Religion 39 (2009) 109116

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Religion
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/religion

Religions in Europeq
Roberto Cipriani
Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
Universita

a b s t r a c t
The breakdown of European society is changing rapidly, particularly in the eld of religion. Culture is of
vital importance to the presence of religion in all nations. Religions also have exerted a certain degree of
political power, thus inuencing the economy and other related spheres of life.
The different religions in Europe exhibit a variety of attitudes towards religious pluralism. The religious
differences between Western and Eastern Europe depend mainly on issues of national identity related to
religious adherence.
This essay provides an overview of religion and politics, or Church and state, in Europe. It will conclude
with some reections about possible future developments within religious traditions in Europe. New
religious communities and religious organisations are reaching different parts of Europe, sometimes very
far from their place of origin. Christianity (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism) is the most
widespread religion in contemporary Europe. Catholic religion is well diffused in Europe, but there are
substantial differences in belief, behaviour and practice within different Catholic communities. There are
various branches of Orthodoxy in Europe, such as the distinct autocephalous churches. In general
Orthodox religion is closely aligned with national culture. Islam is also present in Western countries, and
its impact is evident.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
This essay will begin by offering a general historical outline of religion and societies in Europe from antiquity to the present day. It will
then proceed to address a number of key issues connected with the evolution of religion in Europe in cultural terms, and go on to discuss the
four main religions in Europe. In conclusion it will provide an overview of religion and politics, or Church and state, in Europe. It will
conclude with some reections about possible future developments within religious traditions in Europe.
European society is changing rapidly, particularly in terms of religious demographics. New religious communities and religious organisations are reaching different parts of Europe, sometimes very far from their origins. Encounters between religions represent a challenge
involving immigrant religious movements and indigenous peoples and the cultures they meet.
Europe is characterised by a considerable Christian presence (more than 550,000,000), including different varieties of Catholicism,
predominant in the centre and the south, and Protestantism, present in the centre and the north. For centuries other confessions have also
been present in Europe, but more recently new migratory ows have increased the presence of Islam and introduced a number of oriental
religions.

European religions
It is important to remember that polytheist populations of ancient times did not separate and distinguish the religious dimension from
all other spheres of human activity (Scarpi, 2001, pp. 56). Moreover similar religious dimensions are closely connected with complex and
multifaceted social phenomena, such as the division of tasks and labour, specialization, urban structure and the use of writing.
Geographically speaking they were to be found in an area extending from Mesopotamia to the entire Mediterranean basin up to Central and

q English text revised by Catherine Humes.

E-mail address: roberto.cipriani@tlc.uniroma3.it
0048-721X/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.religion.2009.01.017

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R. Cipriani / Religion 39 (2009) 109116

