Many consider Sweden as one of the most secularised countries in the world. While the country is rapidly growing more religiously and culturally diverse there still remains a Lutheran touch in the school curriculum. Skolverket depicts itself as being nondenominational and objective, but many have argued against this statement. The educational system’s roots of both being organised and run using Christian religious materials clearly presents the complex situation that can be recognized even today.  Researchers and students alike agree that there is an issue regarding the representation of all cultural and religious groups in the Swedish educational system. The students in the work of Carina Holmqvist Lidh testify of the lack of representation or frequent misrepresentation in their formal education. Many feel the religion they meet in schools cannot be recognized as their own. This is a problem both in the condensed teaching materials which are used and the very limited lesson time a teacher has at hand. An active didactical choice, deeming what’s important knowledge or not, falls in the lap of educators and the consequences that I want to present in this essay is that many religious orientations risk going unnoticed.  That’s why in this essay my goal is to create a discussion about the ways the Lutheran Christian faith has historically, and continues to affect religion education, all while deeming itself as non-confessional and neutral. Furthermore, owing to fellow students’ essays and professors' analysis of textbooks depiction of non-Lutheran religious groups I hope to present the problem with this Lutheran-touch, which leaves many students from other religious orientations feeling their faith is misrepresented or left out in traditional teaching.

In this study the medializing of the Church of Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic have been examined to see the impact on youths’ freedom of religion during the time of the Swedish national restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The digital adaption of the Church of Sweden was analysed through the concept of amplification, framing and co-structuring, whilst Klasson Sundins theory on the child’s freedom of religion was adapted to investigate if the rights of the child have been limited by the restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Sweden. The conclusions are that the youth have been benefiting from the increased digitalization of the church, which has been more inviting for the youth and has made volunteering more accessible for the youth as well. It is not only the digitalization that have contributed to this. The fact that the recommendations to elderly have been more severe due to the increased risk of COVID-19 with age, has created a gap in the church when people who used to volunteer was not able to do that anymore. This gap has been filled by the youth of the church. To confirm these conclusions further research must be done, preferably by asking the people who have been working with the youth of the church and by letting the youth themselves, tell us their story about being a part of the church during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study uses the coping theory and search for significance by Kenneth Pargament (1997) applied to the issue of occupational burnout among parish deacons in the Church of Sweden. The Social Insurance Report of 2020:8 presents deacons and priests as a profession at high risk of falling ill in stress related mental illness and sick leaves. The aim with this essay is to try to find whether there are aspects of Pargament’s coping theory that can be applied on this problem. Two main questions were answered:- What does the Church of Sweden’s governing documents state regarding the deaconry related to structure and role clarity? - How can we use Pargament’s coping theory on search for significance to understand the burnout issue among deacons as it is presented in the Social Insurance Report of 2020:8? Through a thematic analysis, three themes were distinguished: Clarity of Mission, Religions as Motivation and Structure and Management. These themes set the foundation for the result presented in this report. The chapter of Analysis deepens the connection to the coping theory and three specific assumptions of Pargament. The conclusion is that the governing documents are quite vague in presenting the deaconry related to structure and role clarity. There is also a lack of understanding, regarding deaconry and diakonia of the church, amongst parish leaderships which in turn leads to challenges and frictions for the local parish deacons. Many of them also wish for more liturgical elements and time for religious praxis within their working hours which results in a discussion of conserving or transforming the individuals’ significance.

No description available.

This thesis examines the role played by the Church of Sweden in the field of social work, with some comparison to the social services. The Church of Sweden has a rich history of engaging with communities, delivering social support, and addressing the welfare needs of its congregants and the wider population. Employing qualitative research methods and interviews of a selection of priests and deacons, this thesis aims to gain a greater understanding of the church’s social work initiatives, contrasting them with the more bureaucratic and secular approach of the social services. The study also examines the difference between social work driven by faith and mercy, compared to that based on justice and rights. The results have led us to the conclusion that there are certain innate advantages to a mercy-based model of social work, but also inherent drawbacks of such nature that it would not make such an approach to social work a viable alternative as a basis for building a reliable social safety net, but also makes it a valuable complement.

