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This study aims to examin how the production of knowledge is intrinsic to the production of power in the New Materialist Process theology of Catherine Keller. The object of critical examination is the theology of Keller and her essay; ”Tingles of Matter, Tangles of Theology: Bodies of the New(ish) Materialism,” from her book Intercarnations: Exercises in Theological Posibility (2017). Keller’s essay will be analyzed through Linda Alcoffs, Alison Baileys and Sara Ahmeds epistemological critical theory of how power produces knowledge and vice versa.  Keller’s theology will be examined based on the study points of analysis on texts of Alcoff, Bailey and Ahmed: subjectivity, making of knowledge, epistemology, making of ignorance, power and authenticity/purity. The study shows that Keller’s notion of apophatic matter has the effect of producing knowledge practices about the object. When the object is obscured from the subject in Keller’s theology, a theological analysis of power and the subject’s position in producing knowledge through theology, is prohibited. By analyzing Keller's notion of entanglement through Ahmed’s thinking, it is shown that the subject is presupposed as free, white and independent. Entanglement among human beings exists as bodily physicality for Keller. Social and economic factors are, thus, made irrelevant for the existence of knowledge and relations between humans. Life situations that are, for example, violent or in position of dependence are incompatible with the reality constituted in entanglement. The subject’s knowledge as socially situated and possibly part of structural power, is also made irrelevant in entanglement-thinking. Thus, the study shows that through the reading of Alcoff, Bailey and Ahmed, theology has the ability to constitute knowledge making practices, that forms the subject’s production of knowledge and ignorance.

This study is about whether the ban on hijab and niqab in France violates human rights. Also, if there are contradictions between the human rights conventions and the french ban on hijab andniqab. That is the purpose and question of the study. The topic was chosen for an interest on whether the French ban violates human rights, and if so, why is the ban still a law? To fulfill the purpose of the study, the study will be using human right conventions and a case from the European court of human rights. The study will also use a human rights based approach to further analyze whether the french ban violates human rights. The human rights based approach will also focus on the rights themselves and the implementation of the rights. The second theory used in the study is a theory on multiculturalism. The theory will focus on the term “blind fordifference”. In other words, are human rights blind for difference?The method used in this study is a qualitative content analysis. The method was chosen to analyze the content of the french ban of niqab and hijab but also to analyze the content of the human rights conventions. The result showed that there are some contradictions between the french ban and the human rights conventions. The French ban on hijab and niqab showed potential violations towards human rights articles in the human rights conventions.

What if the narrative of hope, in fact, is hopeless for the oppressed? Even oppressive? If hope is hopeless, can hope be found in the middle of hopelessness? The aim of this study is to define a hopeful and sustainable theology of hope for the oppressed.  This study is a literature analysis on three authors offering different perspectives on oppression, as well as various models of hope. By connecting the lynching era of black americans in Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone, theories on affect in relation to oppression in Grave attending by Karen Bray, and the conflict of borders and dualism in Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldúa the study seeks to discuss hope in relation to oppression.  The literary material is initially categorized by each author separately and analyzed with three identical topics. The first topic- Oppression, defines how each author describes oppression. In the second topic- The Utopian Hope, hope is problematized in relation to oppression in the light of models presented by the author. Ultimately the third topic, The Hope of Gap, seeks to define how hope for the oppressed can be found in between hopelessness and hope.  The analysis indicates several problematic effects of a dualistic view of hopelessness and hope, effects that rather result in hopelessness than hope. To form a hopeful theology for the oppressed the analysis instead emphasizes the importance of the gap inbetween as a vital link between hopelessness and hope. Each author addresses this with different models, but with similar functions in transcending dualisms. In relation to Cone the gap can be understood as telling the stories of hopelessness as a source of hope. Bray highlights the importance of the grave in the christian narrative, as the gap connecting the crucifixion and resurrection where emotional affects such as grief, anger, sorrow, anxiety and depression are expressed. Anzaldúa defines the gap as a borderland, nepantla, which is a hybrid and performative state of change and becoming that she means has been cut straight through by unnatural oppressive boundaries.  In conclusion a hopeful hope for the oppressed confirms hopelessness and hope, as mutually dependent in a dialectical relationship, rather than as antagonists.

Uppsatsen syftar till att studera nattvardssynen i tre systerkyrkor; Svenska Missionskyrkan, Covenant Church i USA och Pactokyrkan i Ecuador. Dessa samfund eftersom de alla delar samma teologiska rötter. Covenant Church och Pactokyrkan är båda direkt och indirekt frukt av Svenska Missionskyrkan. Metoden som använts är en jämförande kvalitativ studie där samfundens dokument kring nattvarden varit centrala. Resultatet visar att kyrkorna delar synen på att Jesus instiftade nattvarden åt sina lärjungar kvällen innan Han korsfästes. De delar också syn på att nattvarden är ett tecken på försoningen i Honom. Covenant Church och Svenska Missionskyrkan har båda öppna nattvardsbord och Pactokyrkan har ett stängt nattvardsbord.

Scholars have faced many challenges in the classification of the literary genre of the hagiographical texts. In addition to their various styles and structures, hagiographical texts tend to move beyond the classical rhetorical approach. So, it is preferable to regard hagiography as a discourse which was mainly written for the purpose of the production of new heroes through the imitation of Christ and His holy men/women. The hagiographical discourse continued in Early Medieval Arabic Christianity, yet its purpose has expanded to address both Christians and Muslims. Through the examination of the Arabic hagiographical texts of two neo-martyrs, Anthony al-Qurashi and Būlus ibn Raja, it has been revealed that Christians pursued the figure of speech of parrhesia to address the mixed audience. On the one hand, to urge Christians to behold to their faith and, on the other hand, to encourage Muslims to convert.

