A social role for churches and cultural demarcation:how German MEPs represent religion in the European Parliament

This study deals with the question of how German members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent the German model of religion–state relations at the European level. Based on a survey and interviews with German MEPs as well as a content-analysis of German MEPs’ speeches, motions and parliamentary questions during the seventh term of the European Parliament (EP), our study demonstrates that this model is represented in three dimensions. First, German MEPs reflect the close cooperation between the churches and the state in Germany, primarily on social issues, through largely church- and religion-friendly attitudes and relatively frequent contacts with religious interest-groups. Second, by referring to religious freedoms and minorities primarily outside the EU and by placing Islam in considerably more critical contexts than Christianity, German MEPs create a cultural demarcation line between Islam and Christianity through their parliamentary activities, which is similar to, though less politicised than, cultural boundaries often produced in public debates in Germany. Third, our study illustrates similar patterns of religious affiliation and subjective religiosity among German parliamentarians in both the EP and the national Parliament, which to some degree also reflect societal trends in Germany. Yet our data also suggest that European political elites are more religious than the average German population. If the presence of religion in terms of religious interest-groups and arguments is included, the EP appears to be more secularist than the German Parliament

Religiöse Mobilisierung? Religiöse Traditionen in der deutschen und niederländischen Arbeiterbewegung

Wie steht es in der heutigen Gesellschaft um die Bedeutung von Religion? Titel von Büchern, die sich mit dieser Frage beschäftigen, lauten beispielsweise „Wiederkehr der Götter" (F.W. Graf 2004) und „Rückkehr der Religionen" (M. Riesebrodt 2000). Solche Überschriften suggerieren, dass Religion vorübergehend aus unserer Gesellschaft verschwunden war, nun aber zurückgekehrt ist. Diese Beobachtung mag vor allem auf die Wissenschaft selbst zutreffen. In der Zivilgesellschaftsforschung wurde das Thema Religion von manchen vernachlässigt, von anderen gar ausgeblendet, weil es nicht zur mit dem Begriff Zivilgesellschaft oftmals verbundenen säkularen Utopie passte (M. Borutta 2005: 1-3). Die Aktualität beider Größen jedoch drängt dazu, ihr Verhältnis aus historischer Sicht aufzuarbeiten