Scripture and Secularism: Mapping the Impact of the Bible on Conceptualizations of Europe

The fact that the Bible has had an impact on European culture is rarely disputed. Yet it is often unclear how interpretations of the Bible become influential. Funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (2022-2027), this project is a reception history inquiry into the ways the Bible has been seen as supportive of, and even foundational for, ideas and ideologies of secular Europe, since 1945. At the same time, this project questions notions of ‘secularity’ by investigating the continued use of biblical motifs and texts in modern contexts and publics that are usually considered secular. Politicians invoke biblical texts, as do political philosophers and theorists drawing on the Bible. The Bible appears in a range of settings and different media, often to prop up a diversity of political views, or to signify cultural heritage and national traditions. The project focus is mainly on European contexts. However, it also includes comparative work between the so-called global North and the global South, to clarify the way “Europe” cannot be understood as an isolated or natural entity.

'Scripture and Secularism' is a project that examines the continued relevance and impact of the Bible in Europe since 1945. Funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (2022-2027), it draws from different disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The aim is to investigate how processes of secularisation have impacted Bible-use, and in turn how interpretations of the Bible have impacted understandings of secularisation in Europe.