The more religious nature of the United States is often attributed to having a religious free-market where no denomination is nationally established, leaving churches to compete for members. So does this mean that if European countries follow the U.S. and disestablish their state churches that Europe might become more religious? Not according to two Dutch scholars, whose study quantifies other factors-including increased participation of women in the labor force and increased religious pluralism-as more responsible for religious decline across the Atlantic.
A sociologist and a theologian at Tilberg University in the Netherlands examined data from the European Values Study, a series of surveys conducted in almost all European countries between 1999 and 2000, to explore how characteristics of individuals and countries influence individual religious beliefs and practices. They found, among factors at the individual level, that women in paid employment were significantly less religious (both in terms of belief and practice) than their peers who stayed at home. In fact, the level of religious belief among employed women was more like those of men, who were found to be less religious than women overall. These consistent patterns were found in almost all countries and were statistically significant (p<.001) in multivariate tests.
Looking at the characteristics of countries, the study found that religious pluralism as measured by the Herfindahl Index-meaning the more religions in a country and the more evenly distributed their market shares-as well as the degree to which people trust the churches in their country, were each significantly related to religious belief and to religious practice: The greater the religious diversity of a country, the lower the levels of individual belief and practice; whereas higher levels of public confidence in the church increased each of the two measures.
While differences in the extent of religious belief and practice were found among Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox, all of these Christians were found to be consistently less religious in both measures than were adherents of "other" religions.
The researchers concede that identifying a pattern to their findings may not be easy. But their analysis regarding the effects of female employment and religious diversity in Europe offers lessons that Americans would be wise to ponder.
