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Historically the Netherlands is characterized by multitude of religions. Although religious diversity remains to the present day, there is a major decline of religion: currently almost 45% of the Dutch is not affiliated with any religious community.

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[edit] History

Before the advent of Christianity the Netherlands were populated by Celtic tribes in the South, which adhered to Celtic polytheism and Germanic tribes in the North, which adhered to Germanic paganism. After the Roman Empire occupied the South, Roman mythology became important there, as well as religions from the Middle East, including Judaism, Mithraism and later Christianity.

The city of Maastricht which was founded by the Romans was the first city to officially become Christian in 495. Between the end of the 4th century, when Saint Servatius fled to Maastricht and the 7th century when Bishop Lambertus moved to Liège, Maastricht hosted an episcopal see. In the 8th century Anglo-Saxon missionaries like Boniface attempted to Christianize the land occupied by the Frisian. The Frisians resisted: Boniface was killed in 754 in Dokkum by the Frisians for chopping down a holy tree. The missionaries gradually succeeded in the conversion of the North in the 8th century.

In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church became an important insitution in the year 1000 the Bishop of Utrecht had inherited half the Netherlands. Furthermore the Low countries were very enthusiastic about the crusades, more so than elsewhere in Europe. Christian teachings also led to laws against prostitution, gambling and money lending. Jews were religiously persecuted and many fled the country.

In the 14th and 15th century, the first calls were heard for religious reform. Geert Groote established the Brethren of the Common Life, an influential mystical order. Another reformer was humanist Erasmus who harshly criticised what he considered the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church.

The 16th and 17th century were characterized by the Reformation which greatly influence the history of the Netherlands. The first wave of Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther did not come to the Netherlands. The second wave of Reformation, Anabaptism became very popular in the counties of Holland and Friesland. Anabaptists were very radical and believed that the apocalypse was very near. They refused to live the old way, and began new communities, creating considerable chaos. Jantje van Leyden from Holland became the ruler of New Jerusalem. Another Dutch anabaptist leader was Jan Matthys from Amsterdam. Anabaptists survived throughout the centuries and they were recognized by the States-General of the Netherlands in 1578. Institutionalized Dutch baptism stood for a model for English and American baptists.

The third wave of Reformation, Calvinism, hit the Netherlands in the 1560s, converting both parts of the elite and the common population, mostly in Flanders. The Spanish government, under Phillips II started harsh prosecution campaigns, supported by the Spanish inquisition. In reaction this persecution, Calvinist rebelled. First there was the Beeldenstorm in 1566, which involved the destruction of religious depictions in Churches. In 1568 William the Silent, a convert to Calvinism, started the Eighty Years' War to liberate the Calvinist Dutch from the Catholic Spaniards. The counties of Holland and Zealand were conquered by Calvinists in 1572. Only a few people were calvinist in Holland and Zeeland at that time. The estates of Holland, led by Paulus Buys decided to support the prince of Orange. All churches in the Calvinist territories became Calvinistic and most of the population in these territories converted to Calvinist. Other religions like Judaism and Roman Catholicism were tolerated. The Roman Catholic Jesuits started large conversion campaigns in the early 17th century, using celebrations, music and education programmes to attract people. Most of the countryside became Roman Catholic in the county of Holland. The cities became flooded with Protestant immigrants from Germany, Flanders and France and developed a Protestant character.

Orthodox Calvinists had no interference from the liberals in the front-line areas next to the Spanish Netherlands. They converted a strip of land from the south west to the north of the Netherlands. This remains Orthodox Protestant until this day. The south east and east of the Netherlands were conquered in the 17th century, and these areas remained Roman Catholic.

The Synod of Dordrecht tried to bring an end to the internal differences within the Calvinist church concerning dogmas. Civil war broke out in the 1610s between orthodox and liberal Calvinists. The (liberal), sovereign estates of Holland decided to step out of the republic of the Netherlands. The orthodox side (prince Maurice of Orange and the other provinces) won, when the official head of state of the county of Holland, Johan van Oldebarnevelt, was executed.

