National church

A Church of Denmark parish church in Holte, with the Dannebrog flying in its churchyard

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.[citation needed]

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".

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.

The concept of a national church remains alive in the Protestantism of United Kingdom 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. 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, Church of Greece, and Church of Iceland.

Countries and regions with national churches

Country National church Denomination %
 Armenia Armenian Apostolic Church Oriental Orthodox 92.5% (2017)
 Bulgaria Bulgarian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox 62.7% (2021)
 Cyprus Church of Cyprus Eastern Orthodox 89.1% (2011)
 Denmark Church of Denmark Lutheran 74.3% (2020)
 England Church of England Anglican 47.0% (2008; with Wales)
 Estonia Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Lutheran 9.91% (2011)
 Ethiopia Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Oriental Orthodox 43.5% (2007)
 Faroe Islands Church of the Faroe Islands Lutheran 79.7% (2019)
 Finland Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Orthodox Church of Finland Lutheran

Eastern Orthodox

65.2% (2022)

1.02% (2022)

 Georgia Georgian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox 83.4% (2014)
 Germany Evangelical Church in Germany

Roman Catholic Church

Protestant

Catholic

23.7% (2021), 26% (2021)
 Greece Church of Greece Eastern Orthodox 90% (2017)
 Iceland Church of Iceland Lutheran 59% (2022)
 Latvia Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia Lutheran 34.2% (2011)
 Liechtenstein Catholic Church Catholic 75.9% (2010)
 Malta Catholic Church Catholic 83% (2019)
 North Macedonia Macedonian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox 64.4% (2011)
 Norway Church of Norway Lutheran 69.91% (2018)
 Romania Romanian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox 81.9% (2011)
 Russia Russian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox 71% (2017)
 Scotland Church of Scotland Reformed 22% (2018)
 Serbia Serbian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox 84.59% (2011)
 Sweden Church of Sweden Lutheran 53.9% (2021)
 Tuvalu Church of Tuvalu Reformed 91%+ (2012)
 Ukraine Ukrainian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox 52% (2021)

Ethnic groups

Country Group National church Denomination
 Egypt Copts Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Oriental Orthodox
 Syria- Turkey Aramaeans Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch Oriental Orthodox
 Assyria Assyrians Assyrian Church of the East Church of the East
 Assyria Assyrians Chaldean Catholic Church Eastern Catholic
 Syria Aramaeans Syriac Catholic Church Eastern Catholic
 Lebanon Maronites Maronite Catholic Church Eastern Catholic
 Syria- Lebanon- Turkey Antiochian Greek Christians Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch Eastern Orthodox
Levant- Egypt Antiochian Greek Christians Melkite Greek Catholic Church Eastern Catholic
 Indonesia Toba Batak Batak Christian Protestant Church Lutheran

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.

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-02-06 10:36 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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