About the research
As a country with low levels of religious involvement as well as relatively high degrees of ethnic and religious pluralism, Britain is an interesting country in which to explore the importance of Christianity for national identity.
This study draws on the British Social Attitudes Survey to understand how different forms of national identity relate to religion, and to what extent religion is an important part of national identity in Britain today. In sample surveys, less than half of the British population identify themselves as belonging to a Christian religion, and only a minority of these are practicing their faith. Nevertheless, nearly a quarter of the population think it is important to be Christian to be truly British. The study also explores different forms of national identity and how they are related to religiosity. The findings indicate that Christianity has significance for national identity primarily as a proxy for ethnic identity.
In short, this study illustrates that Christianity is part of the national identity of many people in Britain, but this is not a direct consequence of their faith. A view of Christianity as important for being British is frequently coupled with low levels of religious belief and practice, whereas those who regularly attend church are no more likely than others to associate national identity with religion. The shortage of similar studies of religion and national identity in countries with high levels of secularisation is particularly notable and encourages interest in these findings if one considers the reassertion of religious issues in public debates about immigration and multiculturalism in western Europe.
Methodology
The analysis is based on the aforementioned questionnaire data and on another BSA survey module on national identity that covers questions about what contexts and situations make the respondent feel more British, as well as attitudes to immigration and ethnic minorities. Factor analysis was used to identify different dimensions of national identity. Finally, the extracted factors were subsequently used in a binary logistic regression model to analyse which forms national identity influence thinking that Christianity is important for being British.
Publications
This research was featured in the following academic journals and edited volumes:
Storm, I. (2011) ‘Ethnic nominalism and civic religiosity: Christianity and national identity in Britain’ Sociological Review 59(4), pp. 828 – 846. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2011.02040.x Retrieved 2 September 2013 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2011.02040.x/pdf
Storm, I. (2011) ‘“Christian nations”? Ethnic christianity and anti-immigration attitudes in four Western European countries’ Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 24(1), pp. 75-96. Retrieved 2 September 2013 from http://tapir.pdc.no/pdf/NJRS/2011/2011-01-5.pdf
Storm, I. (2012) ‘Säkulares Christentum als nationale Identität: Religion und anti-immigrationseinstellungen in vier westeuropäischen Ländern’ in D. Pollack, I. Tucci and H-G. Ziebertz (eds.) Religioser Pluralismus Im Fokus Quantitativer Religionsforschung, Wiesbaden: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-531-18697-9_12