Abstract
Religion has become a matter of intensified public concern in contemporary Scandinavia, and the various media are the main arena in which Scandinavians encounter such controversies. Historically-rooted understandings of religion that are based on the Lutheran Church as both a public utility and cultural resource, and the secular state as the regulator of religious freedom and equality, have become re-articulated in newly emerging frames such as the politicization, culturalization and securitization of religion. This chapter presents the current volume’s overall approach to religion in contemporary Scandinavia as a mediatized and contested social phenomenon. The chapter advocates a perspective from which ongoing contestations and negotiations among a larger spectrum of actors are explored through an application of both substantive and moderate social constructionist approaches to religion. The various applications and interplays of these approaches to religion may fruitfully contribute to the further development of the theory of the mediatization of religion.
