Dutch religion: the changing landscape

The oldest traces of religion by the inhabitants of the regions that now form the Netherlands date back to Roman times, when, as it is described in historic texts, resident Celtic-Germanic peoples venerated their own gods. In the National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) in Leiden, you can see altars dedicated to the goddess Nehalennia, protector of trade and fertility. The locals also adopted the Roman gods and mythology. In the centuries that followed, the local people converted to Christianity, a development that took until about 900 AD. Religion played a crucial role in the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648), which was seen as partly a conflict between Catholics and Protestants (mainly Calvinists in the Netherlands). The Low Countries were, at the time, part of the Catholic Spanish Empire. Many nobles, led by William of Orange, demanded freedom of religion for the Protestants in the Netherlands. When this was not granted, they rose in rebellion against the Spanish, leading the Dutch independence. Afterwards, only the Dutch Reformed faith was officially allowed, so that other faiths had to practice in ‘hidden churches’ – but, following Dutch tradition, these religions were not prosecuted as long as they paid taxes.

Moving forward to the 20th century, a big shift in religion had been taking place. The country had become ‘compartmentalised’, with each religious group having its own separate political parties, schools and universities, newspapers and radio stations, and sports or scouting associations. The main sections were the Catholics and Protestants (mainly Dutch Reformed), with several subgroups of Protestants having their own ‘compartments’. Moreover, many Jews lived in the Netherlands since the 17th century, especially in Amsterdam.

As Dutch society went through many changes after the Second World War, not least in the religious field, another shift took place, with worship in Christian churches steadily declining. It was particularly the rise of the welfare state and new mass media such as television that were seen as key drivers behind the fast-deteriorating interest in organised religion from the second half of the 1950s. From the 1970s, more migrantswith non-Christian faiths arrived in the Netherlands, especially Muslims but also Hindus, Buddhists etc.

By 2017, the Dutch social and cultural planning office SCP announced that for the first time in history, less than half of Dutch adults said they belonged to a religious denomination. Religious beliefs remain strong among those of non-Christian faiths, as well as in the more conservative Christian groups in the Dutch Bible belt. However, many churches have closed their doors in recent decades, as a larger a variety of opinions emerged about the meaning of God. More and more people are looking for other routes to personal development and caring for others, rather than believing in one God. A growing percentage are those believing in contemporary spirituality, characterised by a more holistic worldview, a search for mystical experiences and a strong connection to nature. On the other hand, many Dutch now say they simply don’t believe in God, while many others are still unsure about it all.

In fact, by 2022 the Netherlands has ceased to be a religious country, and the percentage of atheists and agnostics has approximately doubled since the late 1970s. The search for meaning and self-actualisation has now become an individual matter for most people, changing dynamics of Dutch society as a whole. Secularisation has also been called a driver for more open-mindedness, for example about sexual diversity.

As the Dutch are collectively searching for new meaning, perhaps it can be seen as quite telling when recently ‘Theologian of the Fatherland’ Thomas Quartier declared himself a Doubting Thomas and Wrestler of Religion, saying that asking questions can be a good thing. The theologian’s own contributions to religion have been portrayed as a cross-fertilisation between Biblical sources, contemporary literature and music, and a collaboration between writers, musicians and theologians in the theatre. All in all, the landscape of Dutch religion is ever-changing, sometimes leading to tensions between different groups, but also to tolerance and open-mindedness.