Non-denominational
Non-denominational (also non-denominational ) denotes that a person does not belong to any denomination . Occasionally it is also used without confession (o. B.). In western and central Europe, the status of non-denominational status was introduced into the legal system in the 19th century.
term
Denomination
The term denomination ( Latin confessio , “confession”, “confession”) designates a subgroup within a religion (originally only Christian) that differs from other subgroups in terms of teaching, organization or practice. In the meantime, people also speak of an Islamic or Jewish denomination.
Non-denominational in the sense of non-religion
In part, the term non-denominational is used in the sense of non- religion, which generally corresponds to the ideological currents of atheism , agnosticism , free-thinking and secular humanism .
Organizations such as the Humanist Association of Germany or the Giordano Bruno Foundation prefer the term “non-denominational” to “non-denominational” because the ending “-los” expresses the lack of something, but having no denomination is not a defect.
Non-denominational status in the sense of not belonging to a religious community
Sometimes the term non-denominational is used for the external non-affiliation to a religious community. In addition to the above-mentioned people with no religion, this also includes people who do not belong to any religious community but who do not see themselves as having no religion. This includes (above all) former members of religious communities who reject the respective institutions, various esoteric currents or generally a so-called spirituality without religion.
During the National Socialist era , the Reich Interior Ministry's decree of November 26, 1936 introduced the term “ God-believing ” on the registration and personal forms of the residents' registration offices as well as on personal papers . "Believers in God" were those who had turned away from the existing denominations but were not unbelieving.
From the point of view of the Austrian state, those persons who do not belong to a state-recognized or registered religious community are deemed to be "without confession" :
"People who do not belong to a legally recognized church or religious society or to a state-registered religious denomination community are deemed to be persons without a denomination."
This means that, from a purely legal point of view, the Austrian state is considered to be “without a confession” even if you are a member of a religious community that has (only) constituted itself in the form of an association. Nevertheless, the Austrian constitution guarantees every natural person full freedom of belief and conscience: “All residents of Austria have the right to freely practice any kind of belief, religion or creed, publicly or privately, provided that their practice is not in keeping with public order or with good morals is incompatible. "
According to a representative survey by the market research institute Insa from 2013, only around a third of those with no religious affiliation in Germany were certain that there was no God. According to this survey, many non-denominational believers “in any God”, around 16% even deal intensively with the question of God. A 2014 survey in Switzerland produced similar results. Among the non-denominational, around 32% consider themselves atheist. 31% believe in a “higher power”, 25% are agnostic and 11% believe in a single God.
Situation by state
Germany
- Legal situation
It has been possible to leave the church in Germany since 1847. The state church law from the Weimar Constitution currently applies in Germany . It is shaped by the Weimar Church Compromise and contains extensive state church law treaties, concordats and regulations, in particular for social work institutions based on the principle of subsidiarity .
- Association landscape
To represent the interests of the non-denominational in Germany, organizations such as B. the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD) , the International Federation of Non-Denominational and Atheists (IBKA), the Giordano Bruno Foundation (gbs) or the Federation for Freedom of the Mind Bavaria (bfg Bayern). Traditionally, such associations originated from a deliberately anti-clerical demarcation from the churches and a propagation of cremation or youth consecration from the middle to the end of the 19th century. Various free religious, monistic and unitarian currents unite under the umbrella organization of free ideological communities. An independent GDR freethinkers association was only founded in 1989, mainly at the instigation of the GDR State Security.
Since 2008 there is the Coordination Council of Secular Organizations (KORSO) eV, an association of secular organizations in Germany, which sees itself as representing the interests of the non-denominational in Germany. However, the various individual associations have a relatively small proportion of members, with the HVD occupying the top position among the individual associations with 21,000 members in 2015.
The majority of those with no religious affiliation in Germany do not belong to any relevant organization.
