Historically, Christianity has been seen as a religion based on texts. However, many modern scholars claim that the practice of Christianity is at least as important as the holy texts. To see if this is the case, this study sought to examine whether church practice contributes to the making of the sacred, defined here from Mary Douglas's theory that the holy is something which is pure, whole and complete, unlike the impure, which is an anomaly, often separate, broken or divided. This was examined by studying the actual practices relating to the bread and the wine in one of Christianity's most central rites, the Eucharist. The empirical material is based on observations and semi-structured interviews on the handling of the bread and wine before and after communion in five different church communities. However, the focus is on the Evangelical Lutheran Swedish Church, where two different congregations were studied. The study takes as its point of departure Robert Orsis’ theory according to which holiness is created in a dynamic exchange between the practice of individuals and those of hierarchies. According to the present study this appears to be true, although the empirical material is too small to draw firm conclusions. In the churches investigated a variety of actors contribute to the creation of sacredness. Some practices seem to be the same throughout the different communities and parishes studied, for example preserving purity by covering the bread and wine, or by throwing away pieces of the already consecrated bread. Some individuals also created their own personal rituals, like not chewing the bread during the Eucharist, or covering their mouths after having received the bread to prevent the body of Christ from being spat out. It also appears that the wine is always handled with greater respect than the bread. According to Mary Douglas, this may have to do with the possibility of both sacrilising and defiling which rests in bodily fluids. This essay shows that persons in different roles act independently and in different ways to create and maintain the holiness of the bread and wine. In churches with distinct confessional texts, as in the Catholic Church, practices are more often based on dogmas, while individuals in the congregations lacking rules for handling the bread an wine, as in the parishes of the Swedish Church, act more as they themselves think is right. Also here their actions seem to follow Mary Douglas's theory of preserving the wholeness and purity of the holy. According to the study, the creation of sacredness seems to be just as possible for lay people as for specialists. This means that the Church in this way actually distributes the power to establish the sacred, which may contribute to preserving a community-promoting democratic process. This conclusion is reinforced by the fact that some of the congregations studied had created practices for ensuring sacrality which put fellowship before the power of the Words of Institution.

Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ analys av intervjuer med högstadielärare med en fenomenografiskt inspirerad ansats. Syftet med följande uppsats är undersöka högstadielärares erfarenheter av utmaningar i religionsundervisningen, med särskilt avseende på utmanande elever. Det är fyra högstadielärare som har intervjuats från tre olika skolor. Analysen av intervjuerna leder till att tre huvudteman har plockats fram vilka var, fördomar som utmaning, kognitiva utmaningar samt disciplinära utmaningar. Under dessa har sedan ytterligare ett par underrubriker tagit plats, för att förtydliga skillnaden mellan exempelvis utmaningen med tysta/verbala eleveroch stök, då båda hamnar under disciplinära utmaningar.  Det framkommer att det finns ganska liknande återkommande upplevelser om vad som är utmaningar inom religionsundervisningen. Däremot skiljer det sig ibland åt vad gäller lärarnas sätt att hantera utmaningar samt vad de tror är de bakomliggande faktorerna.

In political philosophy, perfectionism is the view that it is the job of the state to best enable its citizens to live good or flourishing lives. It claims that certain lives can be judged to be sound, and thus instructs governments to promote those lives using state institutions etc. Anti-perfectionism denies this. It says that it is not the job of the state to promote good lives. Instead it should restrict itself to securing basic rights and duties, a threshold level of resources and so on. Citizens should be left to adopt pursuits however they see fit. For some anti-perfectionists, this is precisely because we cannot judge any putative life to be sound. However, many are not sceptics, and justify state neutrality for other reasons. All accounts of anti-perfectionism must overcome what has been called the asymmetry objection: what justifies the imbalance inherent in anti-perfectionism? Why believe that the state is permitted to act on judgements about justice, but not on judgements about flourishing? My thesis argues that attempts to respond to the asymmetry objection have failed thus far. Further, I offer an account of political morality that can overcome the problem. The first four chapters of the thesis clarify the debate between perfectionists and anti-perfectionists, narrowing the former down into its most plausible form. Chapters five and six focus on two failed attempts to vindicate anti-perfectionism – Brian Barry's argument from scepticism and Jonathan Quong's Rawlsian approach. In the final chapter I put forward a much more promising argument in favour of anti-perfectionism – justice as a set of constraints.

