Religion in Iceland

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Religion in Iceland was initially the Viking religion that believed in Norse mythology. Later the nation became half-Christian and then more fully Christian. This increasing Christianization culminated in the Pietism period when non-Christian entertainments were discouraged. At present the population is overwhelmingly, if nominally, Lutheran. However there are also Catholics, Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, Muslims and others. There are also folk beliefs concerning elves that do not rise to the level of religion, but have gained some note.[1]

Contents 1 Norse religion period 2 Conversion to Christianity 3 The Reformation 4 Pietism 5 Modern Iceland 5.1 Christian 5.1.1 Lutherans 5.1.2 Catholics 5.1.3 Pentecostals 5.1.4 Seventh-day Adventists 5.1.5 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 5.1.6 Other Christian 5.2 Non-Christian 5.2.1 Asatru 5.2.2 Muslims 5.2.3 Buddhism and Zen 5.2.4 Judaism 5.2.5 Other non-Christian 6 Table from 2004 census 7 References

[edit] Norse religion period

Many of the early Icelandic sagas concerned the Norse religion period even though many of them were written after the official conversion to Christianity. The Hrafnkels saga is perhaps one of the more well-known examples to deal with the Norse period as its main character is initially dedicated to Freyr. Although later he rejects religion in general.

[edit] Conversion to Christianity

There had been some Christians in Iceland from the beginning as Irish slaves or in a few cases as land owners. It is also alleged that Irish monks had a settlement that predated the Viking settlement of Iceland. However Iceland's true Christian period began later.

Around 1000 Iceland initially converted to Christianity in a partial and diplomatic way. The compromise measure came about due to the Norse-pagan Þorgeirr Ljósvetningagoði and is also dealt with in the article on the Íslendingabók. In the compromise the old laws allowing Infanticide and eating horsemeat would stay. Furthermore pagan sacrifices remained legal if they were done in private. However in public and officially the nation became Christian. This was in part to please the Christianized kings of Norway, a main trading partner for Medieval Iceland, and in part to satisfy Iceland's growing Christian faction. Over time the allowances for paganism dwindled.

Still their relationship to the rest of Christendom remained strained for the first few centuries. The Catholic Church officially disproved of several variance they had from the rest of the Christian world. For example the Althing could, and did in cases like Jón Ögmundsson, vote to make someone a saint. Although the standards of canonization were not yet regularized this was considered unusual. Added to that the Church was subservient to the chieftains as churches were often on their land. The priests often had concubines or were themselves children of concubines. Lastly the convent was often made up of older widows of wealthy Icelanders. This meant a Nun could, and sometimes was, both widow of a previous bishop and mother of the current one. This gave nuns an unusual position.

[edit] The Reformation

The Reformation almost completely obliterated Catholic Iceland. It also proved to be more violent than in most of the lands ruled by Denmark. This came in part because Jón Arason's resistance of the Reformation was in part proto-nationalistic and escalated nearly to the point of civil war.(See article on him for further details) In the end he lost and Catholicism declined. Although it may have hung on in rural lands until, perhaps, the eighteenth century it had likely disappeared after that date.

[edit] Pietism

Starting in the eighteenth century Pietism rose in importance due to activity from Denmark. The pietists expanded printing and literature in Iceland. However education and literacy for the Pietists was primarily or solely to have a religious function and they discouraged anything without religious meaning.[2] This led to encouraging a certain dourness to Iceland by discouraging dancing or other entertainments.

[edit] Modern Iceland

In modern times the Icelanders are mostly a secular people with low church attendance. However some religions still have some impact on the culture.

[edit] Christian

At least officially, the nation is religiously homogeneous. Non-Christian religions account for less than 5% of the population and the vast majority of Christians are Lutherans. Although church attendance is low and actual beliefs of Icelanders have in least some variety.

[edit] Lutherans

Official statistics place Iceland as overwhelmingly Lutheran. The main church is the Church of Iceland which represents 85.5% of the population. The Church of Iceland is also the State Church, but religious freedom is practiced. There are several "free Lutheran" churches as well which total 4.5% of the population. In recent years there has been an increase in the proportion linked to the free Lutheran churches. In total 90%, or perhaps more, of the population is registered as some form of Lutheran, these statistics are by some considered misleading since most people are automatically registered as members of the state religion.