Northern Europe, over a period dating between the end of the fourth and early third centuries B.C. and the 28th of February 380, when the
edict of Theodosius De de Catholica proclaimed Christianity the ofcial religion (Scarpi, 2001, p. 6).
Judaism had established itself in Rome long before the arrival of oriental cults, and was destined to spread later throughout the whole of
Europe. In fact, owing to the ArabIslamic conquest of Spain in the seventh century, this country became the vital centre of Jewish history.
Later on, numerous mystical movements appeared all over Europe until 1492, when, with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, they
continued in Palestine. The presence of the Jews in Central and Eastern Europe became important where Judaism developed a peculiar
culture of its own. During the century of Enlightenment theories of emancipation caused a radical rethinking of Jewish identity as far as both
general and specically Jewish doctrine were concerned, generating a plurality of answers, which constitute the basis of contemporary
Judaism (Filoramo, 2001, p. 174).
During the heyday of Arab expansion and up to 1492 the language spoken by the Jews was Arabic, which permitted them to interact with
the communities that hosted them. Hebrew was spoken as well, however.
After 1492 a decisive change in the presence of the Jews in Europe occurred: in the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania and other Eastern
European countries the Jewish population increased, as well as in Italy and all over the Turkish Empire. Later on, ghettos were established
where Jews were forced to live apart from the rest of the population (in Venice and Rome for instance).
From its origins in Palestine Christianity spread through the whole of the ancient Roman Empire and despite persecutions suffered under
the Romans, Rome became the see of the Popes. In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia was decisive for Germany and Western Europe because it
put an end to the Thirty Years War, it reduced the political inuence of religion and it conrmed the principle whereby the religion of an
area was the religion of its inhabitants: cuius regio eius et religio. Those living in a region were expected to conform to its religion; otherwise
they were obliged to go into exile leaving their property and goods behind them. In other words, subjects were obliged to follow the religion
of their sovereign.
The picture remains incomplete if we fail to consider the fundamental importance of the presence of Islam in Europe, and not only in
recent times (thanks to immigration) but also in the past.
In order to conclude this historical overview of the many different confessions found today in Europe (Barrett et al., 2001) we may say
that the continent can be divided into four main areas of religious inuence:
1) the Catholic Church is the primary religious inuence in Central and Southern areas (Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Centre and South
Ireland, Italy, Malta, Southern Switzerland, part of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland,
Lithuania, part of the Netherlands, Latvia and Ukraine);
2) Protestantism is the primary religious inuence in Central and Northern areas (Iceland, England and Northern Ireland, Central and
Northern Switzerland, part of Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, part of Hungary, of the Netherlands, of
Belarus);
3) the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches are the primary religious inuence in South-Eastern areas (Greece and part of Cyprus and
Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, the Ukraine, Moldavia, Georgia, Armenia, Russia, part of BosniaHerzegovina, of Kazakhstan, of
Estonia, of Latvia and Belarus);
4) Islam is the primary religious inuence in Eastern Europe (Turkey, Azerbaijan, Albania, part of Macedonia, of Kazakhstan, of Georgia, of
Bulgaria and of BosniaHerzegovina).
In terms of minorities, there are also a considerable number of Jews living in Greece and in the Ukraine, while in the United Kingdom, in
the Netherlands and in Russia there is a signicant Hindu population.
In the end, Christianity (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism) remains the most widespread religion in contemporary Europe.
Immigration within Europedfrom the Catholic South to the Protestant Northdand the massive ow of immigrants into Europedfor the
most part from Islamic countries, in particular Turkish workers to Germany, Egyptian immigrants to Greece, Tunisians and Algerians to
France and Italy, Moroccans to Spain, France and Italy, and Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to the United Kingdomdhas impacted the
increase in religious diversity in Europe in signicant ways.
Mobility within Europe should not be underestimated in terms of shifts in religious demography. Many Eastern Europeans have migrated
to Western European countries, for example from Russia to Estonia, from Lithuania and Germany, or from the Czech Republic, Slovakia as
well as ex-Yugoslavia to Germany, or even from Poland to France, or from Estonia and Lithuania to Sweden and Northern Europe.

The Catholic Church

Catholic religion is well diffused in Europe, but within different communities there are substantial differences in belief, behaviour and
practice. In a felicitous statement, one of the greatest experts on Catholicism, the French sociologist and historian Emile Poulat, calls the
Catholic Church a world of its own, or as he puts it an Ecclesiosphere (Poulat, 1986, p. 259). By this he wishes to indicate the Catholic
Churchs specic area of inuence, somewhat akin to that of the United States or the Soviet Union (today of Russia). The Ecclesiosphere is a
sphere of inuence of the Roman Catholic Church that forces the other spheres but also other countries to come to terms with it (Poulat,
1986, p. 260). Besides, the sphere of the church goes well beyond the church itself as outlined in Canon Law; it can no longer be identied
with the people of God, a doctrinal notion which is based on faith (Poulat, 1986, p. 267). To this must be added the capillary presence of
Catholic religious structures and organisations, its numerous religious and lay educational institutions, both male and female, which operate
all over Europe, especially in Italy and those other countries with a strong Catholic presence, from Portugal to Spain, France to Austria,
Germany to Poland.
The Eastern Catholic Churches (or Uniates) maintain an important presence in Europe. They have around 9 million members, an Oriental
rite parallel to the Latin, a local liturgical language, and are in communion with the Catholic Church. In particular, groups of Eastern-Rite
Uniates or Greek Catholics live in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and the Ukraine, and in other parts of Eastern Europe, and they number about
4 million. The small group of Armenian Uniates also deserves mention.

