Netherlands

The Netherlands is a western European kingdom located in the delta between Belgium and Germany. Also known as Holland and the Dutch Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was established as a parliamentary monarchy in 1848, a process that was completed with the constitutional reform of 1917. Its predecessor was the Dutch Republic (1581–1795). The origin of the Netherlands lies in the struggle for political independence in the Eighty Years War with Spain (1568–1648). The political-religious antagonism between Protestants and Catholics was an important factor in this conflict. In 1572, the Low Countries’ governments installed a reorganized (“reformed”) church for the people, following a model that was partly inspired by John Calvin's ideas. Despite the popular image of Calvinist confessional dominance, the Low Countries have been in practice a multiconfessional society since the early-modern period. Most notably, the two southern provinces of the Netherlands have always had a strong Catholic presence.

Typical for the development of religion in Dutch society is “pillarization,” which is a situation whereby differences of class and religion shaped the formation of four dominant interest groups—Catholics, Protestants, Socialists, and Liberals—around which people's political and social affiliations were based. Although comparable with similar processes of ideological identity formation in other European countries in the same age, the idea behind the pillar was that the ideological subculture [Page 884]to which one belonged was the highest moral community, instead of the nation. This form of ideological organization persisted from the second half of the 19th century into the 1960s, permeating many dimensions of public life.

In present times, the Netherlands is known for both its rapid church decline and its great religious diversity. Between 35% and 40% of Dutch people are still religiously affiliated, but this number is decreasing every year. At the same time, a relatively high number of Dutch people indicate that they have some sense of belief in a transhuman power (almost 70% according to recent figures). A portion of this group are interested in newer forms of religiosity, which often do not require a strong religious affiliation but which treat practitioners as consumers. Diversity is also increasingly reflected in the religious lifeworlds of migrants in the Netherlands, in which Christianity and Islam, in their many different cultural and confessional forms, are dominant. The growing presence of migrant religiosity in the Netherlands certainly adjusts the picture of religious decline, without, however, counteracting its reality.