Udema, Daan
(2017)
“The silence of the Middle Ages is still audible in the 21st century”.
Master thesis, Master Religion and the Public Domain.
Abstract
Several empirical studies indicate that since the 1960s, church attendance has declined dramatically in the Netherlands. Because of this development a substantial number of churches had to close their doors, as they were no longer able to pay the costs of maintenance of the building.
Once a church building loses its initial function, it is either demolished or given a new purpose. Some church buildings have therefore been converted into supermarkets, concert halls, theaters, restaurants or apartment buildings. Other churches operate as heritage sites, open to the public.
Although the number of people in the Netherlands that do not (regularly) attend church services is growing, this does not necessarily mean that these people never enter a church building. In fact, most people visit a (monumental) church during their holiday or city trip. Looking for art and culture, Western tourists seldom fail to visit a local church or monastery.
According to the Belgian scholar Hans Geybels, Western tourist no longer simply ‘travel’ but look for experiences instead. Visiting monumental churches can therefore be seen as seeking experiences. Such experiences could include admiring the aesthetics of architecture, praying or lighting a candle for a deceased person and even experiencing the historical by standing amidst an interior which has, for instance, remained virtually unchanged since the 18th century.
With regard to visiting religious monuments as a leisure activity, I am especially interested in the question how people, living in a secularizing context as the Netherlands, actually experience the church building. What does the building represent to them and how does this influence their experiences? What are they actually looking for? What are their motives and expectations?
To examine how monumental churches are experienced by visitors, I selected 5 churches from the Dutch province of Groningen; the Martini church of Groningen, the church of Leermens, the church of Zeerijp, the church of Pieterburen and the former monastery of Ter Apel. These monuments attract a substantial number of visitors every year. Every church from this selection has a guest book placed centrally inside, encouraging visitors to leave a note on how they experienced visiting the church building.
I decided to focus my research exclusively on the guest books of the churches in the province of Groningen because of the relatively short distance between the different churches and because of their national reputation. More than any other province in the Netherlands, Groningen presents itself in the media and on commercial platforms as a province that boasts a high density of medieval churches. Largely due to the work of the Stichting Oude Groninger Kerken (SOGK), an organization dedicated to the preservation of churches in the province of Groningen, the churches of Groningen have a national reputation for their respectable age and cultural historic worth.
The notes in the guest books have been my main source of data in analyzing how religious heritage is experienced by people that live in a secularized society. Not only do these books contain a broad variety of notes written by different people over several years, they can also reveal whether the general content, form and tone of these messages has changed throughout the years.
Because people have the opportunity to sign their note or remain anonymous, I have taken as an assumption that the majority of notes is an honest reflection of how people experienced their visit and what has motivated them to do so. On the other hand, it could be argued that because the notes can be read by other visitors, people are persuaded to emphasize the positive rather than the negative, as they do not want to criticize. Such sentiments may have influenced the content of some notes but, for various reasons, I am confident that this has not played a significant role. First, many people are alone while visiting the church or only accompanied by a only a small group of relatives, friends or family. The fact that the only people that might read their note are people with whom they probably feel comfortable with, will scarcely influence the content, if at all. This argument however, does not account for organized tours in the church. Second, people do not have to sign their note and can therefore remain completely anonymous. Third, having read and structured dozens of guest book notes, I encountered an overwhelming variety with regard to form and content. There was very little evidence to suggest that people were inclined to mimic each other to write only positively nor that they were reluctant to reflect on what they did not like.
The notes make clear what visitors liked or disliked about the church and for what reasons. People not only reflect on the church building but also describe the activities they engaged in during their visit. Together, the messages form an interesting empirical basis to study how religious heritage is experienced by visitors.
My research question is as follows: ‘How do people, living in a secularizing context, reflect in the guest books upon their experiences of visiting a monumental church?’ In order to answer this question, the following sub questions need to be answered: A: ‘What characterizes our current secularized society in terms of dominant attitudes and beliefs with respect to the religious?’ B: ‘How do people reflect on their experiences with church monuments in the guest books?’ C: ‘How do these messages relate to what has been written regarding the dominant attitudes and beliefs that are characteristic of modern day secularized Dutch society?’
I began this project with analyzing the guest book notes from the 5 churches I selected. Of every church, I started with the oldest guest books and worked up to the book of the most recent date. This method of analyzing, helped me to see whether the character and content of the notes had changed throughout the years. Of every church I made a database in which I collected and structured these notes. The notes were structured as follows: remarks on the interior, reflection on the historical/history, remarks on the exterior, notes with a religious/spiritual content, notes in which people expressed to have engaged in some kind of ritual, reflections on the peaceful/quiet atmosphere inside the church and a category of notes that did not fit in any of the other categories. When citing a guest book note in the text, I will use a translation in English unless the note was already written in English. In the footnote the original text will be cited together with – if possible – the date of writing and the location.
When quoting the guest book notes of visitors, I have tried to reproduce the original text as accurately as possible. This means that I did not corrected written errors. I also literally copied the use of punctuation marks, multiple question marks for example, in the English version of the text.
From time to time I will use the term ‘spirituality’. This term allows a broad range of interpretations. I will elaborate on the meaning of this much used term within the boundaries of this research project in chapter 2.1.
The guest book messages are analyzed with the use of discourse analysis, as it focuses on how language is used to communicate ideas and structure reality. Special attention is therefore given to the terminology used by visitors as they reflected on the church building and their experiences. Eventually, most experiences could be structured according to the following 4 categories: aesthetic experience, historical experience, religious experience and the experience of a peaceful/quiet atmosphere.
Finally, I discussed the 4 categories of experience into more detail by outlining their characteristics and the context(s) in which they most commonly appeared.
| Type: |
Thesis
(Master)
|
| Supervisors (RUG): |
| Supervisor | E-mail | Tutor organization | Tutor email |
|---|
| Dijk, M. van | Mathilde.van.Dijk@rug.nl | | | | Kroesen, J.E.A. | J.E.A.Kroesen@rug.nl | | |
|
| Degree programme: |
Master Religion and the Public Domain |
| Academic year: |
2016- 2017 |
| Date of delivery: |
01 Sep 2017 |
| Last modified: |
01 Sep 2017 14:02 |
| URI: |
https://ggw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/286 |
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