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From the Second Vatican Council onwards the Catholic Church has shown a willingness to relate to other Christian denominations, as
well as to non-Christian religions, by engaging in different forms of dialogue, especially with the Churches of the East. Some important steps
have been taken and declarations of reciprocal goodwill have been made. In particular the subject of the Trinity is a key topic in dialogue
(DCosta, 2000).
It must be said that the Second Vatican Council has permitted the Catholic Church to emerge from its basic Euro- and Rome-centrism. But
this new thrust has had difculty gaining momentum. However, new attitudes compared to those of the past towards other Christians and
non-Christians religions have emerged. The same may be said of dealings with governments and states with which the Catholic Church had
had problems in the past. It sufces to recall the Ostpolitik initiated and fostered by John XXIII and Paul VI. Relations with the Russian
Orthodox Church have, however, remained problematic.
Meanwhile the Catholic Church has become less European: it is estimated that no more than 16% of all Catholics will reside in Europe in
2050 (LAtlas des Religions, Coedition La Vie-Le Monde, Paris, 2007, p. 52; source: Vatican Statistical Yearbook 2004). Among European
Catholics the Catholic Pentecostalism movement has become particularly relevant and, like Protestant Pentecostalism, it too exalts charismatic phenomena, the role of the Holy Spirit, oral expression, prayer, prophecy, healing, and spontaneous manifestation (Introvigne,
2004). The development of this phenomenon is so powerful and differentiated that it is difcult to provide a precise outline of it because it
would have to be adapted to each of the numerous and rather independent groups it encompasses. These groups are preferred by many of
the faithful because they are felt to be more direct, customised, and better suited to meet individual needs (unlike traditional forms of ofcial
Catholic religious practice).
There are also other forms of Catholic worship, like that of the old-Catholic Churches which refers to the Union of Utrecht, which is of
Jansenist and anti-Papal origin, present in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Bosnia,
Croatia, Sweden, Finland, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. These Catholics are in communion with the Anglican Church which, as Englands
state religion, is autonomous and capable of expanding (especially in Africa, such as in Nigeria) (Huelin, 1983). Anglicanism unites the
characteristics of Lutheranism, Calvinism and Catholicism and that helps to explain the fact that it contains three principal branches: the
Low Church which is close to the Protestant position, the High Church which appears well disposed towards Catholicism, and the Broad
Church which is more liberal and more critical in outlook.
The Orthodox Churches
There are various branches of Orthodoxy in Europe, such as the distinct autocephalous churches. In Russia, the Ukraine, Romania, Greece,
Serbia, Bulgaria, and Belarus Orthodoxy plays a central role. In Russia and Greece there is a closer relationship between Church and state, as
if attempting to create a tradition that also includes the state and its rulers as objects of worship. In general Orthodox religion is supported
by national culture. Forms of culture that comprehend universal Christian values such as sufferance and sacrice, applied to solid religions
(providential mission of the leader and the population, the fact to be chosen by God), and expressing in conventional civil forms the strong
archaic worship of the leader, the prince priest, all that exerts a strong action that shows strongly in its historic universality. Worship of state
leaders (Russia) is an actual and effective practice in these countries, which is still part of their recent history (Bogomilova-Todorova, 1996,
p. 162).
It must be considered that for centuries Moscow grew to become a sort of third Romeda real alternative to Constantinople and
Romedand that the Moscow patriarchate remains the most important and inuential seat in Orthodoxy, despite the international mistrust
it incurred during the Soviet Union period. Its recent increased visibility, power and engagement in public affairs do not erase the fact that in
the past it was even more powerful and that the great number of schisms weakened its image. The problems that the patriarchate has to face
are as follows: the emergence of new independent national Churches; the retrieval of ecclesiastic properties as a compensation for
expropriations carried out after the Leninist decree on nationalization (this relates to the conict with the Greek Catholic Church); the lack
of religious staff and, more importantly, the lack of basic knowledge among the clergy at present; and the competitive confrontation with
Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam.
In recent timesdkeeping in mind the breadth of Orthodox culturedthe boundaries of canonical territories (so called because they
normally, by right, are subject to Orthodox inuence) have been vindicated as they have come to stress the rights of supremacy, especially
those of the Russian Orthodox Church over the Catholic Church. Yet article n. 14 of the Russian Constitution states: The Russian Federation is
secular. No religion can be established as a state or compulsory religion. Also in the Ukraine secular education is envisaged by article n. 35 of
the Constitution, while articles n. 5, 7 and 8 establish freedom of religious choice and organization.
Its relationship with modernitydin terms of socio-cultural and economic developments, secularization and a decrease in interest in
spiritual matters (Kokosalakis, 1996, pp. 56)dis what really differentiates Orthodoxy from Western Christianities (Kaufmann, 1997). In this
regard Nikos Kokosalakis says (1996, p. 8): relations between Orthodoxy and modernity are basically different from that of other Christian
confessions, such as Catholicism and Protestantism. Leaving aside the signicant theological and cultural differences between Western and
Eastern Christianity, modernity did not represent an autonomous cultural development in Orthodox countries. This way the cultural dialogue between Orthodoxy and modernity has developed differently from that of modernity and Western Christianity.
The Serbian Orthodox Church experienced the disintegration of Yugoslavia very dramatically due to rising ethnic conict in 1991 and the
confrontation between Catholics and Muslims. The war was a free-for-all with everyone against everyone else: the Croatians against the
Serbs, the Serbs and Croatians against Muslims, the Catholics against the Orthodox and the Christians against the Muslims. Political, ethnic
and religious reasons were so entangled as to produce an explosive mix leading to tragic consequences.
Problems related to nationalism have also concerned Greece, even if Greece did not enter the war in the 1990s. In actual fact, the
particular traditions that gave rise to the Modern Greek state and its mythological history favoured a productive union between Orthodoxy
and nationalism. The case of Greece shows that the traditional ecumenicity of Orthodoxy and the Byzantine Commonwealth belong
denitively to the past. Ethnocentrism and Church dependence on the State are probably the most important issues of the Orthodox Church
today (Makrides, 1996, pp. 6970). Even if an Orthodox Commonwealth will not be achieved, nonetheless the entry of Bulgaria and Romania
into the European Union in 2007 has increased the number of Orthodox believers in the EU. Their numbers are destined to rise from 40 to
200 million as Europe expands farther east. Therefore they will play a decisive role.

