Abstract This paper deals with the ideological aspects of the Irish epic saga Táin Bó Cúailnge´s first two recensions. The two versions, called Recension I and Recension II differ in some aspects and the purpose of this paper is to map out the differences, as well as the similarities. The analytic tool used is Bruce Lincoln’s myth theory that myth is ideology in narrative form. Using this tool I hope to give more understanding for the old Irish saga and also the people who wrote it and believed in it. The paper starts off with an introduction in research history in the field of myth and then continues explaining Lincoln’s theory and also takes up some of the criticisms against it. This is followed by a closer look at Táin Bó Cúailnge’s history, influences and its purpose. After this background the two different versions are presented with some notes on their origin, dating and authorship, and also short reviews of each version. To understand the ideological aspects of the two different recensions, the texts are first analyzed separately. This is followed by a comparative analysis, where the texts’ similarities and differences are examined. The paper is concluded in short at the end with conclusions drawn from the proceeding discussion and some last words from me, the author. Keywords: Táin Bó Cúailnge, Bruce Lincoln, ideology, mythology

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka konsumism med hjälp av religionsvetenskapliga teorier om ritual och myt. Med hjälp av framförallt Victor Turners ritualteori och Bruce Lincolns mytteori studerar vi exempelfallen Harley Davidson, Saab, Coca-Cola, Corona, Mountain Dew och Snapple samt hur köpcentra och stormarknader kan fungera som rituellt rum.Med konsumism menar vi konsumtion som en kulturellt viktig handling. Ett fenomen som uppstår när vi har så pass mycket materiella tillgångar att vi har möjlighet att köpa saker för att vi vill ha dem, inte för att vi behöver dem. För vårt religionsvetenskapliga grundperspektiv använder vi oss av Clifford Geertz religionsdefinition.Vi har visat att reklamer kan studeras utifrån ett religionsvetenskapligt perspektiv, då framförallt som myter. Med hjälp av en strukturalistisk analysmetod kan vi påvisa att exempelvis Coca-Colas underliggande mytem är en myt vänskap, där den rituella handlingen av att ge en Coca-Cola till någon mytiskt skapar en slags samhörighet och vänskap. Corona har å sin sida skapat sig en rituell och mytisk ö på vilken deras reklamer fungerar. Vi kan se hur Mountain Dew och Snapple använder sig av en slags minimal offentlig religion för att skapa sina egna märken som kulturellt betydelsefulla symboler.Vi diskuterar även vad som händer med våra religionsvetenskapliga begrepp när vi applicerar dem på ett material som vanligtvis inte betraktas som religionsvetenskapligt, och menar att det finns en intressant korsbefruktning mellan olika kulturvetenskapliga områden.

This essay studies the implicit and explicit perspectives of Bruce Lincoln, Jürgen Habermas, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, Charles Taylor, José Casanova and their approach to secularism as a phenomenon. This is done by categorizing them into three categories. The categories,enlightenment-centered theorists, critical theorists and implicit-theological theorists, all have explicit accounts and implicit forms of reasoning that shape and contextualize their respective approach. The Enlightenment-centered theorists tend to regard secularism as a neutral and peace-keeping statecraft. This approach implicitly contains the idea of a clear division between secular and religious. This implicit form of reasoning I argue is problematically non-reflexive to the theorist’s own standpoint and risks becoming a form of secular ideology. The theorists categorized as critical theorists view secularism more as a type of discourse where what is seen as religious and the secular is inherently fluid. This is then analyzed by them as a special strategy for Western sovereignty. The perspective of the implicit-theological theorists is similar both to the Enlightenment-centered and the criticaltheorists' perspective in that secularism is primarily peace-keeping and that the categories are often fluid. I show that their approach contains theological assumptions that religion responds to a realm which challenges the immanent world. In the last chapter of the essay, I give a normative evaluation of the three approaches to secularism where I argue that while the enlightenment-centered theorists have useful explanatory models, the critical and to a lesser extent implicit-theological approach to secularism are more fruitful for religious studies. They allow for more flexibility in studying the relationship between secular and religious groups as they do not determine the categories in advance. The essay also contains a concluding discussion on the type of problems for philosophy of science and religious studies that arise when secularism and what is seen as the secular is deconstructed.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the ideology of the cultural phenomenon, that is as political as it is controversial, the new atheism. By studying the ideas and values of four prominent new atheists, commonly referred to as the ‘four horsemen of the new atheism’, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett, this study aims to, in some ways challenge, and in others, nuance, the categorization of the movement. Its adherents have often been labeled as, for example: ‘secular fundamentalists’, ‘evangelical’ and ‘radical secularists’. None of these designations are inherently wrong. But I think there is a more fitting term available: ‘societal secular maximalist’. This term is a modified version of ‘religious maximalism’, coined by the historian of religion at the University of Chicago, Bruce Lincoln. I argue that the new atheist ideology is not fundamentalistic because it admits fallibility if another theory where to disprove it within its own scientific discourse. Considering this fact, it does not hold is central ideological feature, most commonly a Darwinist theory of evolution, as absolute. Due to this, and some other factors, I argue that the societal secular maximalist categorization is more fitting because the scientific and humanistic views of the ‘four horsemen’ lay claim to all aspects of human existence, private and public, emotional, and factual along with the morals, ethics and aesthetics of our societies.

Narratives of Nordic pre-history are common in textbooks of the Swedish 'folk school'. This thesis discusses them from an ideological critical perspective and analyses them as textbook myths. This analytic concept of myth is constructed and used as a tool for studying ideological expressions in pedagogical texts. It is compatible with a historical materialist, social constructivist and Gramsci inspired perspective towards folk schooling and can handle questions of selection and re-organisation of ancient narrative material. The study shows how a paternalistic ethnic ideology which showed the pupils how their ancestors immigrated and set up society and order is replaced by nationalistic myths where the Swedes are projected on the totality of the past. Idealisation of farmers and expressions that neutralise poverty and legitimates subordination are used continuously throughout the study period. After 1868 a national folk concept is established. Textbook myths with a euhemeristic portrayal of civilisation are replaced by other scientific ways of handling pre-historic religions including elements from nature mythology and evolutionary theory. The myths handle religions both through Christian polemics and theological projections. The results of the analyses are interpreted in the light of the contemporary socio-economic changes where a feudal agrarian society's principles for classifications and hierarchies are challenged and broken by the principles of a class society with a nationalistic ideology. In the concluding chapters the myths are discussed and interpreted in relation to curriculum codes and in a Gramsci inspired perspective as expressions of a passive bourgeois revolution, where intellectuals of the middle class conquered the school and the textbook myths by making alliances with the farming class and trying to neutralise the poor and the working class. The thesis contributes to research in the use of history, representation in pedagogical texts and to research in nationalism.