This study, grounded in qualitative research methods, aims to provide a deeper insight into Sweden's religious landscape by examining the varied responses of different religious groups to the ongoing process of secularization and how these communities work to preserve their faith in a secular society. The study applies Weber's and Casanova's conceptualization of modernization, emphasizing the transformation of established systems through new ideologies, offering an analysis of how religious groups respond to secularization. Grounded in secularization theory, which focuses on the diminishing impact of religion in modernized societies, the study explores the consequences of secularization for religious groups, considering factors such as community-building efforts, engagement of religious adherents, social status, and individual religiosity. Initiating with a literature review, the study identifies key issues and develops a profound understanding of the subject. Additionally, representatives and leaders from various religious communities in Sweden, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, are interviewed. The research findings shed light on a comprehensive understanding of the intricate terrain illustrating the repercussions of secularization on Swedish society. The results suggest that various congregations are influenced by trends in secularization, modernization, and individualism. Different religious communities exhibit distinct responses and implement various strategies to preserve religion, identity, and a sense of community within their respective congregations. This insight is crucial for both religious communities and individuals navigating the evolving religious environment, striving to comprehend its consequences for religion, community, and society.

In this essay I examine the relation between religious non-realism and religious pluralism. Religious pluralism is celebrated by it's adherents, to be benevolent and tolerant towards other religions truth claims and practices. Religious non-realism is also, by its adherents, praised for its including way to look upon truth claims and differing opinions about reality. When it comes to questions like what there is and what is not, does God exist or does he not etc. the religious non-realist is prone to less dogmatism and definite answers than metaphysical realists. Or at least so does the non-realists themselves like to think. What I examine in this essay is whether religious non-realism pragmatically implies religious pluralism, or if a non-realist judiciously can dismiss religious pluralism and instead adopt a form of confessional view of a specifik religion. Religious exclusivism, like the one Alvin Plantinga defends, rejects the possibility of x being both true and false. If a religious claim is taken to be true then incompatible claims have to be considered false according to this view. This fits poorly whith religious non-realism since the latter does not embrace a correspondance theory of truth. Religious pluralism is strongly criticized, among others for leaving “God” or other religious entities empty and whithout characteristics or content. This, because if God is litterally indescribable and unreachable, we would have no reason to believe that God has the chatacteristics we think he has. If religious pluralism cannot answer to the criticism, and if non-realism can not help pluralism evade the problems, then we are in need of a religious inclusivism that does not depend on metaphysical realism. I propose, what I have called, a pragmatic non-realistic inclusivism as an answer to the problem. This is a non-realistic theory that evades metaphysical realism and reductionism of religion, but nevertheless can prefere one religion before others. Not because one religion is concidered to have metaphysical and objective truth while others do not, but because one could prefere a specific religious language and consider that religion to be the most adequate response to human life

Num contexto de iniquidade social em que os matizes étnicos são escala de privilégio a partir da vinculação com os valores europeus advindos ainda do processo colonial, qualquer traço de negritude ou vinculação com as culturas nativas tende a ser fonte de discriminação. Tal realidade se reflete de forma potencializada em desrespeitos e perseguições nas escolas nos momentos em que estas pertenças têm de ser assumidas em função de preceitos religiosos.Este trabalho procura debater tensão entre a multiplicidade de matrizes que compõem a cultura, e por consequência a religiosidade brasileira, e a ascensão de um pensamento religioso hegemonizante no ambiente escolar. Esta discussão foi proposta a partir da implementação de oficina culinária tradicional com professores, funcionários e alunos de Educação de Jovens e adultos. A oficina, uma intervenção artístico-pedagógica chamada Conversa ao pé do fogão, calcada nas leis 10.639 e 11.645 versou sobre as matrizes étnicas afro-brasileiras por meio do resgate da Tradição Oral. Nas cozinhas dos estabelecimentos de ensino, rememorando os saberes dos mais velhos, os participantes prepararam pratos típicos afro-brasileiros amplamente difundidos enquanto discutiam os choques, atritos e tensões entre essa cultura e a escola. Reunir-se em círculo, contar histórias, cozinhar, comer e discutir foi o meio de trazer a tradição oral e a ancestralidade para um ambiente em que a suposta laicidade escolar esconde uma cosmovisão específica e excludente, tentando propiciar acolhimento e inclusão da miríade de formas de ver, pensar e entender o mundo presentes na cultura brasileira. / In a context of social inequality where ethnic nuances are a scale of privilege based on the linkage with European values still derived from the colonial process, any trace of negritude or attachment to native cultures tends to be a source of discrimination. This reality is reflected in a potentialized way in disrespect and persecution in schools at a time when these belongings have to be assumed due to religious precepts. This work seeks to discuss tension between the multiplicity of matrices that shape the culture, and consequently the Brazilian religiosity, and the rise of a hegemonizing religious thought in the school environment. This discussion was proposed from the implementation of traditional culinary workshop with teachers, staff and adult students. The workshop, an artistic-pedagogical intervention called \"Conversation at the foot of the stove\", based on the laws 10.639 and 11.645, approached the Afro-Brazilian ethnic matrices through the rescue of the Oral Tradition. In the kitchens of educational establishments, recalling the knowledge of their elders, participants prepared typical Afro-Brazilian dishes that were widely disseminated while discussing the shocks, frictions and tensions between this culture and the school.To gather in a circle, to tell stories, to cook, to eat and to discuss was the means of bringing oral tradition and ancestry to an environment in which the supposed school secularism hides a specific and exclusive worldview, trying to foster acceptance and inclusion of the myriad forms of seeing, thinking and understanding the world present in Brazilian culture.

