<p>Detta arbete, inom ämnet Kristendomens historia, presenterar en svenskkyrklig orden, ”Franciskus Tredje Orden inom Svenska kyrkan” (F.T.O.), som tillhör den ”Tredje Orden” (TSSF) inom ”The Society of Saint Francis” (SSF), en ordensgemenskap inom den Anglikanska kyrkan, Church of England. Orden är öppen för kvinnor och män, vigda (biskopar, präster och diakoner) och lekfolk som lever vanliga liv i familj och samhälle, med en vilja att leva sina liv utifrån en tydlig inspiration av den helige Franciskus och hans liv.</p><p>Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka och redogöra för de primärkällor som finns från tiden av F.T.O.: s grundande för att svara på frågan om huruvida Ordens uppkomst var förenlig eller ej med den Svenska kyrkan, dess tro, lära och bekännelse.</p><p>Undersökningen inleds med en deskriptiv del gällande bakgrunden till frågeställningen där jag redogör något för reformationen och vad detta medförde för Svenska kyrkan gällande klosterliv. Sedan följer en redogörelse och en hermeneutiskt och dogmatisk analys av de, för tiden av Ordens grundande, aktuella källorna.</p><p>En sammanfattning av resultatet som framkommit är det att grundandet av F.T.O. i början av 1970-talet var förenligt med den Svenska kyrkan. Vi kan se i källorna att Ordens syfte och annat typiskt för Orden, korresponderar väl med vad som uttrycks gällande tro, lära och bekännelse i Kyrkolagen 1686 och de, förutom Bibeln, samlade bekännelseskrifterna för den Svenska kyrkan. Genom detta arbete konstaterar vi att ett ordensliv likt F.T.O. kan tillämpas inom ett evangeliskt-lutherskt kyrkosamfund och att det på intet sätt är synonymt med den gärningsfromhet inom klosterväsendet som reformatorerna så tydligt vände sig mot under medeltiden.</p> / <p>This study, in the subject the history of Christianity, present an order in the Church of Sweden, “Saint Francis Third Order within the Church of Sweden” (F.T.O.), which is a part of the “Third Order” (TSSF) within “The Society of Saint Francis” (SSF), a community within the Anglican Church, Church of England. The order is open for women and men, ordained (bishops, priests and deacons) and lay people who live ordinary lives in family and society, with a desire to live their lives inspired by Saint Francis and his life.</p><p>My purpose with this study is to examine and describe the prime sources from the time of the foundation of the F.T.O. to answer the question about whether the foundation of the Order was compatible or not with the Church of Sweden, their faith, doctrine and confession.</p><p>The examination starts with a descriptive part about the background to the study problem where I give some facts about the reformation and what that brings for the Church of Sweden in relation to monastery life. Then comes a description and a hermeneutics and a dogmatic analysis of the, for the time of the foundation of the Order, current sources.</p><p>A summery of the upcoming results of this study is that at the foundation of F.T.O. in 1970ths was compatible with the Church of Sweden. In the sources we can see that the Orders purpose and other typical for the Order corresponds well with what they say about faith, doctrine and confession in the church law from 1686 and the, except the holy Bible, confession scripts for the Church of Sweden. Through this work we establish the fact that an order life like that we see in F.T.O. could practices in an evangelical-Lutheran church and it is not in any way synonymic with that phenomena called “action piety” within the monastery life that the men’s of the reformation so clearly said no to under the middle age.</p>

<p>Marriage is an institution found in every society, culture or religion in the world. The Catholic Church has maintained most of her seven Sacraments including that of marriage. The Church of Sweden, an established Evangelical Lutheran faith, born out of the 16^th century Reformation has two Sacraments excluding marriage. This field study was carried out in Gävle, Sweden in spring 2009. A comparative study of marriage in the Catholic Church and the Church of Sweden and the reason each church alludes to based on scripture and tradition was to help me, an African Catholic, understand differences between the respective churches and also understand why the Church of Sweden accepts same sex marriages. This was my motivation for writing this paper. I hope this paper will serve as a study guide to new people who come to Sweden from other cultures to enable them understand why the “Modus Operandi” regarding church marriage in Sweden is different from the church marriage in their native countries.</p>