The Calvinist religion became the official religion, and rulers had to be Calvinist. Other religions were tolerated, but couldn't practise their religion in public. Jews had their own laws, which they had to obey, and formed an internal society. The revolution in the 1790s brought emancipation for all religions in the Netherlands.

[edit] 19th century

The Calvinist Church was renamed the Dutch Reformed (Nederlands hervormd) Church when the kingdom of the Netherlands was founded, and King William became the head of the Church. Many orthodox Calvinists thought that the Church was too liberal and they started their own Reformed (gereformeerde) Church. This Church was persecuted by the state and many members fled to the United States.

The Netherlands became semi-democratic in 1848 and all religions were emancipated again.

Orthodox Calvinists were afraid of Roman Catholicism. They were opposed to the influx of Roman Catholic immigrants from Germany and the re-establishment of the Bishops in the Netherlands, although this happened anyway.

The rapid advance of science was seen as a danger to the foundation of religion. Materialism led many Christians and preachers to believe that there was no soul, or that God did not exist in the Biblical sense. This led to further splits within Protestant Churches. Orthodox Protestants forbade liberal views. Many villages in the Netherlands came to have several different Churches. Roman Catholicism remained intact, however.

Less than one percent of the population was atheist outside Friesland. The countryside in Southern Friesland, Zevenwouden, became highly atheistic due to Socialism. The leader of the Social-Democrats, Pieter Jelles Troelstra came from Friesland. At the end of the 19th century, thirty to fifty percent of the population of Zevenwouden was atheist.

Protestants and Roman Catholics formed political parties, which tried to turn the tide. The Conservative Party was thoroughly defeated by the Protestants during the elections of the 1880s, but the Liberals lost their majority of parliamentary seats in the early 1900s. The Christians dominated politics from that moment for more than half a century. Right-wing politicians tried to prevent the cities from becoming atheistic and Socialist by several measures, which worked for a few decades, but were unsuccessful in the long term. Socialists and Socialist newspaper salesmen were beaten up by right-wing mobs, while the police did nothing to help them. Socialist organizations couldn't register and were excluded by authorities for being non-existing organizations. Workers were immediately fired if they openly announced themselves to be Socialist, or if they joined labour unions or other Socialist organizations. The police and the army tried to subdue Socialism until the late 1920s, which let to violent incidents in cities.

[edit] Verzuiling (Pillarization)

The Roman Catholics and Protestants tried to protect their populations by creating their own schools, unions, work places, radio broadcasting companies, newspapers and magazines. They were separated from the rest of society, creating their own subcultures. The socialists did the same, to save their followers from capitalist influences. Liberals were against this, but they only formed a small minority. This phenomenon is called pillarization.

The bureaucracy was dominated by Protestants. Roman Catholics and socialists were discriminated against, although they formed a majority together in parliament. Roman Catholics were allowed to join the government, but the socialists were ignored until the late 1930s. The country was peaceful, but there was a lot of underlying tension. There were a number of incidents: A Roman Catholic boy and a Protestant boy were prevented from playing together by the police. Protestants did not attend funerals of Roman Catholic friends. The annual Easter procession in a certain Roman Catholic village always marching past all the Protestant houses, and all the windows of the houses owned by Protestants were smashed with stones by boys joining the procession.

Atheism grew during the 1920s and 1930s. The socialists in the major cities became atheist. The countryside in east Groningen became Communist. Some communities where ruled directly by the Conservative central government, because the Communists had won the elections.

Many people wanted to bring an end to the pillarization in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Protestants wanted to work together with the Labour party. Communists tried to join with the Labour party as well. There were Christians who tried to unite the Roman Catholics and the Protestants, but they failed to unite them at higher levels.

