This paper aims to present and examine the discourses of religious education in Sweden. Previous studies argue that there is a secularist discourse in Sweden however, one can question whether the secularist discourse is neutral of all religious traditions. The curriculum emphasizes objective and inclusive education based on science and proven experience and a non-confessional education. On the other hand, the paper highlight examples that are contrary to these ideas, which shows that christianity serves the dominant position in the curriculum. By using the method: contextual idea analysis, I have studied the ideas in the Swedish curriculum that determines the conditions and guidelines for teaching in religious education. The conclusion is that the christian tradition and western humanism serves a prominent part in the curriculum and risks making christianity the norm for religious life. The paper shows that the secularist discourse in Sweden has a christian bias which can affect the creation of a neutral religious education that enables respect, objective understanding and tolerance for other religions.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Viviane Cristina Candido.pdf: 2573073 bytes, checksum: a7386cb9b1201ebc43e4fda03e3bf68d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-01 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Objective: To propose an epistemology which establishes this subject, entailed to Religion Sciences, as an outside area, capable to offer theorical indication to the educational practice, considering the common object of study religion. Justification: Religious Teaching is an integrant part of the curriculum of basic education schools. Established as a knowledgement area, its pedagogical practice is a bearing of indefiniteness and ambiguousness related to its nature and purpose, as a result of the lack of specific theorical indications of the religious study field. Hypothesis: Religious Teaching finality is to enable to scholars an enlargement of their world view trough a biggest comprehension of religious issues, from a religion study which contributes to the comprehension and experience of the authentically human; the tension among both religious institution and experience as a methodology to religion study; an epistemology of the controversy based on the philosophy of the religion, in the ambit of Religion Sciences. Theoretical-methodological aspects and obtained result: This research let evident the ambient of controversies in which is insert Religious Teaching and its concepts related in the field of Sciences and postulated the epistemology of the controversy, based on Franz Rosenzweig thought, as a referential to the pedagogical practice of Religious Teaching. It also displayed that, once what is intended is the dialog among reason and religious reason inside school space/time, in the ambit of Religion Sciences, is the area which supports this epistemology. Using the own Rosenzweig method assigned the tension among both religious institution and experience as the methodology to the religion study in the Religious Teaching classes / Objetivo: Propor uma epistemologia que fundamente essa disciplina, vinculada às Ciências da Religião, como uma área externa, capaz de oferecer referenciais teóricos para a prática educacional, considerando o objeto de estudo comum a religião. Justificativa: O ER - Ensino Religioso é parte integrante do currículo das escolas de educação básica. Estabelecido como área de conhecimento, sua prática pedagógica é portadora de indefinições e ambigüidades relativas à sua natureza e finalidade, resultado da falta de referenciais teóricos específicos do campo de estudo da religião. Hipóteses: A finalidade do ER é possibilitar aos educandos uma ampliação de sua visão de mundo pela maior compreensão das questões religiosas, a partir de um estudo da religião que colabore para a compreensão e vivência do autenticamente humano; a tensão entre instituição e experiência religiosas como metodologia para o estudo da religião; uma epistemologia da controvérsia alicerçada na Filosofia da Religião, no âmbito das Ciências da Religião. Aspectos teórico-metodológicos e resultado obtido: Esta pesquisa evidenciou o ambiente de controvérsias em que está inserido o ER e seus conceitos relacionados no campo das Ciências e postulou a epistemologia da controvérsia, fundamentada no pensamento de Franz Rosenzweig, como referencial para a prática pedagógica do ER. Demonstrou ainda que, uma vez que o que se pretende é o diálogo entre a razão e a razão religiosa no espaço/tempo da escola, a Filosofia da Religião, no âmbito das Ciências da Religião, é a área que sustenta essa epistemologia. Utilizando o próprio método Rosenzweig apontou a tensão entre instituição e experiência religiosas como metodologia para o estudo da religião nas aulas de Ensino Religioso

