園田義明めも。

面白い記事を見つけたので貼り付けておきますね。


スイスでは「教会よりも自然が霊的」　改革派週刊誌が調査
http://christiantoday.co.jp/main/international-news-1654.html

【ジュネーブ＝ＥＮＩ・ＣＪＣ】スイスのプロテスタントの半分以上は、自然の方が、教会に行くよりも霊的な感動を受けると思っていることが分かった。ドイツ語圏の改革派教会が発行している週刊誌『レフォルミエルテ・プレッセ』の調査で判明した。

　スイス人が霊性を求める時、自然の中で発見される平穏の方が教会の中で得られるものより重要であることの度合いが相当大きい、という。この調査を全国規模の『スイス放送』の電子版『スイスインフォ』が伝えた。

　調査は、チューリッヒの調査機関『ＧｆＳ』が行った。それによると、スイス市民の４１％が自然に霊性を発見するとし、教会をあげる人はわずか１６％だった。

　カトリックでは約３分の１が霊性を求めて自然を訪ねると答えた。言語別ではフランス語を話す人よりもドイツ語を話す人にその傾向が強い。

　スイスインフォによると『レフォルミエルテ・プレッセ』誌のマティアス・ベーニ編集長は「私たちは、霊性がここ数年間で良く耳にするようになったと思う。そして、それがスイスの伝統的な教会にどの程度結びついているか知りたかった」と言う。

　スイス総人口７５０万のうちプロテスタントは３５％、カトリックが４２％を占めている。

　ベーニ氏は霊性を「沈黙と神秘への一種の模索」と見なしており、人々は日常では見失ってしまった何かであると言う。

　プロテスタント教会員の半数以上は自然に霊性を求め、カトリックでは３分の１超、他宗教の信者では４分の１未満になる。「プロテスタント教会は、どちらかと言うとカトリックより冷静で知的だとなると、この結果はそれほど驚くべきものでない」と、ベーニ氏。

　カトリック教会が信者の霊的側面での願いに応える方法として巡礼を組織することに、ベーニ氏は注目する。これまで無視して来たプロテスタント教会でも現在“再発見”の動きがある。

　霊性に関して自然の占める位置は、ドイツ語を話す人にとっては４６％と、フランス語を話す人の２５％と比べて、際だっている。スイス市民の約６４％はドイツ語を話し、フランス語を話す人は２０％超ということからも、スイス人の自然観とも言えそうだ。

　ベーニ氏は、調査結果が社会の変革の結果だと言う。それを教会が止めることも出来ず、かと言って必要な対応も出来ない。

　かつて教会は、人々霊的なものを求める時、たどりつく唯一の場所だったが、今では他に多彩な競争相手がいる。「霊性が現在ほとんど教会に結びついていないかに驚く一方で、宗教にまで個人主義が浸透していることに驚かされた。人々は自分の信仰を個人的に実践するようになり、霊性についてもそうなっているのだ」と、ベーニ氏は言う。

▼スイスインフォ記事

July 15, 2008 - 9:49 AM
Search for peace moves outside church walls
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/
Search_for_peace_moves_outside_church_walls.html?siteSect=105&sid=9331764&rss=true&ty=st

When the Swiss look for spirituality, the peace many find in nature is far more important than the inside of a church, a survey has revealed.
The magazine poll found clear differences between members of the Protestant Church and Roman Catholics and also between German and French speakers.

"We thought spirituality had become very popular in the last few years, and we wanted to know how strongly it was still connected to the traditional churches in Switzerland," says Matthias Böhni, the editor of the Reformierte Presse.

The weekly magazine is read mainly by professionals including pastors and social workers connected to the Protestant Church.

Böhni defines spirituality as "some kind of search for silence and for mysticism", and told swissinfo that it was perhaps something people missed in their everyday lives.

According to the survey, which was conducted by the gfs.zurich polling institute, 41 per cent of people in Switzerland found spirituality in nature, while only 16 per cent found it in church.

Over half of those belonging to the Protestant Church looked for spirituality in nature, in comparison with just over a third of Roman Catholics and just under a quarter of the followers of other religions.

Superficial spirituality
Nature as a place of spirituality was much more important for German speakers than it was for French speakers; 46 per cent of the former chose it, against only 25 per cent of the latter.

Twenty per cent of French speakers named lifestyle as the place where they sought spirituality, whereas this was the case with only three per cent of German speakers.

"Maybe the French speakers don't have a problem with the superficial kind of spirituality. You can go to a health spa, for example, and say: It's good for my soul, and you can also say: It's good for my outer shape."

"Maybe the Protestants in the German part think that's superficial, and the French speakers don't have this problem," Böhni said, adding that in the future German speakers might come round to the same way of thinking.

"Maybe things that appear superficial do have a kind of power," he suggested.

Church and society
The results reflected clear changes in society, which the churches cannot halt and which they must respond to, he said. Where once the churches were the only place people could turn toward in their spiritual search, now they are in competition with a range of other providers.

"On the one hand we were surprised how little spirituality is now associated with the church, but on the other hand, the results reflect individualism in religious matters as in others. People are practising their beliefs more and more in private and this applies to spirituality too."

The purpose of the poll was to inform the magazine's readers, not to tell them what to do. Nevertheless, there are certainly lessons for the churches to draw.

The poll showed the Catholics as having more spiritual awareness, which could be the result of a difference in emphasis between the two main churches.

"The Protestant Church is rather sober and intellectual, more so than the Catholics, so this isn't so surprising," Böhni pointed out.

One way in which the Roman Catholic Church responds to the spiritual longings of believers is in organising pilgrimages, something the Protestant Church has neglected but is now rediscovering.

The impulse for this comes mostly from the believers themselves, Böhni says. Pastors have to ask themselves why people are not coming to church as much as they used to. "One reason is perhaps that spirituality has been neglected."

European tradition
Given how the Swiss respond to nature, perhaps it is significant that some pilgrimage sites are to be found in places where nature is at its most magnificent and awesome, such as high in the mountains.

"People choose their own kind of spirituality," Böhni said. "Years ago we had the one and only truth, the Church, and now we are open. There are many ways in which you can believe. I don't think we only want one kind of belief."

Nevertheless, the churches should have a special role, he thinks.

"It would be better if the churches were more connected with spirituality. The churches should do something to inform people that spirituality has a tradition in Europe and that the churches are strongly involved in this tradition."

The survey also took in people who followed non-Christian religions and people with no religion at all.

Nearly a quarter of the respondents said they had no opinion about where spirituality could be found. "But that doesn't mean they don't have any experience in a spiritual sense," Böhni said.

Although people with no religion were more likely than believers to state that spirituality was of little or no importance to them, it plays an important role for more than a quarter of respondents.

In the case of people following non-Christian religions, 54 per cent regarded spirituality as an important part of their lives.

swissinfo, Julia Slater