This thesis deals with the current situation of denominational religious education in Austria and the question of its future. The situation will be described including the historical development of the relationship between religion and politics and the legal framework of religious education in Austria. Afterwards models and systems of religious education in other European countries will be discussed. A major part of the thesis deals with challenges and recent developments of denominational religious education in Austria. This current situation will be discussed then against the historical background of the relationship between politics and religion in Austria. Afterwards the Austrian situation will be compared to other models in Europe to find out about similarities and differences. The final conclusion outlines what denominational religious education in Austria can learn from other systems in Europe and what are some ways it can be adapted to a more religiously diverse and secular Austria in the future.

Religious diversity is the inevitable corollary of globalization and with it comes the challenge and opportunities of greatly increased interaction with religious Others. The United States was founded on an Anglo-Saxon Protestant basis but has now become "the world’s most religiously diverse nation" according to one Harvard religious studies scholar. To deal with this development, American thinkers, mainly Christians, have devoted a good deal of scholarship in the past three to four decades construing strategies how to meet and interact with the religious Other. During the 70’s and 80’s, a typology of exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism was developed by Christians as a response to religious diversity. Many see today that it is a necessity to find an alternative to hostility and violence and therefore dialogue is the order of the day. Since Christians are still by far the largest faith-group, and the US has economic resources, US Christians have a natural predominance in dialogue. Is that good or bad from the stand point of the minority Other? One such minority is a major sub-division of Hinduism, namely Vaishnavism. Christian-Vaishnava dialogue in the US is a new phenomenon in the past two decades and an emerging minority representative is a globalized Vaishnava organization ISKCON, popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, which has its Western roots in the counter-culture of the 1960’s. While ISKCON struggled for legitimacy in the 70’s and ‘80’s, it has in recent decades become a major factor in Hindu and especially Vaisnava representation. How American Christians respond today to Vaishnava dialogue and how this typology arose and functions as a theoretical basis for the on-going development of Christian-Vaishnava dialogue is the subject of this action-research minor field study.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:19:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose do Carmo Rodrigues.pdf: 2898491 bytes, checksum: 473cc1716aeaac6928ba176e2791cfcc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-28 / This work performs an analytical study of the religious conversion phenomenon. Particularly, of the factors which motivated the transit of followers of any religion to Spiritism, in Brazil. The groups under study from which new Spiritists originate have been divided in seven blocks: Catholicism, Protestantism, African-Brazilian religions, Umbanda, Asian religions, others and no religion. This analysis favors the social and psychological factors that have led an individual to change religion. By exploring the Brazilian case, this work also approaches the multiplicity of religions, sects, beliefs and religious movements present in the Brazilian scenario, within the dynamics of forces involving this religious sphere. In order to do so, a historical summary of the main religious movements in the Brazilian case is presented. The emphasis is on Spiritism in Brazil and in the world, as a means of characterizing the evolution processes of the Spiritist Doctrine and the arguments with which this Doctrine competes in this mosaic of religious convictions. The research is supported on a questionnaire distributed throughout the national territory, collecting from respondents data that allow us to qualify them under several aspects: income, education, regional location, knowledge and practice of the Spiritist Doctrine, etc. Within the consultation aspects, 18 options are suggested as reasons for the change of religion to Spiritism, and in twenty other aspects, a deepening of the option presented more often in the previous group is offered. The initial options are distributed among the most frequent reasons for religious change observed by the author in personal experience and in literature. The statistic data have been collected from more than two thousand three hundred respondents, in more than 400 municipalities, in all Brazilian states. / Este trabalho faz um estudo analítico do fenômeno da conversão religiosa. Particularmente, dos