Ut av statskirken – en oversikt 1865 til 1980

Abstract

Mange bygninger i det kulturelle landskapet minner oss om religiøs dissentervirksomhet i perioden da 96 % eller mer av befolkninga tilhørte statskirken, men etter at dissenterloven fra 1845 tillot konkurrerende kristne trosretninger. Våre folketellinger gir en av verdens lengste oversikter over spredningen av alternative livssyn, fra 1865 til 1980. Den langsomme veksten forklares av Norge som et antipluralistisk og homogent samfunn, hvor den frivillige aktiviteten i frimenighetene vanskelig kunne konkurrere med statskirkens profesjonelle organisasjon. Lokalt kunne allikevel dissenterne stå sterkt med opptil en tredjedel av befolkninga som tilhengere, slik som i Vegårdshei. De hadde solide bastioner især i deler av Troms, Nordland og et område fra Østfold langs kysten til Rogaland, blant annet noe overraskende en sterk stilling for lutherske frimenigheter i deler av Vestfold. Relativt sett sto dissenterne sterkere i byer enn på landet, noe som blant annet ses i sammenheng med overvekt av kvinner både blant de mange innflytterne til urbane strøk og blant dissenterne.

Given today's extensive religious pluralism it is hardly surprising to find many buildings with ties outside the Norwegian Church, especially in the urban religious landscape. Many of these originate from religious non-conformism during the period when 96 % or more of the population belonged to the State Church, and after the ordinance ban on competing faiths was abolished in the 1840s. Our population censuses provide one of the world’s longest source series about the distribution of alternative beliefs, from 1865 to 1980. The slow growth is attributable to Norway as an anti- pluralistic society where the largely voluntary activity among dissenters had difficulty competing with the professional organization of the State Church. Locally, however, groups of dissenters could still be strong with up to one third of the population as followers, for instance in Vegårdshei parish, half way between Oslo and Kristiansand. Dissenters had solid bastions especially in parts of the northern Troms and Nordland provinces, an area in Østfold province and along the coast of Rogaland province, including a surprisingly strong position for Lutheran congregations in parts of Vestfold , a province associated more with capitalist than with religious values. Relatively speaking, dissenters were stronger in cities than in the countryside, which among other things was related to the predominance of women among the many migrants to urban areas, and that in-migrants were easier to influence. A link between rural-urban migration and not belonging to any religious society was even easier to prove for the many men in this group - analogous to theories of radicalization of the labour movement.