Syftet med denna uppsats är att hitta en förklaring till varför andliga healinginriktningar med tiden upphör att kunna bedömas som andliga. Undersökningen tar avstamp i hypotesen att socialpsykologiska skäl ligger bakom. Den tidigare forskningen, gjord av Roy Wallis, Stefan Thau et al, Małgorzata Kossowska och Maciej Sekerdej, Juliette Schaafsma och Kipling D. Williams, samt en tidigare uppsats skriven av undertecknad, behandlar därför socialpsykologi med koppling till rörelser. Arbetet undersöker healingorganisationen Reconnective Healing som tidigare kategoriserats som andlig men som nyligen genomgått organisatoriska förändringar. Forskningsfrågorna berör vilka förändringar som skett och vart organisationen idag kan placeras begreppsmässigt. Den teoretiska bakgrunden utgörs av Olav Hammer, Roy Wallis, Christopher Partridge samt Anton Geels och Owe Wikström samt deras begreppsdefinitioner av andlighet, sekt, kult, religion och nyreligion. Även teorier kring socialpsykologi, av Lars Svedberg och Björn Nilsson, presenteras. Metoden för arbetet är kvalitativa intervjuer av Reconnective Healingutövare, samt komparativ analys. Resultatet visar att organisationen rört sig från andlighetsbegreppet och närmat sig begreppet nyreligion. De organisatoriska förändringarna tycks bottna i grundaren Eric Pearls vilja att minska pluralistiska synsätt inom organisationen genom att exkludera medlemmar samt strama åt regler och riktlinjer. Vidare tyder resultatet på att organisationer generellt kanske aldrig kan klassificeras som andliga då socialpsykologin inom gruppsammansättningar skapar faktorer som strider mot det mesta som definierar andlighet. / The purpose of this essay is to find a reason to why spiritual healing movements in time tend to fall outside the concept of spirituality. The hypothesis for this work is that it happens due to the social psychology within  group constellations. Therefore the previous research, by Roy Wallis, Stefan Thau et al, Małgorzata Kossowska och Maciej Sekerdej, Juliette Schaafsma och Kipling D. Williams, and an earlier essay written by me, focuses on social psychology with connections to movements of different kinds. The essay investigates the healing organization Reconnective Healing, which has been categorized as spiritual but might not be anymore, due to some recent organizational changes. The research questions focus on what kind of changes has happened and where the organization can be placed in a concept categorisation today. The theoretical background is based on Olav Hammer, Roy Wallis, Christopher Partridge and Anton Geels and Owe Wikström. It consists of the concept definitions of spirituality, cult, sect, religion and new religion. Moreover, theories evolving social psychology, by Lars Svedberg and Björn Nilsson, is presented. The method used is comparative analysis and qualitative interviews of Reconnective Healing Practitioners. The result shows that the organization has moved from the concept of spirituality towards the concept of new religion. The cause of the organizational changes seems to be the founder, Eric Pearls will to decrease pluralistic views within the organisation, by excluding members and tighten the rules and guidelines. Moreover, the result indicates that organisations in general might never be able to be categorised as spiritual since the social psychology within group constellations creates factors that contradict most contents within spirituality.

Ändamålet med föreliggande rapport har varit att undersöka åtta personliga skildringar för att ta reda på hur deras livsåskådning ser ut efter att ha brukat psykedeliska substanser, samt undersöka huruvida något möte med Gud eller någon annan ”högre makt”, förekom under rusningstiden. För att besvara ändamålet har rapporten brutits ner till två frågeställningar, där den första hanterar vad som händer med livsåskådningen och det andra gudsmötet. För att besvara frågeställningarna har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med förbestämda kodscheman och analysenheter använts som metod. Undersökningen teoretiseras och stärks dessutom med hjälp av den tidigare forskning som har gjorts på området från John Hopkins universitet, men även med hjälp av teoretiska begrepp som b.la. mysticism, livsåskådning och shamanism. Denna undersökningens resultat stämmer väl överens med tidigare forskning och visar att psykedeliska substanser tenderar att påverka eller förändra en människas livsåskådning till att börja uppskatta andlighet mer än det materiella och att de flesta upplevde någon form av ”högre makt”.

