Cultural Protestantism and Nordic Religious Education: An incision in the historical layers behind the Nordic welfare state model

Is there a Nordic model for Religious Education? The article explores how Cultural Protestantism and Liberal Theology influenced the ways in which Religious Education developed in Sweden, Denmark and Norway from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century as part of the transformation of the relations between church and state. Situated between history of education and curriculum, church history and transnational welfare state history, the article focuses on three transnationally acting theologians, early historians and psychologists of religion and public debaters who involved themselves in the question of education, namely Nathan Söderblom (1866-1931), Edvard Lehmann (1862-1930) and Eivind Berggrav (1884-1959), who serve as prisms for the transnational historical analysis of what takes place between states and social fields. The article suggests that Nordic Cultural Protestantism contributed to a model of religious education which in complex ways combines secularization in the meaning of division of the church-state relation with sacralization of the state and its so-called culture.