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In this master thesis the critique of the development within the Church of Sweden, by the Swedish Lutheran minister Dag Sandahl, is examined and analysed. Sandahl is an outspoken critic, and self-described dissident, in the Church of Sweden. He is primarily known for questioning, and being an opponent to, the opening up of the priesthood to women dated 1958 in the Church of Sweden. The source material used consists of monographs with critique of the Church published by Sandahl between 1973 and 2018. The thesis concludes that Sandahl’s critique touches a broad array of themes and occurrences within the life of the Church – primarily the Church of Sweden – such as the Church’s self-understanding as a national church and not part of the Church catholic, a functionalistic view of ministry leading to the ordination of women to the priesthood, the rough treatment of the opposing minority and the politicized General Synod. It is argued that Sandahl’s critique is best understood in terms of lived ecclesiology and ecclesiology proper.

Lars Levi Laestadius (1800-1861) was active as a priest in the Swedish church in the northernmost parts of Sweden. After experiencing a transformative and life-changing spiritual breakthrough, which he himself has later called his rebirth and the moment when he received a living faith, he came to gather large audiences and give rise to a revival movement, which still bears his name today. Although Laestadius was active as a priest, he sharply criticized many conditions in the contemporary church. The purpose of this essay has been to investigate whether, and if so how, this criticism as presented in his sermons and writings can be linked to his Bible use, i.e. his reading and interpretation of the Bible and the authority he gives the Bible. For my study, I have closely read a large number of his extant sermons and published writings. The study also briefly summarises the central elements of Laestadius' theology, as well as what he perceives to be the Church's main mission. The study shows how his criticism is based on his use of the Bible and also how, through a far-reaching allegorical interpretation of the Bible, he uses different texts from both the Old and the New Testaments in his argumentation.

This essay examines a movement practicing civic confirmation in Stockholm in the 1930s. Organizing the civic confirmations was The Committee for Civic Youth Education, led by civil- and human rights advocate Anna Lindhagen (1870–1941). The practice of civic confirmation is examined within the context of the early 20th century Swedish labour movement and the criticism of church and religion often expressed therein. Based on Janken Myrdal’s method of multiple sources, the essay utilizes several different kinds of sources, consisting of unpublished archival material as well as press and periodical journals, in order to examine the background, purpose and practice of civic confirmation. The origins of the civic confirmations are found within the critique of what was perceived as a too dogmatic and compulsory school education in the Christian faith, leading to a desire to politically reform the religious education of the public-school system. When this failed, Anna Lindhagen and her peers took matters into their own hands, organizing a course of lectures on religious and philosophic thinkers throughout history as well as on contemporary matters deemed important for adolescents. The purpose was to give youths a proper religious education, thus enabling them to become morally and spiritually sound members of society, and to eventually replace the practice of church confirmation. Courses were held throughout the 1930s, but the movement’s fate thereafter is unknown. The civic confirmations in Stockholm were similar to practices in southern Sweden as well as in Denmark and Norway. They were also in many ways typical of how the labour movement had organized its opposition to church practices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This particular instance of civic confirmation in Stockholm may have had limited effect on society, but within a broader context of secularization in northern Europe, the early and mid-20th century civic confirmations could be understood as forerunners to similar movements organizing civic or humanist youth confirmations in the 21st century.