Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/308946 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations [ISSN:] 1573-7888 [Volume:] 35 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 479-490
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
Churches have a hard time defending their moral values in the political sphere of an ever more secular and liberal Western Europe. A largely neglected means of navigating this crisis is through the Church's role as a charitable provider during the implementation of morality policies. This paper examines this type of church involvement from a cross-national and cross-sectoral perspective. We describe the activities of Protestant churches in four morality policy areas in three European countries: Germany, England, and Denmark. The variation in religious engagement observed in these areas and countries appear to be driven by the churches' room to maneuver and their policy congruence with state goals, whereas governance capacities are secondary. Thus, the provision of social services can still serve as a means by which Protestant churches can exert moral authority, especially if these social services are related to moral issues.
Subjects: 
Welfare state
Churches
Protestantism
Religion
Morality policy
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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