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Poetry can contribute to theological and philosophical reflection. In this paper, we concentrate our attention on Esaias Tegner's poignant depiction of melancholy, or what we call "existential suffering" in his poem Spleen. We argue the poem can be interpreted as showing that the distinction between theoretical and existential problems of suffering is less clear-cut than often presupposed and that theorizing about the meaning of suffering can have a role to play even when people are experiencing great existential suffering and despair. Based on the speaker's existential struggles in Spleen, we also formulate the novel concept of a hopeful theodicy, a concept we think can be of use more broadly in future research on problems of suffering and theodicy.

The disestablishment of the Church of Sweden in the year 2000 has been a catalyst for an intensified debate on the identity of the Church of Sweden and the ecclesiological heritage from one of its most important theologians of the 20^th century, Einar Billing (1871–1939). This paper discusses the contemporary critique of Billing’s folk church ecclesiology. Critics tend to focus on Billing’s understanding of the church as an institution for the distribution of grace and point out that his thinking lacks a theological understanding of the church as a social reality. In a secular welfare society, describing the church as an institution might reduce the church to an actor of the welfare market. In this paper it is argued that while an ecclesiology that understands the church as a service provider is problematic, the best alternative is not to forward an ecclesiology focussing on the community of believers as a social body, since it makes the authenticity of the church dependent on the qualities of a social community. From a Lutheran point of view, both perspectives do not take the idea of the church as the creatura verbi seriously enough. The major problem with contemporary folk church ecclesiology is rather to be found in the inherent hegemonic claims of the concept folk church.

Recension av Svenungson, Jayne: Den gudomliga historien - profetism, messianism och andens utveckling. Göteborg: Glänta produktion, 2014.