Iceland is a relatively isolated country located on an island in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is one of Europe's smallest nations, with a population of only 290,000 inhabitants in 2005. More than 90% of the relatively homogeneous population are registered as members of the National Lutheran Church, and there is a widespread faith in a unique Icelandic spirituality. At the same time, Iceland is a highly secular society.

Icelanders tend to think of themselves as Christians. In a Nordic survey from the mid-1990s, 42% of Icelanders reported that they saw themselves as “a confessing Christian,” 53% as “Christian in your own way,” and only 5% as “not Christian.” The people of Iceland are among those who score the highest in European surveys on faith in ...