social co compass 50(2), 2003, 191±202

Inger FURSETH

Secularization and the Role of Religion in State Institutions The author examines the decline of religion thesis and the privatization thesis by studying the role of religion in two state institutions in Norway, namely prisons and the military. Focus is directed towards the ®eld of relations between the Church of Norway's military and prison service chaplaincies and representatives of other faiths, especially Islam. Data consist of interviews with prison chaplains and representatives from the Chaplaincy Norwegian Army, imams, as well as public policy documents. This study shows that there are no signs of a decrease in the Church's formal functions within the military or the prisons. In addition, military and prison chaplains act as intermediaries between the state, ocial representatives of the Muslim faith communities, and Muslim prison inmates, conscripts, and military personnel, and they negotiate between these parties. This study concludes that the role of the Church of Norway in military and prison chaplaincies is a clear illustration of the continuing intertwining of religion and state in Norway. L'auteure examine la theÁse du deÂclin et de la privatisation de la religion en eÂtudiant le roÃle de la religion dans deux institutions d'Etat en NorveÁge: les prisons et l'armeÂe. Elle montre qu'il n'y a pas de signes d'une eÂvacuation des fonctions formelles de la religion dans ces deux institutions mais qu'au contraire le roÃle de l'Eglise de NorveÁge aÁ travers les aumoÃneries est une claire illustration de la continuite des relations entre la religion et l'Etat.

The secularization thesis has been one of sociology's most enduring, theoretical frameworks. Although secularization as a concept was ®rst used to describe the expropriation, usually by the state, of property and land of the church after the Protestant Reformation, it came to designate the process of appropriation by secular institutions of functions that traditionally were in the hands of ecclesiastical institutions. Systematic formulations about the process of secularization are found in the work of Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, but it was not until the 1960s that several theories of secularization developed, most notably by Peter Berger, Thomas Luckmann, and Bryan Wilson. Other sociologists systematically analyzed the use and the meaning of the concept (for an overview, see Dobbelaere, 1980). The religious scene in the 1980s with the development of new religious movements and the eruption of religion into the public sphere led to discussion and 0037±7686[200306]50:2;191±202;033216 www.sagepublications.com

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critique of the claims and validity of the secularization theory (Casanova, 1994). Following Casanova (1994: 19±20), the theory of secularization consists of three theses. First, the central thesis of the theory is the conceptualization of modernization as processes of di€erentiation and emancipation of the secular spheres from the religious sphere. Two other sub-theses attempt to explain the result of this process of secularization. One sub-thesis postulates the decline and the eventual disappearance of religion, and the other claims that secularization would bring about the privatization and the marginalization of religion in the modern world. Although few scholars, if any, dispute the actual historical processes of secularization consisting of functional di€erentiation, there has been a confusion of these processes with the anticipated consequences which these processes were supposed to have on religion. For example, it is a central tenet of many accounts of secularization that the power of all state and national churches was weakened by the growth of state agencies for delivering services which had previously been the responsibility of the church. Also, scholars who formulated the privatization of religion thesis (such as Thomas Luckmann and Niklas Luhmann) have concluded that religion in the modern world has found refuge in the private sphere in the sense that religious beliefs have become subjective and institutionalized religion has been de-politicized (see Dobbelaere, 1980). The following discussion centers on the decline of religion thesis and the privatization thesis. By taking a look at some features of the religious landscape in Norway, we ®nd that in 1998 the country's population was approximately 4.5 million people, of whom a little more than 86 percent were member of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church (Morvik, 1999: 136). In early 2000 Pentecostal congregations had 45,006 members, Roman-Catholics 42,598, the Evangelical-Lutheran Free Church 21,163, Methodists 13,130, and Baptists 10,352. However, the largest religious community outside the Church of Norway is Islam, which had 49,633 registered members in 2000 (Statistisk SentralbyraÊ, 2001). On the one hand, studies (Repstad, 1996) show that indi€erence to traditional Lutheran religion is increasing, whereas, on the other, membership in non-Lutheran Christian churches, such as Pentecostalism, and in non-Christian religions, such as Islam, is growing (Statistisk SentralbyraÊ, 2001). The result is that the religious landscape, which has been characterized by a dominant national Lutheran Church and a variety of non-Lutheran churches for more than a century, is beginning to reveal areas of indi€erence combined with more religious diversity. In the eyes of many, these changes are the products of the choice of individuals, who have responded to processes such as modernization, rationalization, and individuation. Although such a description may be accurate, it does not provide a complete picture. Individual action, including action having to do with religious beliefs and practices, is a€ected by the social and historical contexts within which individuals ®nd themselves. Thus, there is a need to look at collective structures that provide opportunities and constraints within which individuals act. Most of the studies of religion mentioned above have focused on the beliefs, values, attitudes, and behavior of individuals. The concern with individual beliefs and actions is important,

