De emotionalisering van het Nederlandse religieuze landschap: een explorerend onderzoek naar de "feminisatie" van religieuze beleving

Abstract

Recent statistics by The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (De Hart, 2014) show a shift of believers from traditional Protestant churches to the relatively new and modern Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Religion is declining, but these latter churches are growing fast. According to the feminization theory – for the first time formulated by Barbara Welter (1973) - Protestantism has become more emotional, sentimental and anti-intellectual since the nineteenth-century. In other words, according to this theory Protestantism has become more “feminine”. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to investigate the feminization theory and to identify to what extent this theory can contribute to better understanding of changes – such as secularization, modernization and gender equality – in Dutch Protestantism of the twenty-first century.

Part I of this thesis offers an in-depth introduction on the subject, sub-questions and research methods used in this study. Part II offers a theoretical and empirical background in order to answer the first three sub-questions. Therefore a literature study is conducted on the history of the feminization theory (chapter 3), on the recent changes in the Dutch Christian landscape (chapter 4) and on theory about religious practices and media use (chapter 5). The latter is supported by empirical observations at the Sunday services of two churches, namely the relatively young Pentecostal church Best Life Church Utrecht and the traditional Dutch Reformed Church Nederlandse Gereformeerde Kerk Utrecht. Part III critically evaluates whether feminization of Dutch Protestantism can indeed be noted and whether the use of a gendered term like “feminization” is still appropriate in a century where ideas about masculinity and femininity are becoming more fluid (chapter 6).

In conclusion, this thesis argues that the feminization theory indeed identifies an “emotionalisation”, “sentimentalisation” or “evangelicalisation” of Dutch Protestantism of the twenty-first century. This mainly implies that it is advised not to use the gendered term “feminization” in research on religious experiences and practices. Only when gender is explicitly important in research – think of quantitative research - one could speak about “feminization”.