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Protestantism
Protestantism plays an important role in some Northern areas and in Germany but it is marginal in other countries. Together with Baltic
Protestantism, Russian Protestantism is one of the oldest forms of Protestantism in continental Europe. It emerged in the sixteenth century,
when it was imported by groups of volunteer immigrants or prisoners of war. By 1860 German pietism or Stundism (from the German word
Stunde, which means hour, lesson, referring to Bible meetings or worship) was afrming itself and paved the way for the formation of new
groups such as the Stundo-Baptist congregation later on. Another Protestant group that deserves mention is the Molokans, who are antiritualist and inspired by the Bible. The Baptist and Evangelical Christian Churches stemmed from the Molokans. The origin of these
Protestant currents in Russia, however, is never to be solely explained in terms of cultural and religious inltration from Western Europe.
That they nally established themselves as independent groups beside the Orthodox Church is due in large measure to the way in which the
Church treated these believers (Hebly, 1976, p. 80).
Most European Protestants reside in the Northern part of the continent: Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Germany. The
folk Church of the Northern states is the Church of the people and is therefore legitimated by close relations with the host nation.
In Finland there has been freedom of religion since 1923. The Lutheran Evangelical Church is ofcially recognised by the Finnish
constitution (see Section 76 referring to The Church Act). The Pentecostals are the most numerous group as an unregistered congregation,
while the Methodists are considered a free (i.e. independent) Church. There are also a fair number of Jehovahs Witnesses and Mormons.
In Denmark, besides Lutherans, we also nd Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, and Anglicans. In Sweden, there is a comparable
distribution of Protestant denominations. The same may be said for Norway, with the addition of Adventists and Mormons. In Lutheran
Iceland there are also Pentecostals, Adventists and Baptists. Pentecostals are also present in Norway, Romania, Russia, and the United
Kingdom.
If in Germany Protestantism and Catholicism are equally distributed, in France Protestantism is a minority religion (Bizeul, 1991), except
for the areas around the Massif Central, from Arde`che to Poitou, Alsace, Moselle and the Pays de Montbeliard, and the Baptist area of
Northern France; but they also reside in the Parisian region.
From Lutheranism in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway to Calvinism in Scotland and Switzerland, Protestantism in Europe exists in
a variety of forms and numbers, which in turn inuence frontiers and boundaries, practices and values, behaviours and attitudes.
Islam
In the past century, there has been a notable return of Islam in Europe, thanks to an increase in immigrants coming from Northern
Africa towards Spain and France, from Eastern Africa especially towards France, from Turkey mainly towards Germany, and from Indonesia,
Pakistan, and India towards Great Britain. It is no accident that sociological literature on Islam in Europe has rapidly increased (Dassetto and
Conrad, 1996) and that some sociologists of religion, who were once mainly concerned with the dominant religion of their home country,
have now become experts in Islam, studying the relationships between the state and the Islamic religion, the integration of Muslims in
Europe and the role of Islam within European society (Jenkins, 2007). France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Norway, Spain and Switzerland are among the countries that are most concerned about Islam.
Allievi (2002, p. 30) states ttingly that Islam is no longer on the other side, but is here, among us, in the millions of Muslims present and
established and (denitely) European citizens. Estimates vary from between 8 and 15 million and more and denitions of Muslims depend
on the countries chosen for examination. The frontier between the two worlds has changed: at present, there is no longer only one
boundary. The question no longer concerns Islam and the Western countries: Islam is inside the Western countries. It is present-day history.
Islam is therefore an integral part of Europe, especially as regards the second generation which is completely socialized within European
territories, speaking one or more European languages, and which represents the de facto Euro-Islamic generation (Allievi and Nielsen, 2003;
Marechal et al., 2003). In fact, Muslim Europe is quite different from what we know as an institutional projection. To begin with, it is larger:
it is not limited to the fteen countries of the European Union, and is rmly expanding towards the East. In some Eastern European countries
there are signicant non-immigrant Islamic minorities, with regular citizenship and in possession of longstanding and consolidated
modalities of relationship with local majorities and with institutional management of a specic variety of the Islamic religion (which is also
linguistic and cultural, as is the case of Turkish-speaking minorities, present-day remnants of Ottoman domination) by the States involved.
Thus Europe starts from the Atlantic Ocean but it is heading more and more towards the Urals (Allievi, 2002, p. 141).
Allievi (2002, p. 176) hypothesizes that Europe itself may be dar al-islam, which means nothing but the European part of Umma, but
having a different meaning from the traditional one: it is Islamic territory as well, and Islam is only one of the many, with no claim over the
others, not even by denition. Europe becomes a decisive ground for Muslim Geopolitics as well. Islam itself is one and multiple, as Pace
afrms (2004, p. 12).
In the Netherlands, initially, the migratory ow was accepted. Later the system of acceptance underwent a crisis because many immigrants chose to settle permanently in the country with their families (and with their religion, either Islamic or other). Within a decade
(19902000) the Muslim population in the Netherlands had doubled.
Finally, in Scandinavia the jus loci, as in France, is applied favouring access to citizenship but privileging emigrants of European origin by
limiting the entry of non-Europeans. However, a scal crisis occurred in the 90s, which complicated the management of immigration ows.
Many refugees have also been accepted for humanitarian reasons, but they are submitted to strict control. Nonetheless, Islamic schools and
mosques were opened. In addition to these general remarks, it should be mentioned that there are some differences related to the treatment
of immigrants within the various Scandinavian countries; for example newborns are automatically registered within the national Churches,
which is not the case in Sweden since 1990 (Pace, 2004, p. 84). In Sweden there are some difculties in the passage from the assimilation
policy to that of respectful integration of socio-religious differences in Islam (Pace, 2004, p. 88). The difculty also arises from considering
Islam as though it were a single congregation.
The many members of this faith range from Sunnite to Shiite and Wahabite, from the Sus of the Middle East to the Hanes of Turkey.
Therefore, one may say that Islam represents a condition of the growth of reexivity for the secular institutions of Europe (Bontempi, 2005,
p. 183), as they are forced to consider new solutions in order to deal with newcomers.

