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Denna studie undersöker de fyra senaste utgåvorna av läromedlet Religion och liv. Med hjälp av Stuart Halls teori om representation undersöks på vilket sätt kristna, kristen tro och kristet liv framställs i läroböcker för högstadiet. 

The Social Democratic party of Sweden (SAP) was from its starting point in late 19th century oppositional to the Swedish Church and its position in Swedish society. But soon two different views were formed. The first view was to cut all ties between state and church. The second view was to perform a democratic reformation of the Church. The SAP have since long engaged itself in church politics and governing on different levels.

This thesis deals with the ecclesiology of the SAP as presented by the party executive in normative outlines for church-politics. The investigation starts with the first published outlines in 1979 and ends with the outlines published in 1996, the year after the decision of the Swedish parliament to make a juridical separation between state and church by jan 1 2000.

These political outlines form a framework for the party´s local, regional och central political activities in the Swedish Church. The starting point is the introduction of the party program and the democratization of the structure of Society. The structure of the Church should therefore also be democratized. Those emplyed by the Church are also to support this democratized structure. The goal of this process is to make the Church available and reachable for everyone in Sweden, also in a new cultural situation when people and church no longer can be looked upon as one unity. The Swedish Church has, says the SAP, therefore no right to set up rules for who can and who can not become a member of the Church.

This paper is about sacramentality and dispensationalism in the Swedish Pentecostal movement. The object of study is the movement's book of hymns, Segertoner, from 1988. With a hermeneutic method I have tried to show the songs' explicit and implicit theology as well as their teleology. 

Femtiotalet innebar ett vägskäl för den svenska Pingströrelsen. Den rörelse som byggts på ett starkt informellt ledarskap fick plötsligt problem när ledaren Lewi Pethrus 1958, efter nästan ett halvsekel, lämnade sin formella position som föreståndare i Filadelfiaförsamlingen i Stockholm. Frustrationen som uppstod när Pethrus inte längre hade tillgång till och kontroll över tidskrifter, förlag och konferenser drabbade inte bara honom utan hela rörelsen. Hur skulle den nu organiseras?    Dessutom var femtiotalet en tid av andlig förnyelse i Pingströrelsen. Efter ett fyrtiotal på tomgång kom nu “helandeväckelsen”, “särlaregnsväckelsen” och “förnyelseväckelsen” att på olika sätt prägla och i vissa fall splittra rörelsen. I kalla krigets skugga kom dessa väckelsevågor, tillsammans med ett stigande intresse för eskatologi, att förnya och förändra rörelsen på olika sätt.    Den här boken handlar om detta avgörande decennium i svensk pingströrelse. Den ger oss en bakgrund till kursändringen genom att skildra de dåtida samhällsförändringarna i Sverige. Den sätter också in händelserna i ett internationellt perspektiv. Särskilt skildras kontakterna mellan Sverige och USA. Den förser oss med speciella skildringar av de olika väckelsevågorna och vi får även en jämförelse mellan den teologi som predikades på femtiotalet och den som framfördes vid pingstväckelsens början. Slutligen sätts det dåtida maktskiftet i Pingströrelsen in i ett historiskt perspektiv.    Artiklarna har fötts ur seminariearbetet vid Institutet för Pentekostala Studier i Uppsala. Författarna är, eller har varit, knutna till Uppsala universitet i ämnena kyrkohistoria eller kulturantropologi.

Today, roughly 25 per cent of the Swedish population have their immediate roots in a foreign country. In the largest metropolitan area of Sweden, Greater Stockholm, the figure is 33 per cent, and it is even larger in the two other major cities, Gothenburg (35%) and Malmo (44%). This remarkable demographic shift is necessarily influencing the religious landscape. While one major part of the immigration to Sweden is Muslim, the greater number of the immigrants are of a Christian background. Among these, Orthodox and Catholic immigrants from the Middle East have attracted greater attention, while immigrants with a Pentecostal Charismatic affiliation have often been overlooked. This is unwarranted, because the Pentecostal-Charismatic migrants churches are growing rapidly, both in number and in adherents. This is especially the case in Greater Stockholm. Based on original surveys by the author, this article explores migrant Pentecostal churches in Greater Stockholm, presenting their numerical growth, discussing their ethnic and cultural backgrounds as well as their theological orientation, and presenting an analysis of their sociological character in relation to their geographical location. This survey calls into question the stereotypes of Sweden as the epitome of secularization and of its urban centres being "tombs for religion".

Axner, Torbjörn, Ordo Missæ. Missal supplements in Church of Sweden 1942–1967

This work is a study of a certain aspect of the liturgical movement in the Church of Sweden during the years 1942–1967. In 1942 a new Book of Order was published to some extent influenced by the international liturgical movement. However, for some liturgical activists this was not enough. Due to the legal structure of the Church of Sweden they were bound to the Book of Order and could not shape the liturgy according to their liturgical ideas. They chose to work under cover, publishing their own editions of the official Order of Mass supplied with material from the international liturgical movement. In the Swedish Lutheran tradition, missals have very few rubrics and liturgical instructions. These unofficial missals looked like the official and followed the official order of mass, but added complimentary prayers and instructions.  The liturgical activists were accused of introducing traditions, that were alien to the tradition of the Church of Sweden. Nevertheless, some of the material introduced in the unofficial missals in the 1940’s and 1950’s, some decades later became parts of the new official Book of Order of 1986. During the period, 1942–1967, the liturgical movement in Sweden was more or less the same as the association “Church Renewal” (Kyrklig förnyelse), a high-church organisation with international inspiration and connections.

Towards the end of this period of time new ideas were developing in all areas of society, including mainstream churches. In 1968 an official committee was appointed to conduct a revision of the Book of Order for the Church of Sweden. The committee introduced a period of official liturgical experiments within Church of Sweden. Some of the formerly rejected liturgical ideas were now tried out in the liturgical experiments and became part of the new Book of Order.

This study focuses on liturgical elements inspired by the international liturgical movement and how they influenced the liturgical development in the Church of Sweden. The author combines traditional text sources with studies of artwork in the missals and a liturgical database, based on a survey done on liturgical behaviour in 1965.

In the dissertation Free Church ecclesiology is examined from the point of view of three themes: faith, baptism and membership with certain concern for ecumenical experience.

The essential source material in the dissertation consists of 30 qualified interviews with members from five Swedish Free Church denominations. The result of these interviews have been related to a broader Free Church context in history and the contemporary situation.

In connection with these considerations a thesis about the congregation as a kind of sacrament has been applied to the material, specifically what relates to the significance of being a member of the congregation. The congregation as life form is verified through the congregation’s fellowship/communio as expressed in participation. This becomes an effective sign and instrument for the presence of Christ through the congregation in the world. The process of unity occurring within Swedish Free Church life is related to a mutual interpretation of the congregation as participant in the presence and work of Christ. The continouous process toward unity which has taken place between Free Church denominations with respect to distinctive teaching, not the least concerning baptism, along with praxis and spirituality is interpreted from such participation of the congregation in Christ’s presence and work.