The Encyclopedia of Protestantism: Volume 2 D–K
References and Further Reading
Allchin, Arthur Macdonald. N.F.S.Grundtvig: An Introduction to his Life and Work with an Afterword by Nicholas Lossky. Århus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1997.
Brohed, Ingmar, ed. “Church and People in Britain and Scandinavia.” In Bibliotheca Historico-Ecclesiastica Lundensis. Vol. 36. Lund, Sweden: University Press, 1996.
Grell, Ole Peter, ed. The Scandinavian Reformation. From Evangelical Movement to Institutionalisation of Reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Hope, Nicolas. “German and Scandinavian Protestantism 1700–1918.” In Oxford History of the Christian Church, edited by Henry and Owen Chadwick. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1995.
Lausten, Martin Schwarz. A Church History of Denmark. Translated by Frederick Cryer. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2002.
Malantschuk, Gregor.
Kierkegaard’s Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971.
MARTIN SCHWARZ LAUSTEN
A denomination is a religious organization (historically Protestant) that emphasizes the voluntaristic and inclusive nature of ecclesial bodies. Emerging in Europe and North America during the early modern era, the denomination has been historically the preeminent ecclesial understanding of religious bodies in the UNITED STATES. Scholars disagree as to the usefulness of the term outside of the specific American context. Students of American religion see denominationalism as largely peculiar to the religious world of the United States (although they accept its use in other cases where both ecclesiastical bodies and the larger society bear parallels with the American experience). Sociologists have been on the whole more willing to use the term in a less specific usage.
All agree that denominations stand over against the historic categories of church and sect. In the typology established by MAX WEBER and ERNST TROELTSCH, a CHURCH was understood as being coterminous with its society and inclusive in membership. A sect, in turn, was seen as a voluntary religious community at odds with the larger society and imposing strict requirements on its followers. In contrast to both, a denomination is a voluntary community, formally separate from the state, but more inclusive in its membership requirements than a sect and less antagonistic to its host society. Likewise, denominationalism presupposes a certain social parity or equality among religious communities vis-à-vis the larger society. Whereas the church/sect division historically emerged out of a milieu of established state religion, in which churches were part of the established order and sects were outsiders, denominationalism has flourished best in the absence of a state church. Finally, in contrast with both churches and sects, a denomination does not normally posit an absolute or exclusive claim to truth. A distinctive mark of denominations is that although they are competitive with each other vis-à-vis membership, they nonetheless can cooperate with one another for broader purposes. Indeed, some have argued that the very term “denomination” suggested the implicit recognition that particular religious communities are in some senses but members of a larger group “denominated” by a particular name.
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