the larger cultural and political concerns of Europe in each era. Framing the overarching conversation about national belonging, Ulvund's first three chapters provide a historical overview of the many varieties of religious toleration and pluralism that existed alongside emerging conceptions of the nation, drawing on the writings of John Locke, Samuel Pufendorf, and Ludvig Holberg, among others, to explicate these positions. Ulvund makes no judgment on the validity of any particular ideological position, but he is careful to emphasize the difference between tolerance and toleration, particularly prior to the Enlightenment, which creates a crucial discrepancy between religious freedom as a benevolent exception to a general rule (that can be just as easily revoked as granted) and as a civil right guaranteed by law for all. In the middle of the book, Ulvund devotes one long chapter to each of his three detailed case studies: the Jewish community in Norway (with references to Denmark, France, and Sweden as well) between 1790 and 1851, the Mormon movement in Scandinavia between 1850 and 1955, and the Jesuit order in Norway between 1814 and 1961. He concludes with a thought-provoking exploration of how these historically and geographically contingent disputes over specific forms of religious practice and theology informed—if only as abstractions, since Jews and Jesuits were banned from entering Norway for much of the period in question—changing conceptions of citizenship across the Nordic region.In all three cases, Ulvund makes clear, opposition to religious difference was at least as much political as it was theological. In fact, the central argument marshaled to justify the exclusion of these particular non-Lutherans in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark was the claim that they would function as a “state within the state,” disloyal to the nation and subservient instead to a competing religious authority, whether it be the “Jewish nation” in diaspora, the Mormon theocracy in territorial Utah, or the papacy in Rome. In short, he explains, “the limits of toleration could be found wherever the sovereignty of the state was infringed upon” (p. 104). Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits were thus all framed as dangerously foreign and untrustworthy, accused of undermining the social bonds forged through religious homogeneity.Despite the theological and cultural differences between them, all three groups were treated similarly and often compared with each other, and with Islam—a strategy that allowed critics to transfer concerns and fears about one group to another without much effort. Ulvund explains, for example, how this transference worked in the case of the relatively unknown quantity that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints represented in mid-nineteenth century Norway. In order to quickly marshal public opposition, Nordic critics simply dusted off well-worn stereotypes of the foreign religious other, portraying “Mormon morality as the worst of Jesuit, Jewish, and Islamic morality.” He explains that Mormons were considered similar to “Jesuit[s] because Mormons, and especially their theocratic leadership, were portrayed as uninhibited empire builders for whom the ends justified the means,” depicted as “Jewish by portraying Mormons as a sequestered people who considered themselves to be chosen possessors of a divine covenant, who maintained their identity through segregation,” and “associated with an alleged carnality in Islam, . . . especially in the form of polygamous practices. . . . This was a morality that was considered to be in direct conflict with the very moral principles of the state” (pp. 205–6). As Ulvund documents, there was little to no factual basis for such extravagant claims of villainy and treachery in connection with Mormons, Jews, Jesuits, or Muslims in the period he discusses, particularly given the vanishingly small communities of their adherents within the Nordic states, but such claims were nevertheless repeated ad nauseum as justification for denying members of these groups either access to the country or the equal protection of the law once inside.However, verifiable facts weren't allowed to stand in the way of effective rhetoric when it came to exercising social control. Drawing primarily on archival sources and contemporary news media, Ulvund meticulously documents how these three religious groups outside the Evangelical Lutheran mainstream were pathologized for political reasons and charged with zealotry and fanaticism, refusal to obey laws, allegations of financial malfeasance, and seduction of the public. Even Quakers, who refused to perform military service or swear oaths, were considered in Norway to be, like Jews, “unqualified to be active citizens of the state” (p. 104). In all of these cases, as well as later with Communists, differing views were dismissed as dangerous aberrations, and the people who held them were pronounced morally unfit for citizenship. In his conclusion, Ulvund demonstrates how these case studies illuminate the complicated transition from regarding members of a national community as subjects to treating them as citizens with inherent civil rights, which was taking place during the 150-year period in question. Defining these transnational religious outcasts as “the antithesis of good citizens” (p. 262) paved the way for establishing images of us/citizens versus them/anti-citizens that could be instrumentalized in redefining the concept of citizen “from primarily bestowing certain economic privileges on burghers (merchants and master craftsmen) to being understood as equal citizens in a nation” (p. 268). The expansion of this understanding to encompass equality of all citizens before the law also entailed normative legal-political and moral criteria for membership in this group, in relation to which Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits served as foils.One of the great strengths of this book, aside from its very clear argument, is Ulvund's effective use of obscure archival sources to flesh out and substantiate his narrative, which makes this book a terrific resource for anyone working on religious identity and difference in not only Scandinavia but in Europe more generally. He does not, however, have the space to delve in any depth into corresponding cultural discourses around religion and identity, aside from a smattering of references to pamphlets and articles written by Lutheran clergymen and a few German novels by Baldwin Möllhausen; further discussion would have enriched his account (but also would have made it much longer, of course). Still, that omission leaves the door open for anyone who wants to build on this solid foundation to explore such texts within the context of this rich historical material. Ulvund's work is also highly relevant to the ongoing discussions of national belonging and moral citizenship in not only the Nordic region, but across Europe, the UK, and the United States. As his successive focus on Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits makes clear, while the precise nature of the “other” changes as some religious minorities become more accepted and other minorities emerge as more threatening, the underlying ideas about the dangers of difference tend to persist and thrive until they are dismantled and exposed as the straw men that they are

Aesthetics · Ethnology · Identity (music) · National identity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies

• Material Perspectives on Religion, Conflict, and Violence

  Open Access•Lucien Van Liere, Erik Meinema•Material Perspectives on…•2022

  Add to list

• Eingegangene Bücher

  Open Access•Teresa Brandt, Paradoxien Der Unternehmensge et al.•Historische Zeitschrift•2021

  Add to list

• The Relevance of Islamic Values in the Martabat Tujuh Constitution

  Open Access•Suwandi, Suwandi Suwandi et al.•IBDA Jurnal Kajian Islam dan Budaya•2024

  Add to list

• A Ring of Peace around the Oslo Synagogue

  Open Access•Margaretha A Van Es•Material Perspectives on…•2022

  Add to list