The aim of the thesis is to investigate theological understandings in conjunction with the baptism of children and to develop such of these understandings as can be seen to be “trovärdiga” (credible or trustworthy) in the contemporary context of Church of Sweden. The theoretical point of departure is taken in a hermeneutical theological method of correlation between interpretation of “Situation” and interpretation of “Tradition”. A trustworthy theology emerges in a critical and/or constructive encounter between the interpretation of Tradition and the interpretation of Situation. Such an encounter can be established within an area of problematics. Three problem areas are identified that are present in the Swedish context of baptizing children in Church of Sweden. A) The first problem area concerns the theological interpretation of the relationship between those baptized and those not in a pluralistic society. B) Theological interpretation of “destruction” and what the theological tradition names original sin. How can a trustworthy baptismal theology be developed that takes suffering, oppression, the ecological crisis, seriously in the present situation and at the same time handle or solve the problems related to the theological tradition of original sin? C) How can a trustworthy baptismal theology solve or handle the problems related to a dichotomous construct of the relationship between God and the world? Four types of material are analyzed: sociological and statistical material, ecumenical theological resources for interpreting baptism, two different orders of baptism at use in Church of Sweden and baptismal liturgies celebrated according to these orders of baptism, and primarily Oriental Orthodox traditions of the Baptism of Jesus. Several understandings are developed and among them three over-arching concepts found fruitful for solving or handling the problems concerned: the baptismal tradition connected to the Baptism of Jesus interpreted in the light of A Trinitarian Theology of Creation that understands baptism as an expression of The Mystery of Creation, The Sacrament of Creation . / Kolla att datum 16 oktober blev rätt!Kolla att de tre kursiveringarna på sista avsnittet i abstarct inte flyter samman till en enda (jfr pdf).Gordon Lathrop är professor emeritus från Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, och Yale Divinity SchoolKirsten Busch Nielsen är professor i systematisk teologi vid Köpenhamns universitet (opponenten)

In January, 1951, the Lutheran Church of China denounced all relations with the American, German and Scandinavian missions, which for more than half a century had worked in the country. As one of the first, this church made a clear and corporate stand in favour of the New Democracy and the Three-Self Movement, while most of the missions made their political choice, retreated with the Nationalists and finally went to Taiwan. This book presents the Lutheran missions from optimistic new orientations in 1944 to the evacuation and the break down of the cooperation with the Chinese church seven years later. This short .period was dramatic and of great importance for the whole missionary movement, and the study may lead to renewed self-criticism and to a necessary re-evaluation of the Chinese Revolution - one of the most significant events in World History.

Marriage is an institution found in every society, culture or religion in the world. The Catholic Church has maintained most of her seven Sacraments including that of marriage. The Church of Sweden, an established Evangelical Lutheran faith, born out of the 16th century Reformation has two Sacraments excluding marriage. This field study was carried out in Gävle, Sweden in spring 2009. A comparative study of marriage in the Catholic Church and the Church of Sweden and the reason each church alludes to based on scripture and tradition was to help me, an African Catholic, understand differences between the respective churches and also understand why the Church of Sweden accepts same sex marriages. This was my motivation for writing this paper. I hope this paper will serve as a study guide to new people who come to Sweden from other cultures to enable them understand why the “Modus Operandi” regarding church marriage in Sweden is different from the church marriage in their native countries.

This dissertation is an ecclesiological study, conducted in the form of a case study that examines worship praxis in six parishes in the diocese of Luleå between 1990 and 2009. The specific research problem of the dissertation is whether the organizational changes that took place in connection with the relational change between Church and State in 2000 are reflected in local worship and in church service related decisions in diocese and parishes, and how the concrete relationship between worship praxis and regulations is manifested. The research problem also includes what ecclesiological impact the organizational changes may have had in the studied parishes and what the empirical results can reveal about the ecclesiality of the Church. The dissertation addresses four research questions. In response to the first question: “Are the organizational changes of 2000 reflected in local worship and in worship related decisions in dioceses and parishes and, if so, in what way?” it is noted that organizational change is reflected indirectly in expressions of growing autonomization. In response to the second question "What is the relationship between worship praxis and regulations in the Church ordinance and The Swedish Church manual 1986?” there is a tangible difference between worship praxis and regulations throughout the studied period, i.e. even before the relational change, although the difference over time has increased. Regarding the third question "What impact could the organizational change, associated with the relational change between the Church of Sweden and the State, have had on the ecclesiologies in the worship praxis which the studied parishes represent and hold?” I have not found that the new order has affected, in any direct way, the parishes’ implicit ecclesiologies during the time span covered by the study. Rather, it seems that the Church ordinance that was established at the time of the relational change has reinforced an already existing implicit ecclesiology where the parishes are considered to be autonomous. The fourth question "How can the empirical result be interpreted theologically with regard to its implicit ecclesiology, and what does that say about the ecclesiality of the Church of Sweden?” The theological interpretation of autonomization indicates an overall "immanent ecclesiology", which can be visualized in current praxis in the diocese of Luleå. The ambition that the Church of Sweden despite organizational change in the year 2000 would be the same also indicates a similar implicit ecclesiology. This is because the Church was not thought to change its identity despite being subjected to a revision in form. The study shows that the arsenal of theories and the methodical approach have implications for how much can be clarified and that different ways of studying the Church should be combined. The present study is an example of this by the study's abductive approach and exploratory character, which have allowed both interaction between praxis-related empiricism and theory and interaction between descriptive analysis and hermeneutic interpretation. The study also shows that “ordo-related theories” may be applicable to the study of the Church as an organizational structure.