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Table 1
Countries and religious instruction.
Country

Religious instruction

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
(Southern) Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France

Catholic or Islamic or Other

Catholic or Jewish or Protestant or Orthodox or Islamic; or Areligious-Ethical
Orthodox or Islamic
Catholic or Orthodox or Islamic or Protestant or Other; or Ethical (secondary schools)
Orthodox
Knowledge of religions
Lutheran; Religious history (prevailing) in secondary schools
Ecumenical Christian
Objective information or Lutheran or Orthodox or Other
A free day in primary school to attend religious education in a chosen Church;
Catholic or Protestant or Jewish in Alsace and Lorraine
Catholic or Protestant or Islamic or Jewish or Other
Orthodox (in historical and cultural perspective)
Optional and extracurricular
Catholic
Catholic or Jewish or Other
Religious or Ethical
Religious or Ethical
Catholic or Lutheran or Calvinist; or Ethical
Catholic
Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox or Jewish; or Ethical
Catholic; or Ethical
Orthodox or Other
Cultural Orthodox or Other
Orthodox or Other
Catholic
Non-denominational, with some exceptions
Catholic or Protestant or Jewish or Islamic or History of religions; or Islamic out of school timetable
Non-denominational
Non-denominational: Protestant or Catholic or Other or Liberal
Interdenominational (Multifaith)

Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxemburg
Malta
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
The Netherlands
The United Kingdom

