Statistiek versus ervaringswaarden: Een pleidooi voor meer theorie en empirie

The longitudinal research project God in the Netherlands (GiN) concluded in its 2025 edition several contradictory trends. On the one hand, there are clear signs of secularization, while on the other hand there are higher levels of orthodoxy among believers. In society, religious values seem to be transformed in culture. As the authors were not able to bring these trends together in one theoretical framework, this article proposes the Luhmann/Beyer theory of functional differentiation as an explanation: as society differentiates and human society becomes prominent (secularization), religion becomes a differentiated system on its own (sacralization), and as a differentiated system it has to perform religious functions for the rest of society (culturalization). This implies, however, contrary to some critiques of the GiN research project that the research is too focused on institutionalized religion, that we have to focus on
institutional religion to understand what role religion plays in modern society. In the conclusion, several directions for future research are sketched on the basis of the GiN research results and the Luhmann/Beyer theory.