Textbook Religion and Lived Religion: A Comparison of the Christian Faith as Expressed in Textbooks and by Young Church Members

Drawing on perspectives from sociocultural theory, this article investigates how Christian denominations are represented in Norwegian textbooks of religious education and by young believers. The main finding is that textbooks and young adherents present religion in substantially different ways. While textbooks relate religion to global and national space using rational and general descriptions, young informants relate religion to local and personal space through emotional and relational descriptions. Based on these findings, this article discusses how textbooks and religious education can present religion in a way that includes both etic and emic perspectives.