Nordic Majority Churches as Agents in the Welfare State: Critical Voices and/or Complementary Providers?

The article compares the role in welfare provision of the majority churches in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Nordic welfare state model implies a large public sector and a correspondingly small contribution to welfare provision by the voluntary sector, of which church-based welfare activities, as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Temenos
Authors: Pessi, Anne Birgitta (Author) ; Angell, Olav Helge 1945- (Author) ; Pettersson, Per 1952- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [publisher not identified] 2009
In: Temenos
Year: 2009, Volume: 45, Issue: 2, Pages: 207-234
Further subjects:B Church
B Sweden
B Norway
B Welfare
B Finland
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
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Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:The article compares the role in welfare provision of the majority churches in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Nordic welfare state model implies a large public sector and a correspondingly small contribution to welfare provision by the voluntary sector, of which church-based welfare activities, as defined in the article, are part. The data used in the article are derived from a European project, ‘Welfare and religion in a European perspective’, concerning the role of European majority churches as agents of welfare provision. The findings show many similarities between the Nordic cases, but also some differences. In all cases it is clear that both the church and the public authorities take the Nordic welfare state model more or less for granted. The Swedish and Norwegian cases, unlike the Finnish one, show that the public authorities at the municipal level are fairly unfamiliar with local church-based welfare activities. The article raises topical questions as to the role of the Nordic churches in social policy and as moral authorities in contemporary society.
ISSN:2342-7256
Contains:Enthalten in: Temenos
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.33356/temenos.7901