This study addresses issues concerning religion in the public sphere, brought about by the debates over the perceived resurgence of religion and the post-secular. The aim is to analyze the participation of religious actors in the public, using three newspaper debate pages as the empirical material. Building on theories by Casanova, especially his concept of public religions, as well as mediatization theory and Habermas' writings on religion in the public sphere, 639 opinion pieces signed by religious actors were analyzed. The mixed-methods content analysis was conducted in two steps: first a quantitative overview of the religious actors published, to what extent and on what issues. The second step consisted of three qualitative case studies based on the results of the first step: an argument analysis of the debate over same-sex marriage; an exploration of the specific position of the Church of Sweden and the idea of the national church as a public utility; and finally a discourse analysis of articles by Jewish and Muslim authors. These were analyzed on the basis of criteria for public religions developed from Casanova’s theory and from the media logic of debate articles. While the results show no clear increase in the number of religious actors during the period under scrutiny, one notices a clear presence of Muslim and Jewish actors, eventhough Christians of varying denominations dominate the material. There are also clear differences between the different religions: minority religion contributions are limited in terms of issues and scope, while Christian groups write about more varied issues. Muslims often relate to negative media discourse towards Islam, while Jewish signatories write on a limited number of themes closely related to the group itself. In many articles, one found a meta-debate over the place of religion in the public sphere even when specific issues were debated. The contribution of this dissertation is to critically discuss the concepts and assumptions underlying the debate over the place of religion in the public sphere. It stresses the importance of media perspectives as well as empirical studies for analyzing issues of authority, visibility, private/public and religion in late modern, mediated contexts. / The Impact of Religion - Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy

一貫道在臺灣的傳道環境與過去在中國時已有相當大的改變，除了政治經濟環境的改變之外，民眾的知識水平與社會連帶也與過往大不相同，這些原因都促使當代台灣的一貫道，發展出了有別於在中國時的宣道與辦道方式。本研究從教義、組織與宗教倫理實踐三個面相來探討，臺灣一貫道如何轉變承襲自中國傳統文化中救度宗教的特質，使其更能適應當代社會。而戰後受到一貫道與當局的政教關係與當時傳道背景的影響，臺灣一貫道約分為十八個支線，各自有其發展特色。在無法窮盡所有臺灣一貫道的個案情況之下，以在當代較常參與公共事務的兩個組線——發一組與寶光組），作為調查訪談的田野。研究結果顯示，當代一貫道朝向更入世化與制度化轉型，使教義從追求彼世的極樂，轉而更著重於此世的關注。而在天命領導制度的傳承上，則更加的制度化一改救贖恩寵源自於一人的傳統。而在宗教倫理的實踐上，除了更貼近儒家的淑世行動之外，更朝公共宗教的特質發展。總而言之，一貫道在當代社會之中，逐漸捨去巫術、情感性與人格化的特質，而朝更理性、除魅與入世的方向發展。 / How to adapt the complicated and quickly changing world for the traditional religion? It is the major concern for those religions in the contemporary world. This dissertation will use the Yi Guan Dao (一貫道) as the empirical source to discuss such question. Because of the transition of the political economic environment, the improvement of the knowledge level of individual and the change of social solidarity, the missionary condition of Yi Guan Dao in Taiwan has lots of difference compared to the condition when Yi Guan Dao in China, forcing the missionary of Yi Guan Dao to change their way of missions and preach in Taiwan. This dissertation will use three factors, which are doctrine, religious organization and the practice of religious ethics, to discuss how the Yi Guan Dao transferring its character inherit from the Chinese Salvationist religion to make it much suitable for the modern society in Taiwan. Due to the social and political context after world war II, there are 18 Sect of Yi Guan Dao in Taiwan, however, this dissertation will choose the most representative two (Fa Yi Sect and Bao-Guang Sec) as the field of fieldwork. The research result shows that the contemporary Yi Guan Dao has transferred to more engaged and institutionalized than they used to be. In this vein, their doctrine has transferred from focusing on the bliss of afterlife to put more attention on this life; In their inherited of the leading system of Mandate of Heaven, it becomes more institutionalized than used to, which focusing on the traditions that the redemption grace is originated from the only one. In their practice of religious ethics, besides more close to the idea of refining of the world from the Confucianism, they also have the characteristic of public religion. In general, the Yi Guan Dao in the contemporary society, they losing their character of witchcraft, affectivity, and anthropomorphization, becoming more rationalized, more disenchantment and more engaged to the secular world.

Religious education teachers in modern secular countries like Sweden are faced with many challenges. For example: how do the teachers encourage students to talk about religion when religion is largely understood as a private matter? Kittelmann Flensner found in her 2015 study that Swedish schools operate under what she calls a secularist discourse. This paper aims to examine that claim by analysing interviews with active Swedish religious education teachers. By applying Systematic text condensation to four transcribed interviews and analysing the results, this paper looks at what traces of a secularist discourse that can be found. Furthermore, the paper aims to answer how teachers relate to a secularist discourse and what didactic choices they make to encourage their students to talk about religion.To analyse these questions Kittelmann Flensner’s term secularist discourse is used along with Shiner and Casanova’s views on secularism. In terms of the didactic perspective, Hartman’s presentation of the didactic questions is used to analyse some of the methods teachers describe in the material. In short, my results show that Kittelmann Flensner might have generalized her results when it comes to viewing religion as a private matter in the classroom. Additionally, Casanova’s view on secularisation can explain only a few instances of public religion in the classroom. My conclusion is that the secularist discourse may be present in many classrooms but with exceptions in some multi-religious classes. My conclusion regarding the didactic analysis is that religious education teachers who want their students to talk more about religion need to do mainly three things; get to know their students well, spark interest among the students and bridge the gap between talking about religion in private and in public.