This thesis battles with the question on how we can create peace and solve conflicts withoutthe use of violence. It mixes the academic disciplines of peace and conflict, sociology and thestudy of human rights. Using the theories concerning conflict and conflict resolution of JohanGaltung and the theories of strategic nonviolence of Gene Sharp the tools of creating peace bynonviolence is crafted in a comparative study. Then, by conducting hypothetical experimentswithin the conflict of Western Sahara using the tools the conclusion is reached. Differentaspects of violence, peace and power is discussed and analyzed and different weaknesses andstrengths of nonviolent strategies is scrutinized. Finally the different subjects are put togetherin a discussion of what it takes to create peace by nonviolent means. What are the costs ofpeace, what to we have to be willing to pay to solve conflicts, what should our ultimate goalbe? The conclusion is perhaps slightly underwhelming but ultimately crucial to understand.There is no shortcuts to peace and there is no quick fix to solving conflicts. / Den här uppsatsen behandlar frågan om hur vi kan skapa fred och lösa konflikter med hjälp avickevåldet. Den berör både studier om fred och konflikt, sociologi och mänskliga rättigheter. Ien jämförande studie av Johan Galtungs teorier om fred och konflikt och Gene Sharps teorierom strategiskt ickevåld så skapas verktygen för att stifta fred med ickevåldsliga medel. De härverktygen prövas sedan i hypotetiska experiment i konflikten i Västsahara. Olika aspekter avvåld, fred och makt diskuteras och analyseras. Olika svagheter och styrkor med ickevåldsligastrategier behandlas. Slutligen behandlas dessa olika ämnen i en diskussion kring vad somkrävs för att skapa fred med ickevåldsliga medel. Vad kostar fred, vad behöver vi vara villigaatt betala för att lösa konflikter och vad borde det slutgiltiga målet vara? Slutsatsen ärmåhända underväldigande men likväl avgörande att förstå. Det finns inga genvägar till fredoch det finns ingen snabb metod för att lösa konflikter.

Med vår litteraturstudie eftersträvar vi möjligheten att ge lärarstudenter och lärare en inblick i klassrumsundervisning om sexualitet och samlevnad, eftersom det inte behandlas i lärarutbildningen. Syftet med studien är att lyfta fram de utmaningar och möjligheter som förekommer i religionskunskapsundervisning om sexualitet och samlevnad. Genom att granska forskning inom området har vi besvarat en frågeställning anpassad till vårt syfte. Vidare följer en bakgrundsbeskrivning till området som läsaren kan välja att ta del av för att få ökad förståelse för det framställda resultatet. Fortsättningsvis presenteras det tillvägagångsätt vi har använt oss av för att ta fram och analysera material. I resultatet redovisas vetenskaplig forskning om utmaningar och möjligheter för lärare i undervisning om sexualitet och samlevnad. En av de utmaningar som är mest framstående är den dominerande heteronormen som skildras i klassrummen. Vidare skapar det medvetet eller omedvetet grupperingar mellan exempelvis heterosexuella och homosexuella där vi fördelar in oss i grupper om ’vi’ och ’dem’. Därför står lärare inför utmaningar gällande val av metoder i undervisningen för att inkludera alla. Att bli personlig i undervisning om sexualitet och samlevnad visar sig vara en utmaning då det är svårt att förhålla sig mellan det privata och personliga. Samtidigt kan det även ses som en möjlighet då det främjar öppenhet i diskussioner och samtal mellan lärare och elever. För att skapa möjligheter till givande diskussioner är den interpersonella kunskapen en viktig faktor för god undervisning. I litteraturstudiens sista avsnitt kan man avläsa vår diskussion utefter egna erfarenheter i relation till det framställda resultatet.

Studien syftar till att studera religion och samhälle i Johannes Anyurus roman De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar. Syftet är också att studera vilken roll religionen fyller i det offentliga rummet samt religionens förmåga att vara en konstruktiv resurs i samhället. Hypotesen för studien är att Anyuru genom romanen framställer islam som en konstruktiv resurs i morgondagens samhälle samt att religionens betydelse och konstruktiva roll aktualiseras. Då jag undersökt källmaterialets innehåll, vad detta förmedlar och vilken bild som återges har en kvalitativ analys som metod valts ut för studien. Analysen tar sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i diskussionerna om det postsekulära samhället som ofta gällt kristendomen men denna studie bidrar till att ställa islam och Anyurus bok i en sådan postsekulär belysning. Slutresultatet av studien visar att religionens roll återaktualiseras i romanen. Enligt tolkningar som gjorts av Anyurus skildringar av religion och samhälle är han som postsekulär författare en inklusivist. Detta innebär att han vill inkludera alla i det offentliga rummet. Religionen har inte tappat sin betydelse i det framtida samhället, tvärtom visar Anyuru via sina skildringar flera positiva funktioner i form av att utsatta känner hopp, gemenskap och samhörighet. Enligt undersökningens tolkningar ska religionen enligt Anyuru inte privatiseras då detta döljer ett maktutövande vilket han också ger flertal exempel på. Att begränsa religionens roll i samhället med hänvisning av ett terrordåd visar författaren är fel genom att helt ta avstånd från jihad och radikaliserad islam i romanen. Budskapet han sänder ut är att religionens funktioner ska erkännas i offentligheten, dessa skildrar han som kärleksfulla och konstruktiva. Därmed spräcker Anyuru många fördomar om islam. Romanen kan mycket väl fungera i religionsundervisning då eleverna ges möjlighet till att granska källan men också reflektera kring religionens roll i ett framtida samhälle. Liksom tidigare forskning så visar min analys att religionen har en återaktualiserad roll i framtiden och hypotesen för min undersökning har visat sig stämma.

