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Personal and Ecclesiastic Renewal – The Church of Sweden and the Vadstena Meetings 1943–1985.

In this study, I examine the Vadstena Meetings for Personal and Ecclesiastic Renewal in order to contribute to the understanding of the Church of Sweden during the Cold War era. The primary sources are archives: the Vadstena Meetings archive in Linköping and certain personal archives.

After the first two chapters, Introduction and Historical background, the study is chronologically organised. In the two following chapters, three and four, I focus on the meetings first phase, 1943 and 1945-46. The fifth chapter analyses an expansive era, 1947-59, when meetings were held on several places. In chapter six I examine the last phase of the meetings, 1960-85, characterised by stagnation and withdrawal. Chapter seven concludes the study.

The Vadstena Meetings were voluntarily organised meetings, formally detached from, but within the framework of Church of Sweden. Initiators and organisers were prominent within the Church and active contributors were bishops, directors and well-known clergy. Women constituted the majority of the attending participants.

As a point of departure for the analysis of the meetings a comprehensive account of the meetings is given as to the organisers, contributors, participants and their programmes.  The organisation has been illustrated by applying Judith Sharken Simons model in five stages of a life cycle of non-profit organisations: Imagine and Inspire, Found and Frame, Ground and Grow, Produce and Sustain and, finally, Review and Renew.

The Vadstena Meetings comprised both continuity and change with a continued focus on personal renewal. They provide an example of consensus aspiration and endeavour to bring together fractions within the Church of Sweden without compromising the essence of different groupings. The most prominent groupings at the time of consolidation of the Vadstena Meetings were the High Church movement and the Oxford Group Movement.

Although the idea and aspiration for amplitude continued well into the late 1950s, the Vadstena Meetings became more and more conform. By following the historical progress of the Meetings and putting them into context, I show how they reflect the development and change within society and the Church of Sweden. Corresponding to the growing emphasis on individual participation in civil society the Vadstena Meetings illustrate the changing and expanding possibilities for individuals to influence the Church.

Med utgångspunkt i boken "The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution” [ung. det globala kriget mot kristna: utblickar från frontlinjen av anti-kristen förföljelse], av den tidigare CNN-medarbetaren John L Allen Jr, förs en diskussion om förföljelser mot kristna i världen. 

David Larsson Heidenblad undersöker i sin doktorsavhandling i historia vid Lunds universitet, ”Vårt eget fel: moralisk kausalitet som tankefigur från 00-talets klimatlarm till förmoderna syndastraffsföreställningar” (Agerings bokförlag, 2012). Undersökningen behandlar föreställningar om moralisk kausalitet – alltså att det som hotar att drabba människor är orsakat av deras över tid samlade moraliska brister och felsteg. Undersökningen spänner från 30-åriga kriget till 2006 års klimatdebatt som följde på den förutvarande amerikanske vicepresidenten Al Gores film ”En obekväm sanning”. Däremellan gör författaren nedslag bland annat vid tidigt 1800-tal, vid första världskrigets utbrott 1914 och vid det hotande tredje världskriget i och med Kubakrisen 1962. Här är inte platsen att lyfta fram samtliga delar i undersökningen, men tre exempel ur Larsson Heidenblads rika material kan ges...

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Church of Sweden gradually changed from being the uniform and monolithic church that had been closely bound to the state to instead being seen as merely subject to constitutional state legislation. One effect and sign of this shift was that new paths opened up for religious practice and fellowship. New movements emerged in the social life of groups, and over time most of these were constituted/established as ordinary associations, NGOs. One kind of nonstandard Christian activity that never took the form of a regular organisation was a series of 10 meetings held every few years between 1913 and 1937 at the Spa of Porla, Närke County, in central Sweden. At these meetings, up to 200 people gathered for a number of days at the end of summer. The main core of the participants consisted of well-educated women, mainly in the teaching profession. Some of these served as organisers, leaders, or lecturers at the events; but these duties were mostly performed by men with a background as leading priests and theologians within academia. The primary purpose of the meetings must be interpreted as having been to promote spirituality, which the participants sought to do by listening to lectures, attending services, and spending time together talking, all for the sake of both professional and personal edification. The main records of these meetings are stored at the University Library in Uppsala, and from the study of this material a picture emerges of the meetings in Porla. Not only are the contents and context of the meetings investigated, but also their organisation; and a closer description is provided of the organisers and the participants.

Att skriva en sammanställning på 560 tätskrivna sidor med titeln ”Den kristna kyrkans historia” är av lätt insedda skäl en omöjlig uppgift. Men den brittiske teologen och författaren Jonathan Hill och den svenske redaktören Per Beskow har gjort en god insats. 

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En översiktsbok av den kristna kyrkans historia av ett helt annat slag är den brittiske kyrkohistorikern George Herrings, An Introduction to the History of Christianity: From the Early Church to the Enlightenment. Det är inte en bok som ger en metodisk genomgång av kristendomens 2000 år, med dess genomslag och spridning. Däremot är Herrings bok en initierad introduktion till tre perioder i kyrkans historia som varit mycket betydelsefulla för dess förändring och innehåll. Han har gjort nedslag i perioderna 300-500, 1050-1250 och 1450-1650. Herring menar att dessa perioder är av särskild betydelse för den västliga kristendomens utveckling. 

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