This thesis explores embodied experiences of (physical and social) pain when seeking healthcare for birth injuries. This includes seeking to understand how gender, sexuality and normality can be constructed through health care for birth injuries, as well as how people with birth injuries are oriented by their pain towards getting health care. The theoretical framework is feminist phenomenological, while also incorporating the perspective of phenomenology and medicine, in order to analyze how the embodied experience of pain is conditioned by normative and cultural dimensions that structure different bodies in different ways. Different ways of understanding the emotional and sensory orientations of pain, both social and physical, are also theoretically informing the analysis. Through qualitative interviews with ten people who have been injured while giving birth within the last ten years, results show that the informants become disoriented when hearing from doctors and midwifes that their perineum, despite their experience of pain, is well. They are also disoriented when their injuries are acknowledged, but deemed untreatable. They can find their pain hard to describe, and experiences of feeling diminished difficult to react against. The embodied experience of seeking health care for birth pain can include feeling both confirmed as well as ignored in one’s injury, depending on what health care professional they happen to meet. I conclude that the frustration of seeking but not feeling like they are receiving health care for their birth injuries results in a breaking point where the patients go against feelings of shame, and (re)orient themselves towards health care by transforming into strong-willed, stubborn and un-ashamed subjects that in one way or another demand treatment and respect. / Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning Hur är det att drabbas av en förlossningsskada? Vad är det som gör ont, och hur är det att söka vård för smärtan? I denna studie undersöks erfarenheten av att söka och få vård för förlossningsskador. Tio personer delar genom kvalitativ intervju med sig av sina upplevelser av att försöka få hjälp med sina förlossningsskador och den smärta som de åsamkat. I fokus är den kroppsliga erfarenheten. Studien ställer frågor om hur smärta, fysisk men även social i form av känslan skam, förkroppsligas i möten med medicinsk personal. Genom en feministisk fenomenologisk utgångspunkt ämnar uppsatsen både undersöka den roll som normer om kön och sexualitet spelar i möten mellan patienter och vårdgivare, men också belysa hur svårt det är att separera på kroppsliga och sociala erfarenheter. Hur orienteras den förlossningsskadade gentemot vården i sina försök att dämpa smärtan och läka skadan? Genom min tolkande analys av de förlossningsskadades erfarenheter läser jag hur de bär på erfarenheter av att känna sig förvirrade och desorienterade av flera orsaker, dels för att vissa lever med skador för vilka det ännu inte finns hjälp, det vill säga permanenta skador, medan andra förvirras av att höra från vården att deras bäckenbotten ser bra ut, trots att de fortfarande har ont. En del bär på erfarenheter av att uppmanas ha penetrerande sex genom smärtan, andra att leva med smärtan fram tills att de är färdiga med att skaffa barn. Många bär på erfarenheter av att känna sig hämmade från att säga ifrån när de kände sig illa behandlade, eller att våga kräva bättre vård när de känner sig undanskuffade. Förr eller senare tenderar de informanter som känner sig undanskuffade att, med olika strategier, ta plats och kräva vård för sin smärta. Jag tolkar det som att dessa personer når en smärtpunkt där det blir jobbigare att leva sin smärta än att uppleva sig vara till besvär. Den förkroppsligade erfarenheten av smärta, både fysisk och social i form av att känna skam, orienterar dem mot vården med uppsåtlighet. De oroar sig inte längre över att uppfattas som jobbiga. Andra informanter upplever till slut att de träffar läkare eller barnmorskor som ser och bekräftar deras smärta, vilket stärker dem i deras självkänsla och i deras uppfattning att skadan och smärtan är ett problem för vilket de behöver vård. Studien landar därmed i slutsatsen att den förkroppsligade erfarenheten av fysisk och social smärta, samt den förkroppsligade erfarenheten av att känna sig sedd i denna smärta, leder till en brytpunkt som orienterar de förlossningsskadade mot vårdande behandling, och därmed även mot ett stärkt subjektskap.

Islamofobi är ett växande problem i Europa som negativt påverkar muslimers förutsättningar och möjligheter i samhället. Samtidigt är religionsfriheten en mänsklig rättighet och en av grundvalarna för ett demokratiskt och pluralistiskt samhälle. Denna uppsats undersöker hur islamofobi påverkar religionsfrihetens implementering i Sverige. Resultatet visar att muslimers rätt att utöva sin religion hotas av islamofobiska praktiker, så som attacker mot moskéer, motstånd mot muslimska organisationer och förbud av slöjan. Studien utforskar även statens förpliktelser och ansvar för att motverka islamofobi och främja muslimers rättigheter och lika möjligheter – för att på så sätt kunna uppnå ett verkligt demokratiskt och pluralistiskt samhälle där utsatta grupper beskyddas. / Islamophobia is an increasing problem in Europe which has a negative effect on Muslims’ conditions and opportunities within the society. At the same time, freedom of religion is a human right and one of the foundations in a democratic and pluralistic society. This thesis examines how islamophobia affects the implementation of freedom of religion in Sweden. The result shows that Muslims’ right to practice their religion is substantially threatened by islamophobic practices, such as attacks against mosques, resistance towards Muslim organizations and banning of the veil. The study also explores the state’s obligations and responsibility to counteract islamophobia and promote Muslims’ rights and equal opportunities – and thus be able to achieve a truly democratic and pluralistic society where vulnerable groups are protected.