The main resistance groups during the Nazi German occupation consisted of Orthodox Protestants and Communists, although the other religions and ideologies also had their own resistance groups. Orthodox Protestants saw the interrogation practices from the SS as a test from God and refused to cooperate at all. Calvinist conviction told them to resist the unlawful government and to help the Jews and the resistance. The SS was glad when a church split occurred in 1944 over the question whether the snake talked in the garden of Eden, or whether the Bible should be taken literally or not. The Liberal Protestant vicar that tried to separate his church was driven through the Netherlands in a car from the SS, so he could reach as many people as possible. He thought that the Bible was more important then the Nazi-occupation. A church split came, but it failed to bring an end to Orthodox Protestant participation in the resistance movement.

Most of the Jewish community was exterminated by the Nazis. The Jews in the Netherlands were integrated into the society prior to 1940, although there was some antisemitism. Religiousness and Jewish ethnic feelings were very limited among Dutch Jews. Dutch Jews regarded themselves primarily as Dutch. Class differences were more apparent among Jews than among other Dutch citizens. The Jewish elite voted Conservative Liberal, while the Jewish masses were mainly Social Democratic. One eighth of the population of Amsterdam was Jewish, and they were fully integrated in the Social-Democratic pillar. This full integration was unique in Europe. In February 1941, there was a general strike in Amsterdam and the surrounding areas against the first razzia. This was the largest act of resistance against the persecution of Jews in the Nazi German Empire.

There were 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands in 1940. 20,000 of them were free from persecution, because they were married to non-Jews, or because some of their parents and grandparents were non-Jews. Another 20,000 Jews hid from the Germans. From the 101,000 Jews that were deported, only 1,000 were alive after the war. The percentage of Dutch Jews that were exterminated was much higher than in other countries, including Germany. Reasons for this include the good administration system of the Dutch government and lack of knowledge about the extermination camps. The Dutch population was a relatively rich country with peaceful, law-abiding character.

[edit] Secularization

The extermination of the Dutch Jews became a contentious topic during the 1960s and 1970s. The younger generation blamed the older generation which had not resisted the Nazis and allowed the Jews to die. An ideology of resistance against all authority became very popular. Authority, religion and nationalism were despised by many until the elections of 2002. Freedom became the most important value. Dutch freedom means the freedom to do whatever the individual wants, and not being hindered by others. The consequences of this ideology became apparent during the 1990s, when violence increased. People began to realise that only the government can stop violence from other citizens.

The social revolution of the 1960s brought an end to the Verzuiling (pillarization). Most of the population became non-religious. At first it was very apparent in the Protestant churches. The Liberal Protestants in particular lost a lot of members. The youth no longer wanted to become members. The downsizing of the Roman Catholic Church began later, because people become members at baptism just after birth. Many non-religious Roman Catholics baptized their children, because the grandparents liked it. But the Roman Catholic Church eventually lost more members than the Protestant Church.

This does not mean that a vast majority of the population is atheist. Most of the population believes in God, or some supernatural force, or is undecided. Postmodernism (belief that the truth does not exist) and nihilism (belief that everything is useless) have a significant influence in Dutch society, however, and many influential intellectuals have postmodernistic and nihilistic convictions. The Netherlands are very liberal, which is exemplified by television programs on public television like 'Spuiten en Slikken', which means squirting and swallowing. This program is about sex and drugs. One report in this program was about trying out places like the train and the elevator for outdoor sex. Other hedonists are comedians, like the 'Vliegende Panters' with the Hell's Night Show. The television program 'God Bestaat Niet' (God doesn't exist) resulted in a protest from Christians in 2005. Religion was openly attacked in this program by anti-religious atheistic scientists accompanied by anti-religious sketches of a comedian. In particular a sketch with Allah and Jesus portrayed as dogs led to a lot of criticism. The present prime minister and minister of justice of the Netherlands are conservative Christians who want to make an end to this ridicule of religion.