However estimates indicate that only 10% of the population attends religious service regularly and that 43% never attend.

[edit] Catholics

In contemporary times Catholicism has had a greater acceptance and success in Iceland. It is perhaps the largest non-Lutheranism faith in Iceland, but at the same time it remains a small minority. There is currently a Roman Catholic diocese in Reykjavík with Jóhannes Gijsen as Bishop.[3] It is estimated that half of the nation's Catholics are foreign born with the main groups being Poles and Filipinos.

In the twentieth century Iceland had some notable, if at times temporary, converts to the faith. For a time Halldór Laxness was Catholic. Although this did not last his Catholic period is of importance due to his position in modern Icelandic literature. A more consistently Catholic writer in Icelandic was Jón Sveinsson. He moved to France at 13 and became a Jesuit. He remained in the Society of Jesus for the rest of his life. He was a well-liked as a children's book author who wrote in Icelandic and he even appeared on a postage stamp there.[4]

[edit] Pentecostals

The Pentecostals are the next largest religious group in Iceland. There are Pentecostal churches in Keflavík, Akureyri and the capital. A website, Gospel Iceland a site in Icelandic, also exists for the movement in Iceland. Vörður Traustason is a contact person for the Pentecostal assembly in Iceland.

[edit] Seventh-day Adventists

The Seventh-day Adventists have some organization in Iceland. They have their own website and also a local conference. Gavin Anthony is a leading figure in Adventism in Iceland.[5] That said growth has been static for ten years and the Adventists tend to indicate this is caused by the generalized secularism of the nation. The group represents less than .3% of the population.

[edit] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Mormons have a fairly small presence in Iceland, but worth mentioning for historical reasons. In the nineteenth century LDS missionaries came to Iceland and converted a few local residents. In 1855 these residents would become the genesis of the first Icelandic community overseas in Spanish Fork, Utah.[6] The Mormons are also said to be the only group who is currently active in trying to proselytize in Iceland.

[edit] Other Christian

Several of the other groups, like the Jehovah's Witness, are in fact larger than the Mormons. The Watchtower estimates the nation has 289 Jehovah's Witnesses with 6 baptized in that faith[7]. Intriguingly the estimates by the Iceland census is over twice that number. Guðmundur Halldór Guðmundsson is listed as a contact person for Jehovah's Witnesses in Iceland. Eastern Orthodoxy, Serbian and Russian, also has a small presence on the island. There are also various religions with small numbers, less than 100, that have managed to be registered. The smallest registered religion is the First Baptist Church with 10 members with the listed contact persons being Patrick V. Weimer and Robert A. Hansen. There are 22 registered religions in all. The small Christian denominations have a combined total of only a few percent if that.

[edit] Non-Christian

A small minority practice a variety of non-Christian faiths. Of these the Neo-Norse religions are likely the largest non-Christian faith native to the island.

[edit] Asatru

In the 1970s there was interest among some Icelanders to revive the pre-Christian faith in some form. This issue is dealt with in more detail at the article on Íslenska Ásatrúarfélagið.

[edit] Muslims

Salmann Tamimi is a contact person for the nation's Muslim Association.

See also: Islam in Iceland

[edit] Buddhism and Zen

There are Buddhist websites based in Iceland such as Karuna. Óskar Ingólfsson is a contact person for Zen in Iceland. There is also an Icelandic Buddhist association with a few hundred members. In addition, Rev. José M. Tirado, a Jodo Shinshu priest, poet and activist with an extensive background in Zen, Vajrayana and Fourth Way studies, has taught an eclectic blend of each in a meditation-based counseling program several times in Iceland.([8])

[edit] Judaism

The number is uncertain, but generally agreed to very low. The Jewish population is small enough that it has not registered and is listed as unspecified/other groups, and there is no synagogue or prayer house.