To conclude our outline of the presence of Islam in Europe (Bistol and Zabbal, 1995; Cesari and McLoughlin, 2005; Klausen, 2005; Nokel
and Tezcan, 2007; Rath et al., 2001) a comparative analysis concerning Buddhists and Muslims as seen from the point of view of the
Christian European majority may prove interesting. In fact, perceptions of Islam by Europeans can affect legal decisions and the dynamics of
future society (Liogier, 2006). According to some studies carried out in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, the United
Kingdom, Scotland, Austria, Germany and other European countries, appreciation of Buddhism has increased, while appreciation of the
Muslim faith has diminished. In fact, everywhere in Western Europe Buddhist groups are recognised or about to be recognised,
notwithstanding the sometimes small number of members. Recognition is accorded more promptly than in the case of Islam, which is more
soundly established than Buddhism in Europe (Liogier, 2006, p. 78).
A new Europe
Europe is no longer a Western territory, because many Eastern inuences are to be found all over Europe. Frontiers are no longer
a problem: airplanes y through them, sound waves can pass through them, telecommunications have no barriers, and signs can
compensate for linguistic differences. Events do not remain enclosed where they occur. Everything overows and spreads beyond local
connes. Therefore, denitions are unsteady and characterizations are not as neat as they used to be. Should Scotland be dened, for
example, as Calvinist or as Presbyterian? And what about France, is it Christian or atheist or soaked with christianitude (Poulat, 1982), which
is to say founded on Christian values?
Particularly relevant is the reduction of the presence of Jews in Europe: it once hosted 90% of the worlds Jewish population but by 1996
the Jewish population had decreased to 8%, meaning that it is no longer possible to make the same case for the Jewish presence in Europe
(Azria, 1996, p. 254).
Europe is currently facing a number of different situations (Bolgiani et al., 2006; Davie, 2000, 2002, 2006; Davie and Hervieu-Leger, 1996;
Remond, 1999). Consider the Netherlands, where religious tensions continue to surface, and France, where the law of 2004 dictated that
Muslim women are not allowed to wear the chador and Christians are not allowed to wear prominent crosses.
In areas with a Muslim majority (Albania, Northern Cyprus, Kosovo and Turkey) or an Orthodox majority (Serbia, Montenegro), as well as
Catholic-majority countries (Belgium, France, Italy and Spain), regardless of which tradition is dominant, problems of freedom of expression
and religious practice have arisen for minority denominations.
Pluralism and respect for religion
The different religions in Europe exhibit a variety of attitudes towards religious pluralism. This observation emerged from a wide scale
inquiry called RAMP (Religious and Moral Pluralism) carried out in 19992000 in many European countries through questionnaires:
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden (Dobbelaere and Riis, 2002). The
conclusions of this research are not univocal: in the model explaining pluralism as a cultural enrichment the effect of Church

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Table 2
Countries and religious membership.
Countries

Believers
Catholics %

Protestants
(or Christian Churches) %

Albania (2005)
Andorraa
Armeniaa

10
92
(some)

0.5
(some)

Austria (2001)
Azerbaijana

73.5

4.7; 0.9

Belarus (2001)

7, 0.2 (Uniates)

Belgium (2005)
Bosnia, Herzegovina (2002)
Bulgaria (2001)
Croatia (2001)
Cyprusa

75
15
0.6
87.83; 0.01; 0.14

1
4
0.5
0.43

Czech Republica
Denmark (2002)
Estonia (2001)
Finland (2005)

26.9
0.6

France (2006)
Georgiaa

51
0.8

2.3; 3.2 (Hussites)

84; 2 (Christian Churches)
14 (Lutherans)
83.2 (Lutherans); 0.5 (others);
1 (non-registered)
3

Germany (2002)
Greecea
Hungary (2001)
Icelanda
Ireland (2002)
Italy (2004)
Kazakhstana
Latvia (1999)
Liechtenstein (2002)
Lithuania (2001)

33.4
0.5
54.5; (Greeks)
2
88.4
85.1

Luxemburg (2000)
Macedonia (2003)
Maltaa
Moldova (2000)
Monacoa
Norway (2004)
Poland (2000)
Portugal (2001)
Romania (2002)

0.2

19.6
76.2
79
87
0.35
93.4
90
1
95
84.53
4.73 (Romans);
0.88 (Greeks)

33; 1.2 (free Churches)

0.4
15.9 (Calvinists); 3 (Lutherans)
95
2.3 (Anglicans); 0.4 (Presbyterians)
0.6
2
17
7
1.04

Orthodox %

Muslims %

20

70

94 (Armenian
Apostolic Church)
2.2
(Russians; Armenian
Apostolic Christians)
40; 0.7 (Old Believers
Church)
0.5
31
82.6
4.42; 0.91 (Serbians)
78 (Greeks)

(Kurdish Sunnites)

Jews %

Hindus %

0.4

4.2
87 (Shiites)