39% of the population was member of the Roman Catholic church in 1971. In 2005 it was declined to 28%. Mainstream protestants (PKN) declined in the same period from 31% to 12%. Islam increased from 0% to 6%. Small protestant churches had an increase in the amount of members, especially the evangelical churches. Within Western Europe, the Netherlands is average compared with other countries. The Dutch have less members of churches and other religions (44%), but there are more people who are religious outside the main religions (21%).[1]

Islam came to the Netherlands in the 1960s and 1970s. Nowadays 5% of the population is Muslim. The main Islamic immigrants are Turkish, Moroccans, Surinamese and refugees from Iraq, Iran, Bosnia and Afghanistan in particular. The Turkish and Moroccans are by far the largest groups among them. Turkish and Moroccan Islam is very moderate by tradition. Most of the Muslims, some two thirds, became non-practising during the 1980s and 1990s. However, a minority of the Moroccans have become radical Muslims in the Netherlands. Islam is under attack by Dutch nationalists, whom fear that the secularization will be undermined by Islam. Many Dutch fear the Islamic dogma regarding homosexuality, female rights and common daily life. There is also a lot of discrimination among Dutch autochtones, who want the Netherlands to remain white. Some Muslims, espescially young men, respond to this by becoming fundamentalist Muslims. Theo van Gogh was killed in 2004 by a Moroccan fundamentalist Muslim.

The Samen op weg Kerken ("Together on the road churches") wanted to create a Christian unity in the Netherlands. Otherwise there would be many small churches in a country dominated by non-Christians. The idea was that a united Christianity could have a stronger position in Dutch society. The problem was that the Roman Catholic Church did not want to cooperate. Bishops are elected by the Pope, and he did not want the Dutch Catholics to merge with Protestants. The biggest Protestant churches united in 2004 and created the PKN (Protestant Church in the Netherlands). The PKN was formed out of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed churches and two Lutheran churches. Orthodox Protestants split with the majority of the Dutch Reformed Church. This led to the same social problems seen with other church splits: relatives and friends refused to see each other again because of the church split.

The Orthodox Protestant political party SGP has not allowed women to become party members since the it was founded in 1925. Its members want the Netherlands to turn into a theocracy, a country governed by the rules of the Bible. In 2001 the UN declared that the Netherlands was discriminating against women for accepting this political party in parliament, which is not allowed according to the UN Charter of Human Rights. In September 2005, the SGP lost all state subsidies including the salary of the two parliament members after a ruling of a judge. The party was not banned, because the feminists who started the lawsuit were not members of the SGP. The SGP-women believe in the principles of their party.


[edit] Denominations

In 2002 the plurality of Dutch people was not religious. Some 31% was (nominally) Roman Catholic. 13% was member of the Dutch Reformed Church and 7% was member of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. 5.5% was Islamic. 2.5% of the population adhered to other religions including various smaller protestant denominations, Judaism, hinduism and Buddhism.

[edit] Demographics

In the following table one can see the complexity of Dutch religion: while 45% of the Dutch population is not member of any religious community, the other 55% are distributed over a diversity of Churches. 45% of the Dutch population is affiliated with a Christian church. The largest group, 28%, is Roman Catholic. The rest is distributed over a multitude of protestant churches. The largest of which is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, which in fact is an alliance of three Churches, two Calvinist and one Lutheran. Some 12% of the population is member of the Church. Smaller Churches have either been the result of conflicts within the Calvinist Church or been imported, mainly from the United States. The last 10% of the population is member of another religion, including Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, most of the adherents of these religions came here as the result of immigration.

