“…i pagt med tidens udvikling og den rivende ændring af samfundets struktur”

The theologian and politician Bodil Koch was an influentialplayer in politics regarding the Danish national church in the 20th century.During her twenty-four years as MP for the Social Democrats shemade an effort to avoid an independent constitution of the Church anda separation of church and state. During her thirteen years as Minister ofEcclesiastical Affairs she worked to adjust the church to the welfare state.This article examines one of her initiatives: A commission to modernizethe structure of the church. The surveys and studies from the commissionintroduced methods from sociology and social science into the fieldof church politics in Denmark. The work focused on the activities of thechurch and it revealed a scarce knowledge of traditional Christianityamong the members as well as low Church attendance. Thus the introductionof social science in the ecclesiastical sphere reinforced public notionsof a gap between the Danish national Church and the Danish population– against all intentions