Finding something sacred in secular society is a relatively new field of religious studies. This thesis aims to find the secular sacred amongst Star Wars fans on the blogging platform Tumblr, in relation to Kim Knott and her theory of the secular sacred. I collected and studied 100 blog posts about Star Wars, specifically about one of its main characters, Rey. The research questions used were “How do fans of Star Wars and Rey express themselves on Tumblr?”, and “Could it be seen as sacred according to Kim Knott´s theory of secular sacred?” I analyzed the material with a hermeneutic approach, and using Kim Knott’s theory, I categorized the posts in to three categories: sacred, appreciative and sacrilegious. Even though the appreciative category was by far the largest, the results showed that a fifth of all the blog posts could be perceived as having content that could be seen as sacred to its poster. I came to the conclusion that my study supports the theory of sacredness not being exclusive to religious society, but can be found in the secular as well.
This study discusses the Christian churches crisis management in one of modern time´s most expansive and deadly pandemics, Covid-19. The main purpose of the study is to find out if the churches were equipped with a crisis management plan to handle an external crisis of this magnitude. The thesis also studies to what extent it affected the parishes and their members. The dissertation as well aims to find out whether other actors or decisions could have led to a milder impact on the Church, but also their parish members. Other aspects investigated were emotional and social impacts of active/paused church activities, and whether digital services would replace the physical Sunday services to a degree.The study employs qualitative methods and social and crisis management theories to explore the topic. Anonymous in-depth interviews with church personnel and parish members allowed deep and honest conversations, providing rich data for analysis. Analysis of the discussions in the interviews demonstrated that the churches were not ready to handle the Covid-19 crisis. The research also presents the importance of faith in hard times and the value of faith in the parish members lives.The results indicate that a great sadness arose among many members in this crisis. Not only because you could not go to God's house to pray, but because many isolated themselves during the pandemic, which led to poor health, specifically among families with children and the elderly.
Artikeln ger en ytterst kortfattade översikt över pentekostalismen i Sverige och i världen, dess inledning i Los Angeles 1906 med starka krav på jämlikhet och jämställdhet mellan svarta och vita, mellan män och kvinnor och mellan människor från olika sociala grupper, dess spridning i Sverige som en överkonfessionell rörelse, dess splittring, vidare utveckling och ställning i dag. Några korta kommentarer om den internationella pentekostalismen och dess olika uttryck avslutar artikeln.
Den här boken försöker ge en översikt av det pentekostala landskapet under 2020-talet. Den inleds med en kyrkohistorisk tillbakablick på hur pentekostalismen har påverkat olika kyrkor i Sverige hittills. Därefter följer en genomgång av alla pentekostala församlingar som bildats i Sverige sedan 1974 och sedan en rad fallstudier – alltifrån en lägesbeskrivning från den största pentekostala kyrkan, Pingströrelsen, till de minsta karismatiska grupperna, som t.ex. afrikanska pentekostaler i Malmö, Mekane Yesus-föreningen i Skärholmen, latinamerikanska församlingar i Stockholm och burundiska invandrare som integrerats i svenska församlingar. En av fallstudierna behandlar Oas-rörelsen – den karismatiska riktningen inom Svenska kyrkan.
En kort översikt av pingströrelsens ursprung, initiering och etablering. Några notiser om nuvarande förhållanden.
En relativt allmän uppfattning var länge att pingstförsamlingar alltid heter Filadelfia och att detta bruk emanerar från Pingströrelsens historiskt sett viktigaste församling, Filadelfiaförsamlingen i Stockholm. Båda dessa påståendenär emellertid felaktiga – och den nuvarande tendensen inom Pingströrelsen är dessutom snarare att ge församlingarna lokala namn än namn som reflekterar rörelsen. I denna artikel försöker jag att rätta till dessa missuppfattningar – och dessutom studera hur Pingströrelsens korta historia reflekteras i dess namnbruk. Jag gör detta genom att studera samtliga namn på Pingströrelsens församlingar under åren 1920, 1950, 1975 och år 2000. I slutsatsen kommer jag att teckna några övergripande tendenser i framför allt de namnbyten som förekommit och det symbolvärde som respektive namnkategori representerar.