BACKGROUND:  This is an ethnographic study of two communities coming together to serve at-risk youth in St. Augustine, Florida. Compassionate St Augustine (CSA) is a non-profit organization grounded in the Golden Rule that promotes compassion-based practices in schools, businesses, faith communities, and government. The Youth Academy is a high-risk residential juvenile facility housing 70 boys between the ages of 13 and 19. The two joined forces to bring opportunity, healing and hope to these boys and over the last two years, CSA has had over 30 ongoing classes, programs, events and workshops at the academy – teaching everything from Qi Gong to how to properly butter your bread. AIM: My overall aim is to study spiritual activism to inspire action and create a shift in collective consciousness. In this specific setting, I examined what spiritual and/or humanistic factors motivate transformation, what impact happens from the spiritual activism and how does it change the future? THEORY: I examine these questions through the lens of spiritual activism, using ethnographic social science theory. In ethnography, it is important to present a full picture, to use description and quotations. It was important to me to give these at-risk young men their voice, to share their quotes and the pictures they took to give insight into their lives. After the inductive study of ethnography, I applied a deductive study to my observations through a framework of existential health theory, thus doing an abductive study of the spiritual activism and its impact.   METHOD: I spent five weeks doing participatory observation in classes, meetings and events. I conducted semi-structured interviews with students, activists and staff. The boys also participated in Photovoice, taking pictures to show aspects of their life and transformation.     RESULTS: I found the program components of meditation & Alternatives to Violence Program, music, art & etiquette, compassion & service and restoring health equity & social justice created changes the existential health dimensions of these young men. They received tools to transform their current life and their futures.        CONCLUSION: The goal of the CSA program at the Youth Academy is to help change the mindset of the young men and improve their quality of life. The overall goal of spiritual activism is to create an individual transformation in hearts and minds in order to create a collective consciousness shift in worldview. Both involve changing people existentially – changing how a person relates to themselves, to each other, to the world and to life. How we relate to existence determines how we define existence. CSA is helping to fulfill the Youth Academy’s vision of offering these underprivileged young men a true academy – a learning environment filled with opportunities for growth, exploration and healing that will give these boys a new chance to define who they are from a place of wholeness. They are a clear example that restorative justice is what is needed to help heal these young men, to help bring more social justice to society in general and to bring health equity to future generations.

This paper examines the ‘robotic moment’, as defined by Sherry Turkle (2011), in the light of general theories of human-technology relations, notably the theoretical framework founded by Jacques Ellul (1954). Potential psychological, cultural, and technical consequences of human-technology interaction, especially human interaction with so-called ‘social-robots’, are explored. It is demonstrated that the ‘robotic moment’ may reasonably be understood as a result of the formation of pseudo-social anthropo-technological circuits, and as a result of cultural disintegration and an increasingly prevalent societal impulse to incorporate everything that is commonly not understood to be technological (i.e. even the biological, the social, and the spiritual) into the technological order. It is demonstrated that the category ‘social robot’ may reasonably be understood, depending on how the robot is used, as a technique humaine, as a magical practice, or as a complex hybrid practice. Assumptions concerning the nature of technologies, the extent to which technologies are useful, and the impact of technologies on society are questioned. The extent to which a society’s worldview may determine or influence how its inhabitants relate to technologies is explored. It is suggested that, as societies demystify the universe and develop mature techno-secular worldviews, means-to-ends (i.e. technologies) are being mystified; the ensuing quasi-religious techno-secular worldviews, which fail to recognise the limitations of technologies, may in turn be responsible for much of the irrational use of technologies in technological societies. The essay suggests that the ‘robotic moment’ can be explained not only in terms of vulnerabilities inherent in human nature and in terms of properties inherent in technological society, but also in terms of the notions of the sacred that prevail in technically advanced societies and a society’s practice of science, engineering, magic, and faith.