fatores que motivam o trânsito de fiéis de uma religião qualquer para o Espiritismo, no Brasil. Os grupos em estudo, dos quais são provenientes os novos espíritas foram divididos em sete blocos: Catolicismo, Protestantismo, afro-brasileiras, Umbanda, orientais, outras e, nenhuma. Essa análise privilegia os fatores sociais e psicológicos que levam um indivíduo a mudar de religião. Ao explorar o caso brasileiro, este trabalho aborda também, a multiplicidade de religiões, seitas, crenças e movimentos religiosos presentes no cenário brasileiro, dentro da dinâmica de forças que envolvem esse campo religioso. Para isso, é apresentado um resumo da história dos principais movimentos religiosos no caso brasileiro. Dá-se ênfase ao Espiritismo no Brasil e no mundo, como forma de caracterizar os processos de evolução da Doutrina Espírita e os argumentos com que a essa Doutrina compete nesse mosaico de convicções religiosas. A pesquisa se apoia em um questionário distribuído em todo território nacional, que coleta dos respondentes, dados que permitem qualificá-los sob diversos aspectos: renda, educação, localização regional, conhecimento e prática da Doutrina Espírita, etc. Dentro dos quesitos de consulta estão sugeridas 18 opções, como razões da mudança da religião para o Espiritismo e, em outros vinte quesitos, um aprofundamento da opção que, no conjunto anterior se apresentou como a mais frequente. As opções iniciais se distribuem entre as razões mais frequentes da mudança de religião observadas pelo autor em sua experiência pessoal e na literatura. Os dados estatísticos foram coletados de mais de 2.300 depoentes, em mais de 400 municípios, em todos os Estados do Brasil.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T18:49:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO_Antonio Azevedo_03_04_2013.pdf: 1980746 bytes, checksum: 7795a74e8fb0a42a9c726473f5f9c17d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-27 / Brazil is considered a multicultural country which has in its composition the most varied ethnic groups and religious creeds, where pantheism, monotheism, polytheism, spiritualism, atheism, among other forms of religious expression go hand in hand, on the streets , at work, in relationships, in the home and in schools. The Constitution of this country, defines it as a Secular State, or a State officially neutral regarding religious matters and should not support certain religions at the expense of others. In this sense, the objective of this study is to analyze the Religious Education, its fundamentals and prospects facing the Brazilian cultural diversity, to understand whether they meet the principle of secularism present in our legislation. Believing it takes a paradigm for analyzing the empirical Religious Education, this study addresses the issue from the model of the state of São Paulo. Thus, the specific objectives of this study are: conduct a study of the laws relating to Religious Education in Brazil and in São Paulo; analyze the curriculum and materials used in the lessons of Religious Education in the State of São Paulo, noting the elaboration of these, there was compliance with the principle of Secularism by the state in the face of cultural and religious plurality. This is an exploratory, descriptive and analytical, which uses the methods of survey and literature review and survey and document analysis. The analysis makes use of the qualitative approach. Religious Education needs to be analyzed and discussed, without partisanship or interests. Only then will this secular character in real state and the rights of citizens or religious denominations will actually be respected. / O Brasil é considerado um país multicultural que possui em sua composição as mais variadas etnias e credos religiosos, onde o panteísmo, monoteísmo, o politeísmo, o espiritismo, o ateísmo, entre outras formas de manifestação religiosa caminham lado a lado, nas ruas, no trabalho, nos relacionamentos, dentro dos lares e nas escolas. A Constituição deste país, o define como um Estado Laico, ou seja, um Estado oficialmente neutro com relação às questões religiosas e que não deve apoiar a determinadas religiões em detrimento das demais. Neste sentido, o objetivo geral deste estudo é analisar o Ensino Religioso, seus fundamentos e perspectivas frente à diversidade cultural brasileira, para entender se atendem o princípio da laicidade presente em nossa legislação. Acreditando que é preciso um paradigma empírico para analisar o Ensino Religioso, este estudo aborda a questão a partir do modelo do Estado de São Paulo. Assim, os objetivos específicos deste estudo são: realizar um estudo das legislações referentes ao Ensino Religioso no Brasil e no Estado de São Paulo; analisar o currículo e o material utilizado nas aulas de Ensino Religioso no Estado de São Paulo, observando se na elaboração destes, houve a observância do princípio de Laicidade por parte do Estado diante da pluralidade cultural e religiosa. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, descritivo e analítico, que utiliza os métodos de levantamento e revisão bibliográfica e levantamento e análise documental. A análise dos dados faz uso da abordagem qualitativa. o Ensino Religioso precisa ser analisado e discutido, sem partidarismo ou interesses. Somente assim este caráter laico será real no Estado e os direitos dos cidadãos ou das denominações religiosas serão realmente respeitados