0.1

0.1

0.1

4
40 (Sunnites)
12.2
1.28
18
(Turkish Cypriotes)b

0.5

0.2

0.001
0.01

0.1
3

13
1.1
1
65 (Georgians);
10 (Russians);
8 (Armenian
Apostolic Church)
1.3
93 (Greeks)

0.1; 0.5
(non- registered)
4
11

4
4.5

0.1
4.5
0.1

0.1
44 (Russians)
16.8
0.7
4.07 (Russians);
0.77 (Old Believers)

0.5
47 (Sunnites)

0.005
0.9
0.6

1.1
0.03

64.78

33.32

0.5

95

86 (Lutherans); 1(Pentecostals)
1
1.410; 0.555 (Christian Churches)
3.23 (Reformed); 0.12 (Lutherans);
0.08 (Evangelical Augustinians);
0.31 (Unitarians); 1.49 (Pentecostals);
0.58 (Baptists); 0.43
(Seventh-Day Adventists);
0.2 (Christian Evangelicals)
1.1; 5.3 (Independents);
0.4 (Evangelicals);
0.4 (Pentecostal/Charismatics)

0.1
2 (Autocephalous)
0.2
86.8; 0.17
(Old Rite Christians)

3.6
0.08 (Sunnites)

0.05

0.03

1.5
0.1

0.138
0.31

0.02
0.003
0.02
0.03

51.7 (Russians)

7.6

0.7

0.5

0.010

Russia (2001)

San Marinoa
Serbia, Montenegro,
Kosovo (2005)
Slovakia (2001)
Slovenia (2002)
Spaina
Swedena
Switzerland (2000)
The Netherlands (2000)
Turkeya

90
4

78

68.9; 4.1 (Greeks)

57
79.3
1
41.82
17

6.9 (Lutherans); 2 (Calvinists)

0.8 (Lutherans); 0.1
0.5
88
33.05
15

0.9
2.3 (Serbians)

Ukraine (2004)
United Kingdom (2001)

13.5; (Greeks)
11.5

3.6
60.1 (Anglicans in GB;
Presbyterians in Scotland;
Methodists; Baptists; Pentecostals)

45.7
1

Vaticana

99

1
1.81

1.8

0.042
2.3
2
1
4.26
5.7
68 (Sunnites);
30 (Shiites)
1.6
2.7

0.1
0.25
0.1

0.5

2.3
0.5

N.B.: Republics with a certain autonomy are also to be considered, such as: Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenian, in Azerbaijan), Nahicevan (Islamic, in Azerbaijan), Chechnya
(Islamic, in Russia) which seceded in 1992 from Ingushetia (Islamic, in Russia), and Kabardino-Balkar (Islamic, in Russia).
a
Estimate.
b
98% in Northern Cyprus.

R. Cipriani / Religion 39 (2009) 109116

115

Table 3
Religions and followers.
Religions

Number of followers

Catholicism
Protestantism
Greek Orthodox
Anglicanism
Other Christian religions

260 457 890

73 330 350
35 861140
32 696 030
9 966 980

All Christian religions

Islam
Other religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.)
Judaism
Non-religious
Atheism

412 312 390

8 760 660
1 526 490
1 447 140
53 058 980
18 452 730

Total

495 558 390

commitment is positive, meaning that people with a high degree of commitment to their Church also tend to appreciate the cultural
enrichment of religious pluralism. In the second model on pluralism as a private patchwork, the effect is negative, meaning that the
most committed persons tend to state that people should adhere to the teaching of their own religion and refrain from picking and
choosing from other religions. This fundamental difference expresses why it is important to refrain from combining these indicators into
a single index on religious pluralism (Billiet et al., 2003, p. 156). In actual fact the Churches are challenged to change their positions.
Formerly, the Churches as authoritative institutions could proclaim a truth that was taken for granted by Church members. In late
modernity, the Churches become optional frameworks united by affective bonds, sustained by a common sacred language and shared
traces of memory (Billiet et al., 2003, p. 157).
According to Bontempi (2005, p. 162), long a reality in Europe and still recently, the individualisation of the religious experience
has led to a transformation of the intimate structure of belief. This is the development of a pluralism of faiths that is a fact in
Western society, internalised and lived, though not always positively, as a part of religious identity of the individual believer. This
transformation marking as it does discontinuity in the relations between religion and modernity, is the result of the way in which
the very structure of belief has changed in later modernity to incorporate the plurality of beliefs. In a sense that is anything but
commonplace, religious pluralism means that a religion goes through a process that has already touched modern society in the
public sphere thanks to democracy. That is to say that the individual not only has the opportunity to choose, but that he or she is
obliged to choose.
On the other hand, some European nations are changing present legislation in order to be more up-to-date with emerging European
contingencies: that is what happened in Portugal, says Helena Vilaa (2006, p. 57): changes in political systems like that after the end of
dictatorship in the Iberian countries, the high number of Islamic people immigrating towards Central Europe or the recent integration
of Eastern countries in the European Union are factors which imply sooner or later a revision of the religious constitution or a rethinking of
worship legislation. In Portugal, for instance, political changes gave way to the new Law of Religious Freedom.
It can be useful to verify the degree of pluralism by observing the presence of religious education (mandatory or optional) in European
state schools (for another analysis of religion and education in Europe see also Jackson et al., 2007, part two; Genre and Pajer, 2005; for
Western Balkans: Kuburic and Moe, 2006). The resulting picture is once again complex: Table 1