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but it gives little information about the relations of power between various religious collectives or on relations between them and other social processes. Although many sociological studies of religion have a tendency to focus entirely on individual beliefs and actions, there is a tradition within the sociology of religion to analyze the structural setting of religion in the public sphere, as found in studies of public religion (Casanova, 1994) and civil religion (Bellah and Hammond, 1980). In fact, several Scandinavian studies conducted in the 1980s concluded that religion was present in the public sphere (see Gustafsson, 1985). Likewise, studies of the Norwegian society during the period 1905±80s revealed that religion was present in public rituals, such as the opening and the dissolution of Stortinget (the parliament), during the National Day celebrations, and during the inauguration and consecration ceremonies of the King (Furseth, 1994). These sociological studies show that religion still plays a role in the public sphere in several modern societies, including Norway. Indeed, the immigration processes experienced by most Western European societies, especially that of a growing Muslim minority, have led to increased emphasis on the public role of religion in modern societies (Shadid and van Kongingsveld, 1996). The management of religious diversity has become a topic of public and academic debate (Spickard, 1999). Norwegian scholars have also shown interest in Muslims (Leirvik, 1990; éstberg, 1998; Vogt, 2000). In the United Kingdom, a recent social science study analyzed the role of religion in a public institution, namely prisons (Beckford and Gilliat, 1998). In this way, the presence of Islam in Europe has led to a growing scholarly interest in issues having to do with secularization, or more speci®cally, the growth and decline of religion in modern societies and its role in the public and the private spheres. This article analyzes the decline of religion thesis and the privatization thesis by studying the role of religion in two state institutions in Norway, namely prisons and the military. Prisons and the military constitute two types of state institutions where the role of religion can be studied in a way that can be seen as analogous to the greater society. Here, focus is directed on the structural setting of religion that provides opportunities for one religious minority, namely Muslims, to practice their religion within these institutions. As noted, the largest religious community outside the Church of Norway in early 2000 was Islam with 49,633 registered members. Organized Islam emerged in the early 1970s, and altogether, in 1998 there were 59 Islamic communities (Vogt, 2000: 49±56). The main in¯ux of immigrants to Norway from Muslim countries come from Pakistan, Bosnia, Turkey, Iran, Somalia, Iraq, and Morocco. As elsewhere in Europe, there is today a diversity of Muslims with respect to national background, local and linguistic divisions, characteristics of socio-economic di€erences, devotional preferences, and settlement histories. According to the Norwegian Act relating to Individual Registration, dated June, 1978, a license is required to register information on race, religion, and political aliation, hence no statistics are available on the number of Muslims in the military or prison system. However, the Ministry of Defence