Detta arbete, inom ämnet Kristendomens historia, presenterar en svenskkyrklig orden, ”Franciskus Tredje Orden inom Svenska kyrkan” (F.T.O.), som tillhör den ”Tredje Orden” (TSSF) inom ”The Society of Saint Francis” (SSF), en ordensgemenskap inom den Anglikanska kyrkan, Church of England. Orden är öppen för kvinnor och män, vigda (biskopar, präster och diakoner) och lekfolk som lever vanliga liv i familj och samhälle, med en vilja att leva sina liv utifrån en tydlig inspiration av den helige Franciskus och hans liv. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka och redogöra för de primärkällor som finns från tiden av F.T.O.: s grundande för att svara på frågan om huruvida Ordens uppkomst var förenlig eller ej med den Svenska kyrkan, dess tro, lära och bekännelse. Undersökningen inleds med en deskriptiv del gällande bakgrunden till frågeställningen där jag redogör något för reformationen och vad detta medförde för Svenska kyrkan gällande klosterliv. Sedan följer en redogörelse och en hermeneutiskt och dogmatisk analys av de, för tiden av Ordens grundande, aktuella källorna. En sammanfattning av resultatet som framkommit är det att grundandet av F.T.O. i början av 1970-talet var förenligt med den Svenska kyrkan. Vi kan se i källorna att Ordens syfte och annat typiskt för Orden, korresponderar väl med vad som uttrycks gällande tro, lära och bekännelse i Kyrkolagen 1686 och de, förutom Bibeln, samlade bekännelseskrifterna för den Svenska kyrkan. Genom detta arbete konstaterar vi att ett ordensliv likt F.T.O. kan tillämpas inom ett evangeliskt-lutherskt kyrkosamfund och att det på intet sätt är synonymt med den gärningsfromhet inom klosterväsendet som reformatorerna så tydligt vände sig mot under medeltiden. / This study, in the subject the history of Christianity, present an order in the Church of Sweden, “Saint Francis Third Order within the Church of Sweden” (F.T.O.), which is a part of the “Third Order” (TSSF) within “The Society of Saint Francis” (SSF), a community within the Anglican Church, Church of England. The order is open for women and men, ordained (bishops, priests and deacons) and lay people who live ordinary lives in family and society, with a desire to live their lives inspired by Saint Francis and his life. My purpose with this study is to examine and describe the prime sources from the time of the foundation of the F.T.O. to answer the question about whether the foundation of the Order was compatible or not with the Church of Sweden, their faith, doctrine and confession. The examination starts with a descriptive part about the background to the study problem where I give some facts about the reformation and what that brings for the Church of Sweden in relation to monastery life. Then comes a description and a hermeneutics and a dogmatic analysis of the, for the time of the foundation of the Order, current sources. A summery of the upcoming results of this study is that at the foundation of F.T.O. in 1970ths was compatible with the Church of Sweden. In the sources we can see that the Orders purpose and other typical for the Order corresponds well with what they say about faith, doctrine and confession in the church law from 1686 and the, except the holy Bible, confession scripts for the Church of Sweden. Through this work we establish the fact that an order life like that we see in F.T.O. could practices in an evangelical-Lutheran church and it is not in any way synonymic with that phenomena called “action piety” within the monastery life that the men’s of the reformation so clearly said no to under the middle age.

