Social Compass 60(1) 3–21 © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0037768612472592 scp.sagepub.com social compass Privatized religiosity revisited: Building an authenticity model of individual–church relations Anne Birgitta PESSI University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract A majority of scholars agree that late-modern religiosity is characterized by ‘privatization’, particularly in Western Europe. However, even a general picture reveals that the privatization thesis is both verified and contradicted by aspects of the European religious scene. Particularly, since religion de facto is a social phenomenon, what is the meaning of a community to an individual with privatized religiosity? This is the focus of the author. The data include 17 in-depth interviews, which were analyzed with grounded theory methodology. The analysis generates a novel authenticity model of individual-church relations which consists of the interplay between three elements: experiences (especially rites, traditions, and emotions), values (both expectations of the church and personal values in relation to the church), and truth (frameworks for reflection, supply of religious activities, clear standpoints, and space for individuality) – as well as authenticity, which is present in all three. Keywords authenticity, experiences, grounded theory methodology, privatized religiosity, relation to church, truth, values Résumé La majorité des chercheurs s’accordent sur le fait que la privatisation de la religiosité caractérise le contexte de la modernité tardive, particulièrement en Europe occidentale. Cependant, même un aperçu général révèle que la thèse de la privatisation est à la fois vérifiée et contredite par certains aspects de la scène religieuse européenne. La religion, de facto, est un phénomène social. Dès lors, quel est le sens d’une communauté religieuse Corresponding author: Anne Birgitta Pessi, University of Helsinki, Collegium for Advanced Studies, PO Box 4, Helsinki, 00014, Finland. Email: anne.b.pessi@helsinki.fi 472592SCP 60 1 10.1177/0037768612472592Social CompassPessi: An authenticity model of individual–church relations 2013 Article