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estimated that in 1998 approximately 3 percent of all the 18,100 Norwegian conscripts were of non-Western immigrant origin. In the same year, there was a total of 1,945 inmates in Norwegian prisons. The number of Muslims in prison varies greatly, but estimates suggest that they average around 20 percent in the three largest prisons in the country (Furseth, 2001). These estimates suggest that the Muslim population in prisons and the military is now of a considerable size. Because the age structure in the population of immigrant descent is younger than that of the majority population, there is also reason to believe that this population will increase in the years ahead. The growing Muslim population in these types of institution poses challenges to the administration of religion and therefore, highlights the collective structures within which people in these state institutions act. In order to examine the role of religion within the prisons and the military, we will analyze the system of the Church of Norway's prison and military chaplaincies. If it is true that religion in Norway is declining and eventually will disappear, we would expect to ®nd that the power of the Church of Norway, like that of all state and national churches, is weakened within these institutions. This has been a central tenet of many accounts of secularization. Furthermore, if religion has retreated into the private sphere, we would expect this development to result in a situation where the collective dimension of religion would be decreasing, so that religious care within the prisons and the military is not considered a matter for the prison or the military authorities, but a matter for each individual prisoner or military personnel. On this basis, we will examine the role of prison and military chaplains in everyday life. The aim of this study is to highlight the structural setting of religion in prisons and the military. By doing so, we hope to gain more information about the relations of power between various religious collectivities in Norway. Thereby, some social, organizational, and cultural factors relating to the role of religion in modern Norway will be revealed. This article is organized in the following way. First, research questions are posed and data are discussed. Then follows a description of the administration of religion in prisons and the Norwegian Army, before the role of the military and prison chaplains is analyzed. In the conclusion, the ®ndings in this study will be discussed in relation to the decline of religion thesis and the privatization thesis. Research Questions and Data As mentioned above, Beckford and Gilliat (1998) conducted a study of the relations between the Church of England and other faiths in the Prison Service Chaplaincy of England and Wales. They found a distinct statutory and customary intertwining of the Church of England and the Prison Service of England and Wales. Following Beckford and Gilliat, this article will, ®rst, give a historical description of the administration of religious life within the Norwegian Army and the prisons. Traditionally, the responsibility for administrating religious life has rested mainly with the clergy of the Church

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of Norway. We ask: is the power of the Church of Norway weakening within these institutions? If this is so, we would expect to ®nd a progressive withdrawal of the Church's functions within the prisons and the military. Second, rather than just studying the formal role of the chaplains, this study attempts to analyze the role of prison and military chaplains in everyday life in Norwegian prisons and the Army. Beckford and Gilliat (1998: 15) found that the Anglican prison chaplains acted as ``gatekeepers'' as far as the representatives of other faith communities were concerned. They focused on two facets of the ``gatekeeper'' role, namely that of facilitation and brokerage. By ``facilitation'' they mean the di€erent ways by which the Anglican chaplains enable members of other faiths to practice their religion. By ``brokerage'' they mean acting as an intermediary between two other parties. Here, the question is posed whether facilitation and brokerage on behalf of other faith communities also constitute parts of the job of Norwegian Lutheran military and prison chaplains. The data consist of information about public policies relating to religious minorities in Norwegian prisons and the Army, combined with a small number of interviews. Regarding the Army, one person from the General Headquarters Personnel Sta€ was interviewed, as were two people from the head oce of the Norwegian Army Chaplaincy. The prison system is not as centralized as the Norwegian Army and therefore, information about the religious care of Muslim inmates was compiled by interviews with three prison chaplains, who were selected because they worked in the three prisons with the largest Muslim populations in the country. Interviews were also conducted with the previous General Secretary of Islamsk RaÊd Norge (Islamic Council of Norway), who is presently serving as an imam in one prison, as well as the imam at the Islamic Cultural Centre. The interviews were open and structured according to an interview guide. A limited amount of resources were set aside for this project. The grant received by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) covered only the expenses for a three-month study. For that reason, prison inmates and military personnel were not interviewed. Thus, this study is not exhaustive, and there is a need to conduct a much broader study of this ®eld.