This study takes its point of departure in the tradition of Christian women covering their hair for religious and cultural reasons, hereafter called veiling. The aim has been to investigate what ideas were projected onto the veil in Sweden during the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as when and how the tradition of veiling disappeared among most Christian Swedes. My definition of what constitutes a veil has little to do with the form of the head covering. If an item is used in the mean of covering women’s hair for religious or cultural, rather than practical reasons, then it is considered to be a veil.In his first letter to the assembly of Corinth (1 Cor. 11), the Apostle Paul advocates a veil as a sign of women’s subordination. He also states that women’s hair is a sign of honour and to have it cut would be a disgrace. In 19th century Sweden, it was tradition among the rural populations for women to have long hair, covered indoors as well as outdoors. The sources show that people were aware of the words in 1 Cor. 11 about female subordination and the veil as a sign thereof. Women’s hair became the means for an individual’s inner body to show its virtues via the outer, physical body.In the mid-1920s it became popular for young women to cut their hair short. By accentuating how the world had changed, short hair became a symbol of modernity. Within a decade short hair for young women became the norm all over the country. There were no significant protests of this from the Swedish Church, though free-churches with a more fundamentalist understanding of the Bible remained disapproving. As the century progressed women gradually appeared bare-headed in church. Paul’s words about subordination became considered as an Oriental influence rather than a divine command. By projecting the inequalities of the sexes as an ancient Oriental idea, the western society’s identity as modern and democratic could be asserted. Essentially, everyone agreed that Swedish Christian women were not veiled, nor ever had been, nor should be. Hence the tradition of veiling disappeared in the Swedish Church without much notice.In the more fundamentalist Swedish Pentecostal movement the hair itself began to carry the religious symbolism otherwise given to the veil. In this manner, the hair had indeed become like a veil, as Paul had written. Renouncing long hair was in the end a renunciation of Paul’s words and the hierarchical system assigned by God. Nevertheless, short hair for women eventually became accepted within the Swedish Pentecostal movement as well.

The present study deals with the encounter between the diocese of Luleå and the process of modernising. The main issue is individualism as a part of modern man’s identity. What kind of individualism was it, and how did it find expression in the diocese’s perspective on faith during the first half of the 20th century? A leading idea in the thesis is that the low church profile provided the diocese with a particular readiness to meet the demands of modern culture. The starting-point of the study is Philosopher Charles Taylor’s theory on the rise of modernity’s concept of freedom and perception of the self, which includes a justification of a positive side of modern individualism and a corresponding dismissal of a negative side. This attitude opens the door for the possibility of doing greater justice to the low church emphasis on the individual person. Taylor asks, from his moral-philosophical point of view, as well as the diocese of Luleå did, whether the Christian faith would have any future in modern culture. The low church view on faith becomes dynamic-extential as it dismisses a traditional metaphysical or theoretical explanation of God as a transcendent reality. Instead the subject is given vital importance. This apprehension reflects an influence from expressivism as a new form of consciousness, in protest against the science of the 17th that separated reason from both nature and feelings. This was inherent in the diocese via pietism. However, not an outspoken anthropology, the diocese nevertheless indicates that it considers man a linguistic and self-interpreting creature. This amounts to a more suitable view on the belief in modern culture, which no longer can rely on a commonly accepted belief in an inherent order of the world as an expression of God’s intentions and will. / digitalisering@umu

The Church of Sweden had barely 6.5 million members in 2012. Just over 1% of the members visit a church service regularly every Sunday. The number of visitors in worship services has diminished continuously for a very long time. From 1990 to 2010, the annual number of visitors at the main worship services has decreased by 50% from 9 million to about 4.5 million. The service activities can still be maintained at the current level because the many passive members still pays their membership fee. According to the national documents from the Church of Sweden the Sunday service is the most important mission. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the mission to celebrate divine worship as the official church gives local parishes and how this is perceived by the employees and the elected officials of the local parish. What are the similarities, differences and tensions between the mandate given by the Church of Sweden at the national level and the way performers perceive this? The study was based on three main documents: The Church Order for Church of Sweden (Kyrkoordningen), The theological basic principles for preparations for a new book of Common Prayer (2006), and the Explanations for the Proposal of the Book of Common Prayer. Part 1. Finally I analyzed the documentation (2011-2012) for preparation of the parish structural regulation on Northern Gotland. From these documents I formed 26 claims about the service that was presented to the informants in the attitude survey. The claims were then grouped into eight tentative quality dimensions for a "right celebrated worship", namely practical issues, faith, didactics, emotions, ethics, fellowship, diaconal issues and tradition. The empirical study was made in seven parishes in the North of Gotland. The informants were 34 employees and 40 elected officials. To this survey I added ten semi-structured interviews with the same groups. This study has essentially a religious sociological frame of reference. The main contribution of theories has been given by Grace Davie, Per Pettersson, Ole Riis and Linda Woodhead.  Davie analyzes North European churches which has or has had any ties to the State and where the majority of the population belongs to the Church, but very few members makes use of church services. Davie has described this in terms like "belonging without believing" or “vicarious religion”. Pettersson describes the relationship between the Church and the many members in service theoretical terms. He measures the quality of what the Church of Sweden offers as a service organization and from a theoretical perspective of this service. Riis and Woodhead have mainly contributed to this study through their theories about religion and emotions. The result of the study was that the elected officials were slightly more satisfied with the service as it is performed today compared with the employees. Overall, it was a surprisingly unanimous group that shall plan and develop the service. The elected officials emphasize the importance of parish church more than the employees while matters of faith are more important to the employees. The national documents often points to the importance of tradition. This ambition was not found in any of the groups in the study.