The aim of this essay is to study diaries and letters from Swedish soldiers during the Great Nordic War, more specifically those written during the campaign 1707-1721 against Russia, in search of religious coping and religious parables. The theoretic framework is evolved around Kenneth Pargament’s theory about religious coping, and Ana-Maria Rizzuto’s theory about object relations. The method used can be described as hermeneutic. The questions at hand were: - How did Swedish soldiers during the war against Russia relate to God, and express image of God and religious concepts? - Did the soldiers express themselves in terms of spiritual coping and in that case to what extent? The conclusions were that the soldiers used religious coping as a method of survival. They used all methods as stated by Pargament, except the method that involves cooperation with God, unless you count being God’s humble servant as a way of cooperation.Several diaries features songs and poems and many expresses prayers and faith in God. The soldiers express themselves with parables to the Old Testament, for ex-ample to the Babylonian captivity. The language of the diaries changes after the defeat of Poltava 1709, to a richer one full of religious parables. Keywords: Spiritual coping, soldiers, Great Nordic War, Charles the XII, Kenneth Pargament.

The aim of this study is to examine the coping strategies used in Anton Lundholm’s autobiography “Välkommen in i min garderob” (“Welcome into my closet”) (2017) in his attempt to unite his Christian faith with his homosexuality. The further aim of the study is to contribute knowledge to Christian communities on how they can counter individuals that struggle with uniting these identities. The analysis is deductive and categorized into topics based on the research questions, formed from the theory. These topics are: (1) the identification of stressors Lundholm experienced, (2) the coping strategies he used to handle those stressors and lastly (3) the consequences of the coping strategies used. The methodology used in the analysis is deductive. The study is used in comparison to Pargament’s theory on four methods of coping: the conservation n and transformation of means and ends (1997). These four coping strategies are preservation, reconstruction, evaluation and recreation. The results of the study show that, in relation to Pargament’s theory, the majority of Lundholm’s coping strategies caused him more psychological stress. One of these coping strategies was self-denial of his sexual orientation. However, an important turning point was when he came across “Christian Gay Network.” This network helped him change the way he viewed his faith, allowing him to change his means. In line with Pargament’s theory, this change of means allowed him to work towards achieving the new goal of self-acceptance of his homosexuality. The study contributes recommendations to Christian communities on how to support individuals that struggle with being Christian and homosexual.

Charles de Foucauld var en romersk-katolsk präst, ordensbroder och eremit som under sinasista levnadsår bodde i Sahara i Algeriet. I följande arbete analyseras hans liv och denöverlåtelse till Gud som han ägnade sig åt som det framställs i hans efterlämnade skrifter.Både sammanställda skrifter med hans anteckningar och biografier av andra författarebaserade på hans efterlämnade skrifter används. Kenneth Pargaments teori om religiös copingappliceras på detta material. Överlåtelsen för de Foucauld tolkas vara det som är signifikantför honom i copingprocessen.

Purpose: the main purpose was to identify in what way the clinical practice could support parents with chronically ill children. Clinical practice meaning therapist, hospital chaplain orparish priest. Questions: the main question was “in what way do hospital chaplains support parents with chronically ill children?”. This question was then divided into five sub questions. Theory: Pargament’s theory of religious coping from 1997 and 2000. The theory describes the religious coping process in 8 steps, 3 coping styles, 4 different coping mechanisms, 13 coping strategies and 5 main functions for religion. Conclusions: the diverse ways the hospital chaplain supported the parents are described as phenomenon or roles. The clinical practice could focus on four main areas. 1) actively search for parents that might benefit help from the hospital chaplains, as these parents often are overlooked by other support systems 2) support the parent in re-constructing her/his faith 3) support the parent in changing coping style 4) support the parent to reconciliation and transition to her/hisnew life with the child. Pargament’s theory was adjusted to a Swedish secular context and filledwith added content. I also presented a first attempt at bridging Pargament’s framework from year1997 and from year 2000.