Membership of Religious Communities
Religion Orientation Adherents Year Population (%)
(estimate)
Christianity 7684612 * 47,1%
Catholicism 4628781 * 28,4%
Catholicism Roman Catholic 4622000 2004 28,4%
Old Catholic Church Old Catholic 5981 2004 0,0%
Free Catholic Church in the Netherlands Free Catholic Church 800 2004 0,0%
Protestant 3033831 * 18,6%
Protestant Church in the Netherlands Lutheran and Calvinist 2002155 2004 12,3%
Dutch Reformed Church Calvinist
(Hervormd)
1390000 * 8,5%
Reformed Churches in the Netherlands Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
600000 * 3.7%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Netherlands Lutheran 10000 * 0.1%
Dutch Reformed Church in Repaired Relation Calvinist
(Hervormd)
70000 2005 0.4%
Continued Reformed Churches Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
3900 2005 0.0%
Christian Reformed Churches Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
74853 2005 0.5%
Reformed Parishes Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
103272 2005 0.6%
Reformed Parishes in the Netherlands Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
21708 2005 0.1%
Reformed Parishes (outside of relations) Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
3000 2005 0.0%
Reformed Parishes in the Netherlands (in repaired relations) Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
1250 2005 0.0%
Old Reformed Parishes in the Netherlands Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
18000 2005 0.1%
Free Old Reformed Parishes in the Netherlands Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
18000 2004 0.0%
Reformed Churches (liberated) Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
125970 2005 0.8%
Dutch Reformed Churches Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
315900 2004 1.9%
Continued Liberated Church Calvinist
(Gereformeerd)
1500 2005 0.0%
Mennonite Church in the Netherlands Baptist
(Doopsgezind)
9368 2005 0,1%
Remonstant Brotherhood Baptist
(Remonstrant)
4581 2005 0,0%
Union of Baptist Churches in the Netherlands Baptist
(Baptist)
11364 2004 0,1%
Brotherhood of Baptist Churches Baptist
(Baptist)
4200 2004 0,0%
Independent Free Baptist Churches Baptist
(Baptist)
4200 2004 0,0%
League of Free Evangelican Parishes Lutheran 5821 2004 0.0%
Evangelican Brotherhood Lutheran 12000 2005 0.1%
New Apostolic Church Netherlands Pentecostal 11856 2004 0.1%
Apostolic Community Pentecostal 18673 2004 0.1%
United Pentecostal and Evangelical Parishes Pentecostal 19820 2004 0.1%
Other Pentecostal Pentecostal 50830 2004 0.4%
Anglican Church in the Netherlands Anglican 33000 2004 0.2%
Jevoha's Witnesses Restorationist 29632 2004 0.2%
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Restorationist 7500 2004 0.0%
Seventh Day Adventists Restorationist 4500 2004 0,0%
Gathering of Religious Dispensationalism 10000 * 0.1%
Salvation Army Methodism 6840 2005 0.0%
Geredja Indjili Maluku unknown 25000 2004 0.2%
Christian Church Netherlands
(Nordic Brotherhood)
unknown 2100 2004 0.0%
Quacker * 200 * 0.0%
Liberal Religious Community NPB * 5338 2004 0,0%
Zwingli Union * 150 * 0.0%
Eastern Orthodox 22000 2004 0,1%
Eastern Orthodox Orthodox 22000 2004 0,1%
Islam 944000 2004 5.8%
Islam Islam 944000 2004 5.8%
Judaism 35900 * 0.2%
Dutch Israelite Church Judaism 5000 * 0.0%
Union of Religious Liberal Jews in the Netherlands Judaism 3500 * 0.0%
Portuguese Israelite Church Judaism 600 * 0.0%
Hinduism 215000 2004 1.3%
Hinduism Hinduism 215000 * 1.3%
Buddhism 169000 2004 1.0%
Buddhism Buddhism 169000 2004 1.0%
No religious affiliation 723000000 * 44,4%


Al sinds de Reformatie is Nederland een land waar uiteenlopende kerkelijke gezindten naast elkaar leven. De twee grootste religieuze stromingen zijn sinds die tijd de Calvinistische protestanten en de Rooms-Katholieken. De relatief grote tolerantie ten opzichte van andere godsdiensten trok vanaf de zeventiende eeuw ook een groot aantal kleine (vooral protestants-christelijke) kerkgenootschappen aan, die elders streng vervolgd werden.