Cemeteries are an integral part of the cityscape, which as a societal function are responsible for the interment of the deceased in a dignified manner. Cemeteries as a space imbued with cultural, historical, religious and emotional significance - as a site for grief, reflection and contemplation they also have a significant physical presence in the city. Cemeteries are a somewhat hidden issue in urban planning in Sweden today, but as a land intensive development that locks the land from future reuse it is paramount that the complexity is examined. The Burial Act (SFS 1990:1144) governs burial practice, services and the organisation structure of cemeteries in Sweden which creates an interesting set of conditions. The thesis investigates future cemetery planning in the context of Gothenburg, Sweden, as the city is faced with a shortage of burial space in the coming decade. Simultaneously, Gothenburg is growing and land for future development is highly contested. This provides motivation for why cemetery planning needs to be understood in an urban context. The thesis will use two case studies, first the case of Järva cemetery in Stockholm as inspiration for cemetery planning in current society and secondly the case of Gothenburg to guide the research regarding how to plan for cemeteries that are socially just. An extensive literature review and interviews with relevant actors, are used to gain knowledge of cemetery planning and the functions of cemeteries in a European context, as well as future trends regarding cemetery planning. The interviews are examined through the themes of physical considerations, qualities of cemeteries, diversity in burial provision and governance. Results of the interviews indicate the multifaceted nature of planning for cemeteries. The method of scenario planning is subsequently utilized as a tool to explore how a future cemetery in Gothenburg can be planned, developed and designed through four possible scenarios - small-peripheral, small-urban, large-urban and large-peripheral. A scenario analysis is carried out using a social justice theoretical framework to illuminate how a socially just cemetery development can be established and potential challenges regarding this. The concepts analysed through the theoretical framework are planning, ownership and management, finance, social infrastructure and environmental impact. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the cemetery scenarios analysis and providing recommendations for future cemetery planning in Gothenburg.

Through the lenses of religion’s role in society, the purpose of this thesis is to examine, the role of the Church of Sweden in providing support to people at the end of life. Questions asked are:  "What types of spiritual support is offered by the Church of Sweden during terminal care provided in patients' homes and how is this support expressed in church orders, assembly instructions, plans of operations and congregation letters?" and " How can the work of the Church of Sweden be understood, based on theories of religion's role in society? The method used is a content analysis of the Church Order, assembly instructions, plans of operations and congregation letters in 17 different congregations within the diocese of Lund. I then engage in a discussion with theories on differentiation and the privatization of religion as a means to interpret my results. My conclusion is that the investigated parishes in the diocese of Lund do not have any specific goals or targets documented for spiritual support to people who are at life’s end cared in their homes. This can be understood based on theories of differentiation. The privatization of religion may explain the phenomenon that people's religious needs are not linked to the collective institutional religion of the Church of Sweden.  This is despite of the fact that a large proportion of the Swedish population belongs to the Church of Sweden. The de-privatization of religion, at a societal level can explain the reason why these concerns are attracting an increased interest from the healthcare services as people's need of spiritual support are discussed. The question of who should meet the patients' needs for spiritual support is unclear.

This study is about twinning partnerships between congregations in the Church of Sweden (CoS) and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT). The study is about three congregations within the diocese of Härnösand that has twinning congregations within the diocese of Iringa. The aim of the study is to define values within the twinning congregations that are important to the CoS. The study is based on interviews with lay people, elected and employed people within CoS. Swedish informants have told me that they see the prayer being part of daily life in a more natural manner for the friends in Tanzania. “The prayer is real within the congregations in Tanzania”, the people of the CoS are saying. What is the value for the CoS of having twinning congregations with ELCT? What do the Swedish people gain of it and how is it affected of the economical differences between the twinning congregations?

The aim of this essay is first and foremost to clarify which kind of different answers there are to identify within an evangelical-lutheran tradition considering what a person should confess and take responsibility for as their sin and guilt. Secondly this essay aims to suggest the most plausible one. This essay thematically present four different figures of ideas that answers to the question of what a person should confess as their sin and guilt. These figures are: 1) To confess the ontological state of guilt 2) To confess the subjective sin and guilt 3) To confess the objective sin and guilt 4) To confess participation in the structural sin and guilt. These four different views of what to confess have been tested through three different criterias: a criteria of theology - by testing the coherence with an evangelical-lutheran tradition, a criteria of pastoral psychology - by testing the correspondence with theories in pastoral psychology and a criteria of good consequences - to see if the views of what to confess have a liberating effect on an individual and collective level. After testing these different views of what to confess my conclusion is that the most valid one is “ to confess our objective sin and guilt” because it expresses the violation of the “relation”. Some of the other views may serve as a good explanation for the human “situation”, but are not appropriate to confess as guilt.

<p>Tidigare studier visar att sekulariseringen inneburit stora förändringar på det religiösa området. Studiens syfte var att beskriva hur präster inom Svenska kyrkan i Gävle uppfattade sekulariseringens påverkan. Fokus låg på att beskriva de kvalitativt olika uppfattningar som fanns, då dessa förhoppningsvis skulle ge en ökad och fördjupad vetskap kring sekulariseringens olika verkningar. Det empiriska materialet samlades in via kvalitativa intervjuer där åtta präster gav uttryck för sina uppfattningar. Studien visar på att kvalitativt olika uppfattningar fanns. Vidare visar studien på en rad intressanta strategier och åtgärder som behövs i det framtida kyrkliga arbetet. Det gäller bland annat organisatoriska förändringar i form av hur många kyrkor som ska finnas och hur ofta det ska firas gudstjänst, ett ökat samarbete mellan de lokala församlingarna och en utveckling av högmässan.</p>