This article aims to orientate and introduce Potential researchers into Swedish Pentecostal movements, or those who wish to provide an overview of Scandinavian Christianity, by giving a brief summary of the history of Pentecostalism in Sweden and an overview of the main academic monographs that have been produced on this particular branch of Christianity. The idea is to highlight areas where we find relevant research and to point to areas into which there has been little or no investigation. Following, by way of introduction, a brief historical sketch, there is a note on spirituality before we are given a review of some thirty major academic works on the subject that a potential researcher would need to take into consideration.
Ever since televangelism started in the United States, Sweden has been considered an impossible arena for that type of enterprise. In the 1960’s almost all Swedes were formal members of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, were heavily secularized, and were considered to be anti-Charismatic and fairly averse to the expression of personal religiosity in public, as in televangelism. Furthermore, the state monopoly of Swedish radio and television closely regulated the transmission of church services, and thus impeded any such evangelization initiatives via TV. Nevertheless, in 2005, when the heyday of televangelism seemed to be over in the United States, a new Charismatic TV channel was founded in Älmhult in Småland. The new channel was called “Channel 10” (Kanal 10). “Kanal” was a neutral designation witout any religious connotations and the number “10” was not used by any television channel in Sweden at the time. In 10 years, Channel 10 has grown into a successful business whose principal product is Pentecostal or Charismatic preaching. The chapter initially asks the question: How can it be that televangelism attracts Swedes today, when this was considered impossible only 30 years ago? The study explores the actors behind the channel, its contents, and the reception of the programs in the light of contemporary changes in the Pentecostal landscape, especially intergenerational conflicts of interest and ongoing mediatization. The material presented is discussed from a theoretical perspective on identity, inspired by Paul Ricoeur (2005) and Erik Erikson (1964), and nostalgia as advocated by Clay Routledge (2015).
Historien om hur några svenskar fick idén om att resa iväg till Bolivias indianfolk 1920 och vad som hände därefter, fram till att Svensk Pingstmission lämnade landet.
Denna uppsats behandlar Paulus syn på lagen vilket är ett mycket omdebatterat område inom paulusforskningen. Frågan om Paulus lagsyn är så central för den övergripande paulustolkingen att alla som vill förstå Paulus och hans texter måste bilda sig en uppfattning om detta. Det har skrivits många hyllmeter och diskussionen verkar långt ifrån avslutad. Frågan kräver dock tydliga avgränsningar för att kunna behandlas i denna relativt korta uppsats. Därför kommer jag fokusera på en perikop i ett av Paulus brev som behandlar denna fråga. Min frågeställning blir då: Vad menar Paulus med ”lagen” i Rom 3:21-31?
The question regarding male circumcision in Sweden became a relevant topic within the public debates during the last three years. Due to the Swedish political party, Centerpartiet’s decision to strive for a ban on male circumcision, this debate surfaced after the 28th of September. Participation in the public debate came from different directions and perspectives on male circumcision. In this thesis I focus on different actors and their public opinions in debate articles published between the years of 2018-2019. The aim of this thesis is to examine how critical arguments are constructed from perceptions of a decreasing significance of religion within late modern societies. This results in a motivation to ban the performance of male circumcision without medical indication. By using the qualitative text analysis of systematic text condensation this thesis closer categorizes the arguments into the three themes of “children’s bodily integrity”, “the delimitation of medicalization” and “the religious other”. In addition to this, the thesis also looks into the argument from the analytical framework on argumentation analysis in order to distinguish “normative” and “factual” arguments in the debate. To look closer at the constructions of the critical arguments within the debate this thesis uses the theoretical framework of Sara Ahmed (2011). From a phenomenological inspired perspective this thesis further looks into the argument’s correlation and construction of a collective body. This in particular is the construction of the secular- in relation to the religious body. Constructions of the religious body allows for secular ideas to circulate around national symbols and principles, which results in an exclusion of religious motives and perspectives. The thesis further sheds light on the cultural imbedded “medical gaze”, from the theoretical perspective on medicalization of Karin Johannisson (2013). This thesis aims to examine the reproduction of the medical superiority within debates on questions regarding the human body, like the one on male circumcision. The thesis illustrates the complexity of religious visibility within the Swedish context. Although the critical arguments reject the religious motives of male circumcision, the debate increases the religious visibility in the public debates.