NORWAY'S DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS ON FAMILY PROBLEMS

In the U.S.A. we would call it the ‘Bible Belt’. A wisecracker in Oslo might call it den Morke Stripen, ‘the Dark Strip’. It is a strip of counties down the south‐west coast and around the south‐east coast of Norway, the stronghold of the Christian People's Party and of the powerful volunteer organization of fundamentalists, Indremisjonen (the Inner Mission). In the valleys and coasts of Norway the traditional Lutheran family patterns persist—patriarchal but not authoritarian—and provide a background of stability in the families of modern industrial and more worldly Oslo. There are few divorces in the provincial areas.