The Administration of Religious Life in the Norwegian Army and the Prisons According to the Norwegian Constitution of 1814, the Evangelical-Lutheran religion is the religion of the state, and the King is the head of the Church. The Constitution states that two-thirds of the members of government must be members of the Church. Although freedom of religion was introduced in the very same Constitution, it is undeniable that the established Church of Norway has and still enjoys powers, privileges, and advantages to which no other religious organization has been granted access. In the following, we shall take a look at the role of the Church of Norway in administrating religious life, ®rst, in the Army and, then, in the prisons.

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The history of providing religious care for military personnel in Norway goes as far back as the Vikings, when Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldsson were accompanied by a king's men's bishop during their Christianizing raids (Stai, 1999: 174). In modern times, we ®nd that four years after the Constitution was introduced, Tjenestereglement for den Kongelige norske Armee (Service Regulations for the Royal Norwegian Army) were issued; Chapter 1 described the church order and church services and Section 33.1 stated the instructions for the military chaplains. In 1945 a church oce was established within the Ministry of Defence. On the initiative of the Church of Norway, the military chaplain service became a separate unit in 1953. It was placed under the supervision of the Bishop of Oslo, although it was still part of the military organization (KirkeraÊdet, 1975; Lagset, 1998: 183±185). The chaplaincy consisted of permanent military chaplains as well as conscripts serving as military chaplains. In the post-war period, theologians from various Christian denominations, who were serving compulsory military service, functioned as chaplains under the supervision of the Bishop of Oslo in the Church of Norway, although the permanent positions were limited to chaplains from the Church of Norway and the Evangelical-Lutheran Free Church. In 1996 the chaplaincy service was reorganized to increase the number of permanent positions, and the number of conscript chaplains correspondingly declined. The chaplaincy service distinguishes between military chaplains who serve in the peace organization and those who are mobilized in situations of war. The peace organization consists of the professional military chaplains. In the following, the term military chaplains refers to those who serve in the peace organization. In 1999, the chaplaincy service had altogether 71 chaplains, of whom 46 were ocers, 21 were conscript chaplains, 2 were engaged in foreign missions (Bosnia), and 1 was hired for a project position (Stai, 1999: 174± 175). The majority are ordained chaplains from the Church of Norway. One chaplain belongs to the Evangelical-Lutheran Free Church, two Catholic conscripts began to serve as military chaplains in the fall of 2001, and a Catholic priest is available for Catholic conscripts. Although other churches have been included in the chaplaincy, the Church of Norway still plays a dominant role. If we take a look at other institutions, we ®nd that, historically, the Church of Norway has provided services to the old institutions of prisons, hospitals, and asylums through the local clergy. According to Canon law of 1537, the local clergy was to visit prisoners who were sentenced to death. In the 1700s new forms of punishments were introduced. Replacing corporal punishments and ®nes, imprisonment now became the common punishment for felonies. New jails were constructed, most of them fully equipped with chapels. Clergymen held services and provided con®rmation education for inmates. The prison chaplaincy as we know it today dates back to 1883 when Kristiania county jail hired the ®rst prison chaplain in a full-time position (Fridhov et al., 1994: 10±12). The chaplaincy service was relatively unorganized until the end of World War II, when the prison chaplains were hired by the Ministry of Justice, and the Bishop of Oslo became their superior in clerical matters. On 7 February 2000, the responsibility for the prison