This thesis explores the disciplinary relationship between natural philosophy (the study of nature or body) and theology (the study of the divine) in seventeenth-century England. Early modern disciplines had two essential functions. First, they set the rules and boundaries of argument – knowledge was therefore legitimised and made intelligible within disciplinary contexts. And second, disciplines structured pedagogy, parcelling knowledge so it could be studied and taught. This dual role meant disciplines were epistemic and social structures. They were composed of various elements, and consequently, they related to one another in a variety of complex ways. As such, the contestability of early modern knowledge was reflected in contestability of disciplines – their content and boundaries. Francis Bacon, Thomas White, Henry More and John Locke are the focus of the four chapters respectively, with Joseph Glanvill, Thomas Hobbes, other Cambridge divines, and a variety of medieval scholastic authors providing context, comparison and reinforcement. These case studies offer a cross-section of seventeenth-century thought and belief; they embody different professional and institutional interests, and represent an array of philosophical, theological and religious positions. Nevertheless, each of them, in different ways, and to different effect, put the relationship between natural philosophy and theology at the heart of their intellectual endeavours. Together, they demonstrate that, in seventeenth-century England, natural philosophy and theology were in flux, and that their disciplinary relationship was complex, entailing degrees of overlap and alienation. Primarily, natural philosophy and theology investigated the nature and constitution of the world, and, together, determined the relationship between its constituent parts – natural and divine. However, they also reflected the scope of man’s cognitive faculties, establishing which bits of the world were knowable, and outlining the grounds for, and appropriate degrees of, certainty and belief. Thus, both disciplines, and their relationship with one another, contributed to broad discussions about, truth, certainty and opinion. This, in turn, established normative guidelines. To some extent, the rightness or wrongness of belief and behaviour was determined by particular definitions of, and relationship between, natural philosophy and theology. Consequently, man’s place in the world – his relationship with nature, God and his fellow man – was triangulated through these disciplines.

The emergence of Human Rights NGOs continue to influence the practice of human rights domestically and internationally. In connection with this development, as scrutinizers of human rights and human rights violations, the Human Rights NGOs must in turn be scrutinized. Guided by a theoretical framework consisted of theories of justification by Rainer Forst, Martha Nussbaum and Michael Ignatieff, a critical analysis of how Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reveal the state of human rights in the respective annual report of 2017 is carried out. The aim is to scrutinize how the Human Rights NGOs interpretation, prioritization and justification of human rights affect the validity of human rights. The validity of human rights in turn, argues the thesis, presupposes that we must assess whether these strategies are reasonable. The thesis finds that human rights are understood as universal claims for the respect and protection of the underpinning values of human rights: dignity, freedom and equality. Human rights, interpreted in this sense, must have an abiding effect and protect human rights, but also to hold human rights violations accountable through means of justice. Accordingly, justice has a double meaning for the purpose of human rights in the sense that it firstly set out conditions for when human rights are protected and secondly, make this task possible. / I ljuset av framväxten av icke-statliga människorättsorganisationer och deras betydande inflytande på de mänskliga rättigheterna, syftar denna uppsats till att studera deras förståelse och tolkning av dessa rättigheter. Med hjälp av ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av teorier om rättfärdigande av mänskliga rättigheter av Rainer Forst, Martha Nussbaum och Michael Ignatieff, genomförs en kritisk analys av hur Amnesty International och Human Rights Watch årliga rapporter om de mänskliga rättigheternas status ser ut. Syftet med denna analys är att kritisk granska hur organisationernas tolkning, prioritering och rättfärdigande av mänskliga rättigheter påverkar rättigheternas validitet. Validiteten i sin tur, förutsätter att en kritisk analys av dessa strategier förhåller sig till huruvida dessa är förnuftiga och godtagbara. Uppsatsen kommer fram till att mänskliga rättigheter förstås som universella anspråk vars syfte är att respektera och skydda de underliggande normerna av mänsklig värdighet, frihet och jämlikhet. Mänskliga rättigheter måste således ha en varaktig effekt för att skydda människor, men även för att kunna ställa brott mot mänskliga rättigheter inför rättvisa. Följaktligen har rättvisa mer än ett syfte, nämligen att först staka ut de förutsättningar som krävs för att respektera och skydda mänskliga rättigheter, och för det andra att göra detta möjligt.