- Population shares
In Germany , the religion of employees is recorded by the state in order to determine the church tax to be levied . In addition, denomination is one of the demographic characteristics that are asked for in empirical studies (e.g. in a census ). In 1970 the Federal Statistical Office determined the figure of 3.9% without religious affiliation in the Federal Republic of Germany (Protestant 49%, Roman Catholic 44.6%, Muslim 1.3%). According to the Weltanschauung research group in Germany , the proportion of the population without a denomination rose to 11.4% by 1987. In the wake of reunification, the proportion in reunified Germany rose to 22.4%. The proportion of people without a denomination in the new federal states was significantly higher, since there - depending on the statistics - between 65% and 80% of the population do not belong to any denomination. The reason for this high value was the atheistic orientation of the GDR , which motivated professing Christians to flee and others to leave the church. From 32.3% in 2004, the proportion of people with no religion increased to 36.6% in 2013 and 37.8% in 2018.
- Current trends
Active religious policy was neglected or practiced due to the long prevailing postulate of increasing secularization . In the recent past there has been a reform of a constitutional law on religion at European level. Internationally as in the European context, an increasing importance and re-formation of religion (s) in a post-secular society is noted. The Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen states that some associations, such as the HVD, are doing considerable work, especially social work, compared to others, such as the freethinkers who are described as outdated and rather lethargic. The “new” freethinkers gathered in the HVD are no longer calling for the radical separation of church and state (or worldview) in the sense of traditional secularism , but instead claim the specific German state support for religious communities for themselves. In Berlin, among other places, the HVD maintains a number of social institutions and wants to set up a kind of “humanistic advice” in the Bundeswehr, analogous to church pastoral care. In some federal states, non-denominational associations have the status of a corporation under public law .
Austria
Article 14 of the Austrian constitution, in connection with the full freedom of belief and conscience, explicitly excludes any compulsion to practice one's religion. The status of non-denominational status and the associated possibility of leaving the church was introduced in Austria with the interdenominational law of 1868. In 2009, secular organizations were organized in the Central Council of Non-denominational , which sees itself as the nationwide representation of the interests of Austrian non-religious. In the context of the last official census in 2001, 963,263 Austrians declared themselves non-denominational, which corresponded to a population share of around 12% at the time. Since the religious affiliation of Austrians has not been recorded statistically since the 2011 register census, the current share of non-denominational people can only be estimated as the difference to the official membership figures of the religious communities. The Catholics make up an absolute majority of the population with 58.9%, the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church in Austria and the Republic was regulated in the Concordat from 1933, which was also recognized by the Second Republic in 1957 . In 2013, the initiative against church privileges organized an unsuccessful referendum which, among other things, called for the revocation of this concordat.
Switzerland
According to the federal authorities, 28.0 percent of the resident population over 15 years of age were non-denominational at the end of 2018, compared to 23.9 percent at the end of 2015. The number of non-denominational residents in Switzerland has increased significantly since 1970.
United Kingdom
In Great Britain the Anglican Church enjoys the status of a state religion , which in 1983 still belonged to a relative majority of 40% of the population. For a study in 2014, 16.2% of the respondents said they belonged to the Anglican Church, 8.7% were Catholics. 50.4% said they did not belong to any religion. The majority of the population (approx. 59%) saw themselves as Christians in the 2011 census. The discrepancy between church membership is explained by the fact that the only way to officially become a member of a church in the UK is usually to get involved in the life of the congregation beyond the occasional service.
United States
According to a poll published by ABC News in May 2018 , 21 percent of American citizens said they were not religious in 2017. In 2003 that was 12 percent. Young adults (18 to 29 years of age) and those politically left-wing liberals recorded the strongest increase in non-denominational status (16 percentage points ). The proportion of those who described themselves as Protestants fell from 50 to 36 percent in the same period, the proportion of Evangelicals by 8 percent, while the proportion of Catholics remained the same at 22 percent and the proportion of other Christian denominations rose from 11 to 14 percent. In 2017, 72 percent of Americans identified themselves as Christians (2003: 83 percent).
International
From more than 40 countries have more than 150 non-religious humanist and secular organizations for the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU English. International Humanist and Ethical Union , renamed in 2019 in Humanists International ) together.
The IHEU sees its task in representing and supporting non-denominational and non-religious people. The goal is a world in which human rights are respected and everyone can live a dignified life.