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chaplaincy service was transferred to the Ministry of Education, Research, and Church A€airs, and the authority for hiring prison chaplains was given to the council of the local diocese (Fridhov et al., 1994: 17, 27; Norges Kristne RaÊd, 2000: 2). In 1994, only seven full-time prison chaplain positions existed, but this has now been increased to 18 positions. The role of the prison chaplain has changed from being a representative of the punitive authority to that of a spiritual adviser. The prison chaplaincy is considered to be an integral part of the work of Church of Norway. This means that clergymen who have been quali®ed for service in the Church of Norway are hired as chaplains, and that spiritual advice, sermons, and ecclesiastical acts are to take place according to the confession and the order of the Church. Although all prison chaplains in Norwegian prisons are from the Church of Norway, approximately 30 communities of faith were active in more than 35 prisons in 1994 (Fridhov et al., 1994: 27). Five communities were particularly active: various Pentecostal congregations, the Salvation Army, the Prison Fellowship, the Blue Cross, and the Roman Catholic Church. The chaplains we interviewed also told us that they had frequent contacts with imams, either as a result of requests made by inmates or because they were planning to celebrate a Muslim holiday. Attempts were also being made in the two largest prisons to arrange imam visits on a regular basis. One prison chaplain has managed to arrange Friday prayers on a relatively regular basis, led by one of the imams we interviewed. Another prison chaplain has arranged for visits by an imam who has voiced interest in working with troubled Pakistani youth. In both cases, the arrangements are on a voluntary basis, and are not salaried positions. Whereas visits by Christian ministers and groups in Norwegian prisons are an established tradition, there are, in contrast, few established arrangements for visits by imams to Muslim inmates. The Church of Norway remains the most representative religious organization of the Norwegian nation, and we have seen that its dominant position in the military and prison chaplaincies has not changed much, in spite of the growing proportion of prisoners and military personnel who either are not members of any religion or who belong to other faiths. There are no signs that there is a withdrawal of the Church's formal functions within the Army or the prisons. Instead, the military and the prison chaplaincies have experienced growth in recent years. Facilitation and Brokerage We mentioned above that Beckford and Gilliat (1998:15) found in their study of religion in British prisons that the Anglican prison chaplains acted as ``gatekeepers'' as far as the representatives of other faith communities were concerned. Here, the question is posed whether facilitation and brokerage on behalf of other faith communities also constitute parts of the job of Norwegian Lutheran military and prison chaplains. We will, ®rst, focus on the military chaplains before we turn to the prison chaplains.

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According to the Ministry of Defence's Directives concerning ethnic and religious minorities introduced in 1992, the Chaplain General and General Headquarters are responsible for acquiring knowledge about ethnic and religious minorities in a Norwegian context. In spite of the fact that the academic study of non-Christian faiths is not prominent among military chaplains and that their knowledge of Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and the Bahai faith is based on their own individual studies or a result of in-service training, attempts are now being made to provide more systematic studies of other religions in the military. Another aspect of the responsibility given to General Headquarters and the Chaplain General is to enforce the regulations from 1992 concerning ethnic minorities. In November 1993 General Headquarters sent out additional regulations, stating that the military chaplain is the professional adviser for each unit. It is stipulated that on enlistment, each soldier must specify his wishes and needs with respect to ethnic minority issues, such as uniforms, food, holidays, and so on. This is to take place in consultation with the military chaplain. Military documents for travels and leaves of absence are issued by the unit in cooperation with the military chaplain. It is clear in the regulations that military chaplains are expected to spend time enabling members of other faith groups to practice their religion. The third aspect of the responsibility given to General Headquarters and the Chaplain General is that these bodies are to initiate contact with other communities of faith. The additional regulations from General Headquarters from 1993 speci®ed that the chaplaincy service had to establish permanent procedures for establishing contact with various religious communities. It is their responsibility to ensure that they receive an annual overview of religious holidays and that these are given to the unit commander. In this way, the chaplaincy service and the military chaplains act as intermediaries between the Army and the various non-Christian communities of faith. The military chaplains negotiate between these two parties. This is an important aspect of their role, because the relationship between the Lutheran Chaplaincy and the other faith communities rests on the responsibilities of the chaplaincy service. By looking at the prisons, we ®nd that the Prison Regulations from 1961 specify the rights of religious minorities in Section 55.2, which stipulates the right of inmates who belong to organized religious communities outside the Church of Norway to have visits from ministers or spiritual advisers from their communities. These visits will take place without supervision. Here, it is stated that questions of control in cases of visits from spiritual advisers who do not belong to organized faith communities is decided by the Director ``in agreement with the institution's chaplain''. The Prison Director has the overall responsibility for the religious care of minority inmates. However, the prison chaplains function as advisers for the Prison Directors on religious matters. The chaplains we spoke to told us that in everyday life the responsibility for the religious care of inmates is usually delegated to the prison chaplains. It is important to be aware of the fact that there are a range of things which chaplains do regularly for all prisoners, such as counseling, contact with