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2016-05-05T19:35:24Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Évely Adriana de Lima Lopes - 2015.pdf: 1592754 bytes, checksum: 5980ba427cc8fc6927e444fa01c9c0c5 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-05-06T11:31:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Évely Adriana de Lima Lopes - 2015.pdf: 1592754 bytes, checksum: 5980ba427cc8fc6927e444fa01c9c0c5 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-06T11:31:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Évely Adriana de Lima Lopes - 2015.pdf: 1592754 bytes, checksum: 5980ba427cc8fc6927e444fa01c9c0c5 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-23 / This work is a reflection on the religious education in public schools in Goiás. We looked in on the concept of secularism as a fundamental principle of democratic governments and Re-publicans on the relationship of this principle within the Brazilian public school and all de-rived implications there. Religion is an integral element in building the identity of a people and understood as a sym-bolic system practices and beliefs relating to the invisible world of supernatural beings. Therefore, the History of Religions is also the result of social, political and economic estab-lished in a society. Faced with a series of thematic alternative, we made the deliberate choice to meet more fully the guiding material for religious education classes in public schools: the curriculum. Also examine the set of pageants, cultural, social and policies that guided the presence of religious education in public schools in Brazil. Understand the religious culture of a people is key to understanding its history. We seek to investigate the school's relationship with their social environment and social contradictions that manifest themselves in the strug-gle for a democratic school for all. The initial conflict presented in the subject of questioning part of a hypothetical-deductive reasoning. With its commitment to work is to help the Religious Education teachers from public schools in the state of Goiás can expand their benchmarks for the recognition of cultural diversity, ethnic-racial and religious that compose the Brazilian society through the curriculum. The suggested educational product is a proposed curriculum for religious education in high school under a new nomenclature: History of Religions, with input from other areas of knowledge such as history, sociology, philosophy, art, geography and language. / O presente trabalho faz uma reflexão sobre o Ensino Religioso nas escolas públicas estaduais em Goiás. Debruçamo-nos sobre o conceito de laicidade como um princípio fundamental de governos democráticos e republicanos, sobre a relação desse princípio dentro da escola públi-ca brasileira e todas as implicações derivadas daí. A religião é um elemento integrante na construção da identidade de um povo e compreendido como um sistema de práticas simbólicas e de crenças relativas ao mundo invisível dos seres sobrenaturais. Assim sendo, a História das Religiões é também o resultado das relações soci-ais, políticas e econômicas estabelecidas numa sociedade. Diante de uma série de alternativas temáticas, fizemos a opção intencional em conhecer mais a fundo o material norteador para as aulas de Ensino Religioso na rede pública: o currículo. Analisar também o conjunto das repre-sentações históricas, culturais, sociais e políticas que orientaram a presença do Ensino Religi-oso na escola pública no Brasil. Compreender a cultura religiosa de um povo é fundamental para compreender a sua história. Buscamos investigar as relações da escola com o seu entorno social e as contradições sociais que se manifestam na luta por uma escola democrática para todos. O conflito inicial apresentado na problematização do tema parte de um raciocínio hipo-tético-dedutivo. O empenho deste trabalho é colaborar para que os professores de Ensino Religioso da rede pública estadual do Estado de Goiás possam ampliar seus padrões de referência pelo reconhe-cimento da diversidade cultural, étnico-racial e religiosa que compõe a sociedade brasileira por meio do currículo. O produto educacional sugerido é uma proposta curricular para o Ensi-no Religioso no Ensino Médio sob uma nova nomenclatura: História das Religiões, com apor-te de outras áreas do conhecimento como História, Sociologia, Filosofia, Arte, Geografia e Linguagem.