Title: “Holy” War on Human Rights - A hermeneutic study of the complex situation of human rights activists in Afghanistan Author: Zandra Bergman Supervisor: Maud Eriksen Examiner: Johanna Romare Department of TheologyMaster program of Religion in Peace and ConflictMaster’s thesis, 15 credits  In September 2020, the latest attempt to bring peace to Afghanistan, the intra-Afghan peace talks formally began. The opening of the peace negotiations failed to produce the long-desired ceasefire. Instead, it marked an increase of violence: a sharp number of deliberate killings of human rights defenders. The purpose of this study is to examine lived experiences of human rights activists in Afghanistan and the complex situation in which they are operating and to gain a deeper understanding of why they have increasingly been subject to violence. Furthermore, it is an attempt to explore the meaning of violence against Afghan human rights activists promoting women's rights. This is a hermeneutic study primarily based on data collected through interviews with two Afghan human rights activists. Rather than touch every topic and present data about an objective reality or truth, the aim is to shed light on the shared experiences of the respondents, providing snapshots of the current situation of Afghan human rights defenders, and to discuss their stories in the light of selected theories. The following research questions have been used to guide the study: (1) How can we understand the complex situation of human rights activists in Afghanistan, and (2) What are the underlying reasons they are being targeted? By adopting mainly, the concepts of hegemony: to decode underlying dimensions of power struggles, and a critical feminist approach: to grasp the gender dimensions of the conflict, I have exposed how my respondents in their positions of human rights defenders bring new life to a historical conflict of interests impinging on the future nature of Afghanistan. Moreover, they expose a recurrent clash between opposing hegemonic aspirations: a struggle over the maintenance of social order in the Afghan society, in which they are being placed at the center.

En människas religiösa övertygelser påverkas starkt av hennes uppväxtmiljö och relation till föräldrarna. I ett alltmer heterogent samhälle står såväl den kristna kyrkan som kristna familjer inför utmaningar som tidigare generationer inte har mött. Förevarande arbete avser belysa kristna föräldrars reflektioner kring och erfarenheter av föräldraskap i allmänhet, samt andlig vägledning av barnen. Studien har utgått från ett bekvämlighetsurval med svenska och engelskspråkiga deltagare, och datainsamlingen har skett genom en kvalitativ epostenkät. Innehållsliga teman har identifierats, och deras inbördes förhållanden undersökts, med hjälp av grounded theory och frekvensanalys. Kristna föräldrars uppfattning om föräldraskap harmonierar i stora drag med rådande normer i samhället. Man anser vidare att kristna föräldrar har ett ansvar att vägleda sina barn in i den kristna tron, även om diskursen kring andlig vägledning är något tvetydig. Praktiska tillvägagångssätt för andlig vägledning inom familjen handlar om föredömlighet, kyrkogång, samtal och andliga övningar. Kulturella skillnader kan skönjas mellan svenska och engelskspråkiga deltagare i fråga om vad man som förälder vill ge sina barn.

The thesis examines the level of historical analysis in the works of two third/ninth century Muslim historians, al-Baladhuri and at-Tabari, including their underlying legal, political and socio-economic concerns as manifested in their narratives. By comparing and contextualising their histories regarding the caliphate of ‘Umar, in relation to their social institutions and scholarly disciplines, the purpose is to highlight the subjective agency of the historians as well as the structure of the historiographical discourse in which they formulated their narratives. Based on the notion of discourses as well-defined areas of social fact that defines the forms of (historical) knowledge in societies, the thesis applies de Certeau’s theory of discourses in order to analyse the formation of historical discourses in relation to social institutions and scholarly traditions. By linking the narrative differences to the historians’ scholarly contexts and political concerns, the thesis also show their subjective agency to form certain narratives of history depending on political and scholarly interests, although expressed in the form of the khabar-tradition of ‘Abbasid period. It is argued that the narratives represent attempts to explain social and economic factors involved in civilisational history by means of the accumulated body of what in modern scholarship is labeled “religious knowledge”. Thereby, it also problematises current debates on the level of analytical thinking in early Muslim historiography and suggest new approaches to the subject by discourse analysis.

I den här magisteruppsatsen gör jag en deskriptiv innehållsanalys av den Schweiziske psykologen Carl Gustav Jungs verk den Röda Boken. Jag kommer att använda mig av tre målningar från boken och via dem analysera Jungs process i arbetet och hur de speglar hans liv under denna period. Min frågeställning är om skapandet av den Röda Boken även innebar en spontan bildterapi för Jung. Lyckas Jung via skapandet av bilderna och skrivandet av boken även bedriva och hitta en ny väg för egenterapi? Slutligen så kommer jag fram till att Jung via sitt arbete med den Röda Boken och den katarsis som medföljer, hittar nya metoder för terapeutiskt arbete som senare kom att utvecklas till den analytiska psykologin. Det blev också en sorts egenterapi där Jung börjar integrera sedan barndomen förträngda delar av sin personlighet. Och det är i uppbrottet från Freud som dessa har aktualiserats. Enligt min tolkning så är det dock en del av Jungs personlighet som han aldrig riktigt kommer att erkänna, som han bara utforskar genom den Röda Boken. Det är konstnären Jung, som enligt Jung själv krockar med vetenskapsmannen Jung. Men den Röda Boken är i allra högsta grad ett konstnärligt verk som visar på konstens läkande funktion.