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families, visits to cells, and so forth (Fridhov et al., 1994: 18±19). Some activities are directed at inmates with a Christian background, whereas other aspects of their work are speci®cally aimed at Muslim inmates. In the following, we will attempt to look at some of these activities. Church services take place every Sunday in the prison chapels. Sometimes additional services are held during the week, for example, when the Salvation Army or other Christian groups come to visit. One of the functions prison chaplains have for all prisoners is counseling. The chaplains said that they were used as counselors by inmates of di€erent faiths: Muslims, Orthodox, Catholics, and Buddhists. We attempted to ascertain which role the prison chaplains saw themselves as having when it came to religious worship of non-Christian inmates. The information provided during the interviews suggests that the prison chaplains had di€erent views of their role as facilitators in this area. One chaplain stated that, ``We contact the imam or the imam's oce. Then, we feel that we have done our bit, and that the prison must take the responsibility, because we feel that it's wrong to go around and announce the meeting, put up posters, and even invite inmates, and be practical facilitators.'' The other two chaplains viewed their role as facilitators di€erently. They reported that they initiated contact with imams so that Friday prayers could be held. These chaplains announced the prayers, also during Christian meetings or church services. Indeed, Muslim inmates were dependent upon these chaplains to have religious worship, and these two chaplains continued to work for a permanent arrangement so that Friday prayers could be held on a regular basis. Whereas the observance of Ramadan and the celebration of its conclusion, Id al-Fitr, appear to take place in all three prisons, the role of the prison chaplains in these arrangements also tends to di€er. In one case, the inmates took the initiative to celebrate Id. Here, the prison chaplain played a more passive role. In the other two prisons, the chaplains took a more active part in helping Muslim inmates to celebrate religious holidays. These chaplains reported that they initiated contact with imams and other representatives of the Muslim faith in preparation for the holidays. They also contacted people to bring food, made arrangements to ®nd a suitable room for the celebration, and informed inmates. When it came to serving prescribed food for religious minorities, these arrangements were made more or less without the active participation of the prison chaplains. Two prisons had established arrangements for serving alternative food. However, food was a controversial issue in one prison and, in this case, the prison chaplain took active part in the negotiations between the inmates and the prison management to solve the issue (Dagsavisen 11/12±99). Finally, all three prison chaplains initiate contact with ocial representatives of the Muslim faith. They have lists of names of local imams they call to arrange Friday prayers or visits during religious holidays. All three chaplains said that they had been in contact with several imams during recent years. These chaplains also saw it as their duty to contact imams upon an inmate's request. In fact, one chaplain has played a very active part in establishing a permanent arrangement for an imam to visit the prison on a regular basis.