Protestanten en katholieken woonden hoofdzakelijk gescheiden van elkaar. De grens tussen de protestantse en katholieke gebieden loopt dwars door Nederland van zuidwest naar oost: door Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, het westen en noorden van Noord-Brabant, het zuiden en oosten van Gelderland en door Twente. De gebieden ten zuiden en oosten van die denkbeeldige grens zijn katholiek, de gebieden ten noorden en westen ervan protestants. Vooral in de westelijke provincies Noord- en Zuid-Holland en Utrecht waren er echter ook een aantal katholieke en gemengde gebieden.

Uit de negentiende-eeuwse volkstellingen blijkt dat er lange tijd sprake was van een protestantse meerderheid en een katholieke minderheid. De verhouding was ongeveer 60% - 40%. Vanaf eind negentiende eeuw (na 1880) komen er onder invloed van met name het socialisme steeds meer onkerkelijken. Vooral de protestanten verliezen in de daaropvolgende decennia veel leden. Dit geldt in het bijzonder voor de Nederlands Hervormde Kerk, die ook veel leden verliest aan de van deze kerk afgescheiden gereformeerde kerken.

Eind jaren zestig begint de tweede ontkerkelijkingsgolf, die ook in de tot dan hechte katholieke gemeenschap doorwerkt. De grenzen tussen de geloofs- en levensbeschouwelijke gemeenschappen, die door de verzuiling en de ruimtelijke scheiding vrij strak waren, verdwijnen langzaam. Het belang van de oecumene en de wens voor meer eenheid binnen de christelijke kerken neemt toe. Onder protestanten resulteert dit in 2004 in de oprichting van de Protestantse Kerk in Nederland, een fusie tussen de Nederlands Hervormde Kerk, de Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (verreweg het grootste gereformeerde kerkgenootschap) en de kleine Evangelisch-Lutherse Kerk. In dezelfde periode komen er met de instroom van grote groepen immigranten verschillende 'uitheemse' godsdiensten het land binnen, zoals de islam, het hindoeïsme en het boeddhisme. Deze kerkgemeenschappen concentreren zich vooral in de grote steden.

Volgens statistieken van het CBS uit 2004 beschouwde 30% van de bevolking zich als katholiek, 21 procent als protestant (hervormd, gereformeerd of luthers), 5,8% als moslim, 0,6% als hindoe, 1,6% rekende zich tot een andere godsdienst (kleinere christelijke kerkgenootschappen, joden en boeddhisten) en 41% tot geen enkele godsdienst.

In de laatste jaren is er op sommige gebieden sprake van een kleine heropleving van religieuze gevoelens, alhoewel niet in het aantal kerkleden dat nog steeds afneemt. De godsdienstbeleving is vergeleken met vijftig jaar geleden echter volledig veranderd. Door de individualisering is religie voor velen iets persoonlijks geworden, waar geen wekelijks zondags kerkbezoek meer bijhoort. Slechts 20% van de Nederlanders gaat minstens een keer per maand naar de kerk. Een uitzondering op al deze ontwikkelingen vormen de orthodoxe gelovigen, vooral te vinden onder de gereformeerden, die nog altijd een hechte gemeenschap vormen en waarvoor godsdienst een centrale plaats inneemt in het leven.

Het SCP bracht in september 2006 een studie uit onder de titel: Godsdienstige veranderingen in Nederland. Het blijkt dat sedert de jaren 1960 het aantal kerkgangers in Nederland drastisch is gedaald. In het jaar 2000 is 62% van de Nederlanders niet verbonden met een of andere kerk of godsdienst. Dit percentage loopt in 2020 op naar 72%. De Islam echter blijkt jaarlijks te groeien. In 2000 is 5% van de Nederlanders islamitisch. Dit loopt op naar 8% in 2020. De ontkerkelijking is een van de meest markante ontwikkelingen in de Nederlandse samenleving van de twintigste eeuw.




[edit] Notes

  1. John Bossy, Christianity in the West 1400-1700 (Oxford 1985) 105-107

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