Table 4
Immigration and religious adherence (Percentages refer to total number of immigrants).
Countries

Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Luxemburg
The Netherlands
Portugal
United Kingdom
Spain
Sweden
EU Total

Believers
Orthodox %

Catholics %

Protestants %

Muslims %

14.4
3.2
4.7
10.8
1.1
15.4

12.0
4.7
2.7
0.7
4.1
2.5
7.4

11.9
45.4
13.7
10.2
33.7
25.2

24.5
69.5
20.9
55.5
34.2
38.9
16.4

0.0
8.6
18.3
15.2
4.7
3.9

6.2
8.5
10.3
13.8
11.7
12.0
34.4

35.5
22.9
37.4
20.6
46.5
38.8

37.2
3.6
39.4
6.5
18.0
28.9
23.4

757 900
861 685
258 629
91 074
3 263 186
7 296 818
655 000
151 400
1 388 153
162 285
667 802
207 607
2 450 000
895 720
477 313

8.5

27.8

6.8

33.4

19 584 572

Source: Pittau, F. 2006. Europa, allargamento, immigrazione, religioni. Religioni e Societa` XXI (54), p. 115.

Total immigrants

116

R. Cipriani / Religion 39 (2009) 109116

A conclusion
Available data on 49 European countries (for a total of 740,000,000 inhabitants) are those provided above. They are drawn from
population censuses (the dates are in brackets), and/or from individual informants (see the scholars acknowledged at the end of this essay).
In some cases they are the result of a rough estimate, based on different sources (when the total gures do not reach 100% remaining
percentages concern others and/or non-religious): Table 2
It is not easy to obtain reliable and complete data regarding the number of members belonging to Churches and religions in Europe.
Estimates are not easy to make either, but a brief, partial picture (for a little bit more than 25 countries and less than 30, excluding Russia) is
as follows: Table 3
New arrivals, especially from Africa and Asia, are changing the inner composition of European nations, including at the religious level, as
can be seen in the table below. This data is limited to the 31st of December 2000, concerns the fteen members of the European Union, and
refers to foreign populations according to religion: Table 4
The impact of the Islamic presence in Europe is evident. The number of Catholics is noteworthy, although the total percentage of Catholic
immigrants is lower because they tend to join those nations where the Catholic presence is already conspicuous.
Based on these statistics, it seems foreseeable that boundaries, including religious ones, will fade. The Mediterranean Sea towards Africa,
the Bosphorus towards the Middle East and the Ustjurt Plateau with the Caspian Sea and Aral Lake towards Asia no longer appear as
obstacles or barriers. They are actually becoming ways of access, places and bridges of connection.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank, for their kind and fruitful co-operation: Alex Agadjanian, Eileen Barker, Irene Becci, Nonka Bogomilova, Irena
Borowik, Pierre Brechon, Xavier Costa, Karl-Fritz Daiber, Francisco Diez de Velasco, Grace Davie, Luca Diotallevi, Johann Figl, Gavril Flora,
Lucia Greskova, Gustav Erik Gullikstad Karlsaune, Danie`le Hervieu-Leger, Tomas Havlcek, Nikos Kokosalakis, Tuomas Martikainen, Zoran
Matevski, Frederic Moens, Kati Niemela, Enzo Pace, Thorleif Pettersson, Ole Riis, Marjan Smrke, Osman Tastan, Larissa Titarenko, Miklos
Tomka, Silvia Velicova, Sipco J. Vellenga, Helena Vilaa, SrCan Vrcan, Ruta Ziliukaite, Sinisa Zrinscak; Ilaria Riccioni, Raffaella Leproni and Kay
McCarthy (for the draft translation).
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