The Union has its seat in London. Andrew Copson has been President of IHEU since 2015 .
Web link
Individual evidence
- ^ The new Islamic denomination , Wiener Zeitung on December 17, 2010
- ↑ http://humanismus.de/wir-ueber-uns
- ↑ “To talk about the concrete belief is actually pointless effort for me”. Interview with Horst Groschopp , Director of the Humanist Academy Germany . In: Wissenrockt.de. June 1, 2011, archived from the original on February 16, 2015 ; accessed on February 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Proske: On the way to "Central Council of Non-denominational" . March 2005. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
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↑ as an example, Austria: legally recognized church or religious society and state-registered religious denomination community are two of the forms of recognized religions in Austria ;
cf. for further use also "For the time between leaving one religious community and entering another religious community, one is considered to be a person without confession (above)." in general on transferring to another religious community , help.gv.at - ↑ Article 63 para. 2 StV v St. Germain. With this provision, Art 16 StGG was derogated. Source used: Short commentary, p. 622
- ↑ Germans and the question of God Millions of church members do not believe in God , Focus Online, last seen on August 22, 2017.
- ↑ In the church service five times a year , last seen on May 29, 2017.
- ↑ a b Current affairs The extended arm of a ruling party - 15 years ago the GDR freethinkers were founded , Andreas Fincke EKD EZW
- ^ Humanistic press service : KORSO calls for a "non-denominational conference" , November 17, 2008
- ↑ REMID (2015)
- ^ Research group Weltanschauungen in Germany: Religious Affiliation, Germany Population 1970–2011 . January 2011. Archived from the original on October 15, 2015. Retrieved on February 16, 2015.
- ^ Research group Weltanschauungen in Germany: Religious affiliation, Germany population 2010-2013 . February 2014. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved on February 16, 2015.
- ↑ Religious Affiliations 2018. Accessed August 15, 2020 .
- ^ Politics of religion - public sphere - science: Studies on the new formation of religion in the present Martin Baumann, Frank Neubert, Theologischer Verlag, Zurich 2011.
- ↑ European Religious Policy Politics and Religion Volume 14, 2013, pp. 141–151. On the genesis of European religious constitutional law as a responsive order - or: The European bull's jump, Michael Droege
- ↑ European Religious Policy Politics and Religion Volume 14, 2013, pp. 175–196. On the way to a European religious constitutional law? - Current considerations from a German perspective, Ansgar Hense
- ↑ cf. Charismatic Pentecostal Christianity: Origin, Situation, Ecumenical Opportunities, Walter J. Hollenweger, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997
- ↑ Article 14 StGG. See also Art. 15 and 17 Para. 4 StGG,> Art. 63 para. 2 StV v St. Germain and Art 9 MRK. Source used: DDr. Heinz Mayer, Das Österreichische Bundes-Verfassungsrecht , 4th edition, Manzsche Verlags- und Universitätsbuchhandlung, 2007, hereinafter referred to briefly as: Brief Commentary, p. 618
- ↑ Entire legal regulation for the regulation of the interdenominational relationships of citizens , legal information system of the Federal Chancellery, version of January 16, 2017
- ↑ Statistics Austria: Population by religion and federal states 1951 to 2001 , accessed on February 19, 2015
- ↑ Religious affiliation since 1910 , Federal Statistical Office, accessed on March 12, 2020
- ↑ Religions , Federal Statistical Office, accessed on March 20, 2017
- ↑ More and more are non-denominational in the St. Galler Tagblatt of February 27, 2016
- ↑ British Social Attitudes Report 31 , p. 133 (PDF; 683 kB) accessed on May 29, 2017
- ^ Robert Booth: Census reveals decline of Christianity and rise in foreign born to one in eight. In: The Guardian , December 11, 2012.
- ↑ Allison de Jong: Protestants decline, more have no religion in a sharply shifting religious landscape (POLL). In: ABC News , May 10, 2018.
- ↑ IHEU exceeds 150 member organizations worldwide . iheu.org, accessed March 9, 2018
- ↑ About IHEU. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 25, 2013 ; accessed on January 28, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Executive Committee. Retrieved July 30, 2015 .
