TY - JOUR

T1 - Much Ado about a Christmas Tree

T2 - A Conflict Involving Danish Civil Religion

AU - Warburg, Margit

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Civil religion is not only a symbolic expression of national coherence;it is often also an arena of conflict, where different actors promote theirown ideological interpretation of the same events. This will be illustratedthrough an analysis of a conflict in Denmark in November 2012, where aMuslim majority of a housing association decided to abandon the traditionof having a Christmas tree. The events and the resulting public debatewere reported in more than 650 articles and commentaries in the printedpress alone, and the debate divided politicians and the public on issues ofnational traditions, integration, and religion. A Christmas tree is an importantcivil-religious symbol in Denmark, and this may explain why the affairbecame hotly debated. The different commentaries from the printed pressare classified and analysed from the perspective that civil religion has twocomplementary dimensions, that of religion and that of nation. The classificationis illustrated in a new graphical model of the civil-religious spacebetween religion and nation.

AB - Civil religion is not only a symbolic expression of national coherence;it is often also an arena of conflict, where different actors promote theirown ideological interpretation of the same events. This will be illustratedthrough an analysis of a conflict in Denmark in November 2012, where aMuslim majority of a housing association decided to abandon the traditionof having a Christmas tree. The events and the resulting public debatewere reported in more than 650 articles and commentaries in the printedpress alone, and the debate divided politicians and the public on issues ofnational traditions, integration, and religion. A Christmas tree is an importantcivil-religious symbol in Denmark, and this may explain why the affairbecame hotly debated. The different commentaries from the printed pressare classified and analysed from the perspective that civil religion has twocomplementary dimensions, that of religion and that of nation. The classificationis illustrated in a new graphical model of the civil-religious spacebetween religion and nation.

UR - https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/IR/article/view/32878

U2 - 10.1558/imre.32878

DO - 10.1558/imre.32878

M3 - Journal article

VL - 20

SP - 127

EP - 148

JO - Implicit Religion

JF - Implicit Religion

SN - 1463-9955

IS - 2

ER -