In the year of 2015 and 2016, the European Union had experienced the refugee crisis in relation to the unprecedented influx of refugees. In collaboration with other member states, Sweden granted a significant number of residence permits to these refugees, and has continued this work proportionally when the number of asylum applications decreases. The ongoing challenges to integrate refugees into society socially, culturally, and economically have stimulated the entire Swedish society to conduct a kaleidoscope of integration projects. Take the aspect of employment for example. The Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) has the main responsibility to connect these newcomers with the vacancies in the job market. However, some feedback has shown that the limited options are not able to take into consideration newcomers’ diverse conditions and meet their needs. Changes of the direction of policy sometimes make their relatively disadvantaged condition even worse. Seeing such incoherence as a hindrance to integration, a few Christian communities responded by initiating new employment projects in an attempt to overcome the difficulties faced by both the government and refugees. This study is designed as case study research of two Christian belief-based employment integration projects: Talenterna and Jobbprepp 2019. I intend to use these cases to support a claim that with the application of Christian beliefs, churches or individuals, as a visible form of a social force, could be involved in employment integration more actively to transcend the structural boundary and facilitate the sharing of social capital with refugee job seekers. By comparing the qualitative data collected by six interviews and organized by narrative and thematic analyses, this study identifies the functions of religion for employment integration and displays the implementation of the selected projects. The final finding highlights the significant methodologies applied by the projects and implies these methodologies are the contributor for positive employment integration.

The aim for this essay was to study the concept of cultural and religious heritage. Background to this essay is a personal interest in Swedish folklore and folk tales but also an interest in cultural and religious heritage as a concept. The theoretical framework is based on the Australian heritage and museum researcher and archaeologist Laurajane Smith. Smith criticize the way western civilizations tends to create and legitimize cultural heritage in a way that some groups’ cultures protects while others risks too fall into oblivion. She discusses the possibilities for the concept of intangible heritage to challenge the heritage creation of today. A major part of the folk tales in Sweden contains several religious themes and motives which originates from Christianity and folklore. Through text analysis, this essay shows the variety of religious themes, motives and subcategories that is the common denominator for the narratives. Discoveries from the text analysis combined with previous research lays the foundation for the discussion. What we consider to be a cultural, or religious heritage today has, according to Smith, been established by a minor elite who has had the interpretive precedence to accept or dismiss certain cultural expressions as a heritage. The folk tales, as an intangible heritage, can become the cultural and religious heritage of, and for the people. In the tales that have been preserved it is not the kings voice, nor the church voice we hear. It is the voice of the worker, the farmer and the crofters. Intangible cultural heritage can provoke the meaning of cultural heritage and who’s heritage we speak of.

The present questionnaire study examined attachment-religion connections among 175 believers from Christian congregations within the Læstadianism revival movement in Sweden and Finland. Results generally supported the study’s hypotheses, thus partly replicated, and extended previous research. Replicating previous research, reports of secure attachment predicted the adoption and transmission of Christian beliefs and values. Reports of relative insecure attachment was linked to aspects of religious changes and predicted religious changes occurring in a life-context of emotional turmoil. Results for emotional compensation were, however, not consistent with previous research. Reports of secure attachment predicted emotionally-based religiosity and insecure attachment did not predict the intensity/suddenness of the religious change. Extending previous research, reports of secure attachment predicted the adoption and transmission of the congregation's Christian standards and perceived religious support from one's congregation. Findings are discussed in the context of the Læstadian population of the study.

Stakeholders in Education are concerned with the continuous low enrolment of girls in schoolin Northern Nigeria. Studies have shown that religion has had a negative impact on schoolenrolment of girls. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the relationshipbetween religion and school enrolment of girls. The study also investigated other factors thataffect enrolment of girls in school in northern Nigeria. The theoretical framework for thestudy was Adam Smith’s Human Capital Development Theory. Results of research showed asignificant relationship between education and five variables (Religion, culture, poverty,violence, and poor policy implementation) which hinder increase in enrolment. Findings maybe used to develop strategies to increase enrolment of girls in school in the future.