Katarzyna Krawerenda-Wajda1
THE SPIRITUALITY OF CONTEMPORARY DANES –
BETWEEN PAGANISM AND SECULARISATION
Abstract
The topic of the article is the issue of the place of religion in contemporary Danish society. Not only Scandinavia, but all of Europe is subject to secularisation
processes. As a result of this process, the role of the Christian religion remains
limited or eliminated.
However this crisis of religion, does not affect the deeprooted desire for transcendence and individual search for it. In the case of Denmark, it appears in a return to neo-paganism – a reconstructionist religion that
attempts to return to the religion of the “nature” of ancient and early medieval
Germans. An example of this religion is the Ásatrú movement, dynamically developing in Denmark.
On the other hand, the need for transcendence is realised
by the phenomenon of spirituality, which is the need for self-transcending.
Both
of these directions are an expression of freedom, finding meaning, but also
a conscious search for identity in a dynamically changing Europe.
Key words: spirituality, religion, Denmark, crisis of Christianity