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO_Antonio Azevedo_03_04_2013.pdf: 1980746 bytes, checksum: 7795a74e8fb0a42a9c726473f5f9c17d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-27 / Brazil is considered a multicultural country which has in its composition the most varied ethnic groups and religious creeds, where pantheism, monotheism, polytheism, spiritualism, atheism, among other forms of religious expression go hand in hand, on the streets , at work, in relationships, in the home and in schools. The Constitution of this country, defines it as a Secular State, or a State officially neutral regarding religious matters and should not support certain religions at the expense of others. In this sense, the objective of this study is to analyze the Religious Education, its fundamentals and prospects facing the Brazilian cultural diversity, to understand whether they meet the principle of secularism present in our legislation. Believing it takes a paradigm for analyzing the empirical Religious Education, this study addresses the issue from the model of the state of São Paulo. Thus, the specific objectives of this study are: conduct a study of the laws relating to Religious Education in Brazil and in São Paulo; analyze the curriculum and materials used in the lessons of Religious Education in the State of São Paulo, noting the elaboration of these, there was compliance with the principle of Secularism by the state in the face of cultural and religious plurality. This is an exploratory, descriptive and analytical, which uses the methods of survey and literature review and survey and document analysis. The analysis makes use of the qualitative approach. Religious Education needs to be analyzed and discussed, without partisanship or interests. Only then will this secular character in real state and the rights of citizens or religious denominations will actually be respected. / O Brasil é considerado um país multicultural que possui em sua composição as mais variadas etnias e credos religiosos, onde o panteísmo, monoteísmo, o politeísmo, o espiritismo, o ateísmo, entre outras formas de manifestação religiosa caminham lado a lado, nas ruas, no trabalho, nos relacionamentos, dentro dos lares e nas escolas. A Constituição deste país, o define como um Estado Laico, ou seja, um Estado oficialmente neutro com relação às questões religiosas e que não deve apoiar a determinadas religiões em detrimento das demais. Neste sentido, o objetivo geral deste estudo é analisar o Ensino Religioso, seus fundamentos e perspectivas frente à diversidade cultural brasileira, para entender se atendem o princípio da laicidade presente em nossa legislação. Acreditando que é preciso um paradigma empírico para analisar o Ensino Religioso, este estudo aborda a questão a partir do modelo do Estado de São Paulo. Assim, os objetivos específicos deste estudo são: realizar um estudo das legislações referentes ao Ensino Religioso no Brasil e no Estado de São Paulo; analisar o currículo e o material utilizado nas aulas de Ensino Religioso no Estado de São Paulo, observando se na elaboração destes, houve a observância do princípio de Laicidade por parte do Estado diante da pluralidade cultural e religiosa. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, descritivo e analítico, que utiliza os métodos de levantamento e revisão bibliográfica e levantamento e análise documental. A análise dos dados faz uso da abordagem qualitativa. o Ensino Religioso precisa ser analisado e discutido, sem partidarismo ou interesses. Somente assim este caráter laico será real no Estado e os direitos dos cidadãos ou das denominações religiosas serão realmente respeitados

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and discuss the ways in which the world religions are presented in Swedish upper secondary Religious education [RE] textbooks. The result of the study is the following: The RE textbooks have similar ways of presenting the different world religions. Nevertheless, Christianity is offered more space in the books, and is also more personally presented that the other world religions. This implies that upper secondary students may not be given opportunity, through these RE textbooks, to depict and to understand all world religions in an equal way. The result is being discussed through two theoretical concepts: religious pluralism and an agentic perspective. Taken together, the theoretical interpretation of the result stresses an ‘outside’ secular perspective, grounded in descriptions of religious life and experiences from an outside perspective of the world religions. While a perspective from inside or from within the world religions is rare, and if at all most prevailing in the RE textbooks’ presentations of Christianity. This may have didactical consequences for the upper secondary RE teachers, in terms of which textbooks to use in the subject matter teaching, when religious diversity as knowledge content and objective is at the fore of the RE subject in the Swedish syllabus for upper secondary RE. A religiously diverse and agentic RE teaching, it is assumed, needs to balance the didactical space through choices of RE textbooks that convey equally distributed perspectives from both an outside and an inside depiction of every world religion.