There was no solid Jewish emigration to Iceland until the twentieth century, but some Jewish merchants lived in Iceland temporarily at points in the nineteenth century. At the millennial celebration of the Althing in 1874 a Jewish journalist was mentioned. There was also discussion of Jewish issues in Iceland. This discussion ranged from sympathetic of their plight to sympathizers for the Nazi Party who blamed Jews for "Bolshevism" among other things. Icelanders tended to have limited contact with actual Jewish people so most of this was theoretical. Although most Icelanders sympathized with them in their persecution they usually refused entry to Jews who were fleeing Nazi Germany and so the Jewish population did not rise much during the Second World War.[9]

Today the religion remains minor as an element of Iceland. However up to 60 people in Iceland do attend occasional Jewish holiday parties or lectures by Jewish immigrants. However this does not necessarily mean the Jewish population is 60 as some Jewish people who live there might not attend and non-Jewish people may have attended out of curiosity or friendship. The World Jewish Congress had no figures for Iceland in 1998 confirming that the numbers are under 120 and likely well under that figure.[10] The site for the Catholic diocese indicated there are only 30 Jewish people in Iceland[11], but as their estimate of Muslims is unusually low they might be underreporting Judaism as well. Still it seems that, exempting several of the European micro-states, Iceland might have the lowest Jewish population of any European nation.

Despite that the first lady, Dorrit Moussaieff, is Jewish by birth and is likely the most significant Jewish woman in Icelandic history. A menorah was found for her as it is rare for an Icelandic leader to need one. However she is largely secular and has a negative view of her birthplace of Israel.[12]

[edit] Other non-Christian

There are various other non-Christian groups in the nation. The largest not mentioned would be the Bahá'í Faith, but none of these combined equals more than a percent or so. Non-religion or secularism is relatively large as eluded to and there is an organization for it called Siðmennt. [13] It is similar to the Human-Etisk Forbund in Norway and claims a membership between 100 and 200, a far lower proportion of the nation then the Norwegian organization. Also unlike the Human-Etisk Forbund, Siðmennt is not recognized as a religious community by the state and thus does not receive any funds from the state like registered religious organizations do. People outside religious organizations still pay the "church tax" but the money goes to the University of Iceland. There are other Icelandic instutitions for the secular branches within society, such as the SAMT or Samfélags trúlausra. [www.vantru.is Vantrú] is an vocal association og atheists that criticizes all things supernatural. Skeptíkus is an association of atheists on the University of Iceland campus.

The percent of Icelanders who "don't believe in any sort of spirit, God, or life force" is 11% according to a 2004 Eurobarometer study Social Values, Science and Technology.[14] This is lower than in Norway or the United Kingdom while expressed belief in God was about the same in Iceland as in the UK and higher than in most of Scandinavia. The majority of Icelanders preferred to express belief in a "spirit or life force" rather than express a belief in God or a generalized disbelief.

[edit] Table from 2004 census

Religious group	number	% of population
Lutheran Church of Iceland	250661	85.46%
Reykjavík Free Church	6202	2.11%
Hafnarfjörður Free Church	4365	1.49%
Roman Catholic Church	5775	1.97%
Reykjavík Independent Church	2588	0.88%
Pentecostal Church	1800	0.61%
Seventh-day Adventist Church	746	0.25%
Jehovah's Witnesses	655	0.22%
The Way, Free Church	693	0.24%
The Cross	629	0.21%
The Icelandic Christ-Church	213	0.07%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	185	0.06%
Serbian Orthodox Church	157	0.05%
Kefas - Christian Community	137	0.05%
Parish of St. Nicholas of the Russian Orthodox Church	113	0.04%
The Church of Evangelism	90	0.03%
First Baptist Church	10	0.00%
The Rock - Christian Community	0	0.00%
Asa Faith Society	872	0.30%
Buddhist Association of Iceland	544	0.19%
Bahá'í Faith	373	0.13%
Muslim Association	321	0.11%
Betania	144	0.05%
Sjónarhæð Congregation	54	0.02%
Zen in Iceland - Night Pasture	48	0.02%
The Believers' Fellowship	39	0.01%
Word of Life	0	0.00%
Other and not specified	8733	2.98%
Outside religious organizations	7144	2.44%

[edit] References

• Medieval Iceland:Society, Sagas, and Power by Jesse L. Byock (University of California Press, 1988: Specifically pages 137-164)
• The History of Iceland by Gunnar Karlsson (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) ISBN 0-8166-3589-7
• US Department of State Report
• Information center on religious groups in Iceland