National church

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This article discusses 'national churches' in the ethnic sense. See state church for church organizations at a national level. For Catholic churches in Rome associated with various countries, see National churches in Rome.
A Church of Denmark parish church in Holte, with the Dannebrog flying in its kirkyard

A National church is a Christian church associated with a specific ethnic group or nation state. The idea was notably discussed during the 19th century, during the emergence of modern nationalism.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a draft discussing the question of church and state around 1828 wrote that

"a National Church might exist, and has existed, without [Christianity], because before the institution of the Christian Church - as [...] the Levitical Church in the Hebrew Constitution, [and] the Druidical in the Celtic, would suffice to prove".[1]

John Wordsworth, bishop of Salisbury, wrote about the National Church of Sweden in 1911, interpreting the Church of Sweden and the Church of England as national churches of the Swedish and the English peoples, respectively. Lake (1987) traces the development of Presbyterianism in 16th-century England from the status of a "godly minority" which saw itself surrounded by the corrupt or hostile mass of the population, into a "genuine national church".[2]

The concept of a national church remains alive in the Protestantism of England and Scandinavia in particular. While, in a context of England, the national church remains a common denominator for the Church of England, some of the Lutheran "folk churches" of Scandinavia, characterized as national churches in the ethnic sense as opposed to the idea of a state church, emerged in the second half of the 19th century, following the lead of Grundtvig.[3] However, in countries in which the state church (also known as the established church) has the following of the majority of citizens, the state church may also be the national church, and may be declared as such by the government e.g. Church of Denmark,[4] Church of Greece,[5] Church of Iceland.[6]

Countries

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Country National Church Denomination
 Albania Orthodox Church of Albania Eastern Orthodox
 Armenia Armenian Apostolic Church[7] Oriental Orthodox Christian
 Bulgaria Bulgarian Orthodox Church[8] Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Denmark Church of Denmark[9] Lutheran Christian
 England Church of England[10] Anglican Christian
 Egypt Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria[11] Oriental Orthodox Christian
 Estonia Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church[12] Lutheran Christian
 Ethiopia Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church[13] Oriental Orthodox Christian
 Faroe Islands Church of the Faroe Islands[14] Lutheran Christian
 Finland Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland[15] & Finnish Orthodox Church[16] Lutheran Christian & Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Georgia Georgian Orthodox Church[17] Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Germany Evangelical Church in Germany[18] & Catholic Church[18] Protestant Christian & Catholic Christian
 Greece Church of Greece[19] Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Iceland Church of Iceland[20] Lutheran Christian
 Ireland Church of Ireland Anglican Christian
 Lebanon Maronite Church[21] Catholic Christian
 Macedonia Macedonian Orthodox Church[22] Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Norway Church of Norway[23] Lutheran Christian
 Romania Romanian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Russia Russian Orthodox Church[24] Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Scotland Church of Scotland[25] Presbyterian Christian
 Serbia Serbian Orthodox Church[26] Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Sweden Church of Sweden[27] Lutheran Christian
 Tuvalu Church of Tuvalu[28] Reformed Christian
 Ukraine Ukrainian Orthodox Church[29] Eastern Orthodox Christian
 Wales Church in Wales[30] Anglican Christian

Criticism

Karl Barth denounced as heretical the tendency of "nationalizing" the Christian God, especially in the context of national churches sanctioning warfare against other Christian nations during World War I.[31]

See also

References

  1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. On the Constitution of the Church and State. Classic Books Company; 2001. ISBN 978-0-7426-8368-6. p. 59.
  2. Peter Lake, Maria Dowling, Protestantism and the national church in sixteenth century England, Taylor & Francis, 1987, ISBN, 9780709916819, ch. 8 (193ff.)
  3. Dag Thorkildsen, 'Scandinavia: Lutheranism and national identity', in World Christianities, c. 1815-1914, vol. 8 of The Cambridge history of Christianity, eds. Sheridan Gilley, Brian Stanley, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-81456-0, pp. 342–358.
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  31. Barth, Ethnics, ed. Braun, transl. Bromiley, New York, 1981, p. 305.
  • William Reed Huntington, A national church, Bedell lectures, Scribner's, 1897.