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He has been in contact with the Ministry of Justice and met with representatives for Islamsk RaÊd Norge (Islamic Council of Norway). To conclude, these prison chaplains have crucial roles as facilitators in the sense that they enable members of other faiths to practice their religion in prison. It is also a common practice that the prison chaplains initiate contact with representatives of other communities of faith on behalf of inmates with another confessional or religious faith. The intention is that they will contact and facilitate visits in the prisons with the pastor, priest, rabbi or imam. They function as intermediaries between inmates of the Muslim faith, the prison management, ocial representatives of the Muslim faith, and the Ministry of Justice, and they negotiate between these parties. Conclusion This article has analyzed the role of religion in Norwegian prisons and the military. Rather than focusing on the beliefs, values, and behavior of individuals, the study attempted to analyze the structural setting of religion in state institutions. It has been a central tenet of many accounts of secularization that the power of all national churches has been weakened by the growth of state agencies to deliver services which had previously been the responsibility of the church. Therefore, this study attempted to see if the power of the Church of Norway was weakening in the prisons and the military. The Church of Norway remains the most representative religious organization of the Norwegian nation, and this study shows that its dominant position in the military and prison chaplaincies has not changed much, in spite of the fact that a growing proportion of prisoners and military personnel either are not members of any religion or belong to other faiths. Although there are some openings for non-Lutheran clergymen to serve as military chaplains, and there are visiting ministers of other faiths, including imams, in Norwegian prisons, there are no signs that there is a withdrawal of the Church's formal functions within the military or the prisons. On the contrary, the military and the prison chaplaincies have experienced growth during the last decade. Another central tenet within secularization theory is that religion has retreated into the private sphere. If this is so, we would expect to ®nd that the collective dimension of religion would be diminishing. On this basis, we examined the role of prison and military chaplains in everyday life. This study concluded that the military and the prison chaplains have crucial roles as facilitators in the sense that they enable members of other faiths to practice their religion. The military chaplaincy service and the military chaplains also act as intermediaries between the Norwegian Army and the various non-Christian communities of faith, and they negotiate between the Army and these communities. Likewise, the prison chaplains function as intermediaries between inmates of Muslim faith, the prison director, the Ministry of Justice, and they negotiate between these parties. In fact, the relationship between the Lutheran military and prison chaplaincy and the other

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religious communities rests on the responsibilities of the Lutheran chaplaincy service. This study supports the ®ndings of Beckford and Gilliat in the sense that facilitation and brokerage on behalf of other religious communities also constitute part of the job of Norwegian military and prison chaplains. The system of military and prison chaplaincy demonstrates that the collective dimension of religion in the Norwegian Army and the prisons is not decreasing in the sense that religious care within the prisons and the military is considered to be only a matter for each individual prison inmate, conscript or military personnel. Instead, it is considered to be a matter for the prison and the military authorities. The military and the prison chaplains are appointed by an agency of the state to deliver pastoral and religious care to conscripts, military personnel, and prison inmates. Their services are regulated by these agencies and they are ®nanced by the public purse. In addition, the activities of religious collectives (such as prison and military chaplaincy organizations) and religious groups of people (such as Muslims) take place in settings to which most members of Norwegian society have access by obligation rather than by choice. Religious activities in prisons and the military are public, then, because they are visible, collective, and available on demand to all people who enter the prison or the military systems. Religious activities in prisons and the military are also public because they have to do with legally constituted authorities. Chaplaincies in prisons and the military are public in this sense since they are being organized by bodies authorized by statute on behalf of the entire population. The ascendancy of the Church of Norway over military and prison chaplaincy is a clear illustration of the continuing intertwining of religion and the Norwegian state. However, in light of the fact that church and state recently separated in Sweden and that a new report by the Council of the Church (KirkeraÊdet, 2002) recommended a similar separation in Norway, it remains to be seen whether this intertwining will continue in the future.

REFERENCES Beckford, James A. and Gilliat, Sophie (1998) Religion in Prison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bellah, Robert N. and Hammond, Phillip E. (1980) Varieties in Civil Religion. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. Casanova, Jose (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Dobbelaere, Karel (1980) ``Secularization: A Multi-Dimensional Concept'', Current Sociology 29(2): 1±153. Fridhov, Inger Marie et al. (1994) Organiseringen av prestetjenesten i fengslene [The Organization of the Chaplain Services in Prisons]. Oslo: Justisdepartementet and Kirke-, utdannings- og forskningsdepartementet. Furseth, Inger (1994) ``Civil Religion in a Low Key: The Case of Norway'', Acta Sociologica 37: 39±54. Furseth, Inger (2001) Muslims in Norwegian Prisons and the Defence, KIFO Report no. 15. Trondheim: Tapir.

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