Protestant Legacies in Nordic Law: Uses of the Past in the Construction of Secularity of Law


Project Summary

This project researches the conscious and unconscious uses of the Lutheran and broader Protestant past for the construction and institutionally embedding of norms and values in Nordic secular law.

The overarching goal of ProNoLa is to examine relations between Lutheran majority traditions, broader Protestant theology and the development of secular law in the Nordic region over the last 500 years.

The project aims to provide a more complex, nuanced and critical genealogy of the negotiations of law and religion in the Nordic and German realms. It will do so by highlighting the numerous ruptures, twists and turns in the relationship between law and secularity.

The expected outcome of the research is a reformulated history about interlinkages between Lutheran and broader Protestant theology within majority and minority churches and the secularity of the law, not only in the historic period until the Enlightenment era, but during subsequent periods into the current reconfessionalisation and internationalisation of relations between religions, state and law.

The project’s research findings will be presented and spread to a wider academic and non-academic public audience through research symposia and publications.

Prof. Lisbet Birgitte Christofferson

Project Leader

University of Copenhagen
Denmark


Project Partners

Prof. Lisbet Birgitte Christofferson

Project Leader

University of Copenhagen
Denmark

Email

Prof. Hans-Michael Heinig

University of Gottingen
Germany

Email

Assoc Prof. Anna-Sara Lind

Uppsala University
Sweden

Email

Prof. Tarald Rasmussen

University of Oslo
Norway

Email

Assoc Prof. Pamela Slotte

University of Helsinki
Finland

Email

Associate Partners

Anne Kristine Axelsson

The Danish Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs
Denmark

Nirger Nygaard

Council on International relations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark
Denmark

Pirjo Pihlaja

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland
Finland

Kimmo Ketola

Church Research Institute, National Church Council, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
Finland

Ingrid vad Nielsen

Royal Norwegian Ministry of Culture, Department of Church Affairs
Norway

Jens-Petter Johnsen

Church of Norway
Norway

Ake Goransson

Namnden for Statlig Stod till Trossamfund, Sweden
Sweden

Cecilia Nahnfeldt

Church of Sweden
Sweden

Bundesministerium des Innern
Germany

Dr Hans Ulrich Anke

Evangelical Church of Germany
Germany

  • University of Copenhagen

    University of Copenhagen

  • University of Gottingen

    University of Gottingen

  • Uppsala University

    Uppsala University

  • University of Oslo

    University of Oslo

  • University of Helsinki

    University of Helsinki

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