In times of crisis, many people turn to religion as a matter of principle. According to a survey during the corona pandemic, that was different. Instead, Germans look for support in their families, in science or in their neighbourhood. However, the trend can also be seen in many other countries.
According to a survey, religion only proved helpful in overcoming the crisis for a small proportion of the population during the pandemic. Around a third of the 4363 nationally representative respondents stated that they had increasingly dealt with questions about the meaning of life during the Corona crisis.
As the Bertelsmann Foundation’s “Religion Monitor 2023” shows, most people in the crisis found family and science to provide support and orientation. Among those surveyed in the summer of 2022, 90 percent said the family was “rather helpful” or “very helpful” in dealing with the pandemic. Around 85 percent said that with a view to science, 81 percent to the health system. The neighborhood was also seen as helpful by many (74 percent). But only 48 percent attributed this to politics and only 29 percent to religion.
A comparison of European countries – such as Spain, France or Great Britain – showed similar patterns, the publication said. In the crisis, religion gives strength above all to people who were religious before the pandemic.
As a positive result, the foundation notes: Almost nine out of ten people in Germany were confident that they would also survive this crisis. And three-quarters said they’ve been more involved with others during the pandemic. Religious people are disproportionately represented in this group. “Belief is obviously also a social force,” says the study. Looking to the future, it also became clear that war, global poverty and climate change are now ahead of infectious diseases and pandemics.
Parts of the “Religion Monitor 2023” had already been presented in December and had also shown that the Christian churches have continued to lose social importance in view of the continuing decline in membership numbers.
The Bertelsmann Stiftung has been using the “Religion Monitor” since 2008 to compare countries and examine the role of religion in social cohesion. A total of 10,657 people in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Spain, Poland and the USA were surveyed for the current “Religion Monitor 2023”. In the summer of 2022, 4,363 people aged 16 and over took part in Germany. The data collection was carried out by the INFAS Institute for Applied Social Sciences.
