This dissertation deals with religious conflict in a number of local communities of Sweden during early modern times, i.e. from 1630 to 1800. Religious conflict, in my understanding, comprises all kinds of conflicts in which the religious element is essential. The area of investigation in the dissertation is the northern part of the county of northern Hälsingland in northern Sweden. It is an area of particular interest in this context, since it featured a multitude of religious conflicts during early modern times. For the area and period of time under consideration here, the study of religious conflicts entails a study of three phenomena: major community conflicts in connection with outbreaks of witchcraze; major community conflicts during religious revivals; and minor conflicts, such as individual court cases involving witchcraft or blasphemy. The purpose of the dissertation is understand the pattern of such religious conflicts in northern Hälsingland in its local context. The local perspective is central and has also made me direct my interests towards the prelude to and aftermath of the conflicts in question. Particularly the latter has, to a large part, been neglected in earlier research. Theoretically the dissertation is inspired by the theoretical discussions of social scientist Walter Korpi. He maintains that identifying the distribution of power resources in society is essential to understanding conflict. This has proved to be a fruitful approach to the understanding of local, religious conflict in northern Hälsingland and I have been able interpret the witchcraze of the 1670s and the religious revivals in the latter part of the 18th century as the results of changes in power relations in the local community. The major community religious conflicts of northern Hälsingland – i.e. the conflicts during the witchcraze and the religious revivals -- were serious local traumas. The dissertation has also dealt with the aftermath of these conflicts, and the result does, among other things, emphasize the importance of honour in early modern society. Those accused during the witch trials of the 1670´s fought extensively for their right to attend communion together with the other members of their congregation -- a struggle to a large part due to the fact that taking part of the communion together with other honourable people could serve to restore their honour and reintegrate them in society. / <p>Sammanfattning på engelska med titeln: Religious conflicts in northern Hälsingland from 1630 to 1800</p>

This Master’s Thesis examines transnational conflicts and Christian-Muslim relations in Nigeria between the years 2001 and 2006. It focuses on two major transnational conflicts: The September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and the Danish cartoon controversy of 2005/2006. It discusses the impact of these transnational conflicts on Christian-Muslim relations in Nigeria in the light of the implementation of the Sharia Law in some northern Nigerian states and the improved access to the broadcast media and mobile telephone communication in Nigeria. By underscoring the relationship between transnational conflicts and the local context, this study provides a new perspective for understanding Christian-Muslim relations in Nigeria

The involvement of religious dimensions in armed conflict reduces the space for resolution and threatens the durability of peace. Yet, there are empirical cases showing that it is possible to address the challenges posed by religious dimensions. There are various avenues to secure durable peace for conflicts involving religious dimensions. Recent studies have focused on the usage of politico-religious solutions. Their findings are however limited to a series of case studies and still have multiple unknowns. This thesis aims to contribute to this body of research with the research question: How do politico-religious arrangements impact peace durability for intrastate armed conflicts involving religious dimensions? Building on previous research on the termination of civil wars and the resolution mechanisms for religious conflicts, this thesis develops a theoretical argument proposing that the provision of politico-religious solutions increases the likelihood of peace duration. A large-N analysis of 107 settlements from 1975 to 2018 related to 30 dyadic conflicts with religious dimensions, shows that there insufficient statistical evidence to support the proposed relationship. The findings question the generalisability of previous research and propose new avenues to further research the applicability of politico-religious solutions.

This research is 1) a critical conceptual analysis of the existing theoretical framework of desacralisation of conflicts developed by professor Isak Svensson in relation to mediation practice in religious conflicts with explicit religious claims; and 2) a critical argumentation for the development of an alternative and complementary initial attempt of mediation methodology suggested by myself: sacralisation of peace. This methodology is based on aspects of the worldview conflicts theoretical framework of professor Jayne Seminare Docherty, the ritual theory for peacebuilding as proposed by professor Lisa Schirch, and a plural conceptual notion of peace.  The research concludes that the desacralisation of conflicts theory has four conceptual limitations when used as a mediation practice in religious conflicts. These limitations are related with 1) conceptual assumptions of secularisation project; 2) “issue-negotiation” processes proposed by the theory and their rational model for conflict resolution; 3) a reduced notion of religious issues to ideological or convictional aspects, and 4) a reduced notion of the ambivalence of the sacred and its associated processes of sacralisation and desacralisation. The research also concludes that these limitations could be overcome by introducing a complementary complex mediation methodological approach where sacralisation of peace and desacralisation of conflicts coexist.

The Purpose of this essay is to seek an answer to whether or not a conflict exists between priests of the Assyrian Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church in contemporary Swedish society, as well as to examine the environment between the three. The theological dissimilarities will be studied (from a historical standpoint), along with the interviewed participants views on the division in Christianity which will be presented also. I choose to interview six priests/chorbishops who live and work in Sweden, and the result was analyzed according to the senior professor of peace- and conflict, Peter Wallensteen’s theories on conflict and conflict resolution, where important issues are laid out to identify the core problem, and theological differences are discussed and compared from a union perspective. The result of the interviews illustrate a clear response that the participants experience a lack of functioning collaborations (from the Assyrians Church view, a collaboration is absent from the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church, and vice versa) and most of the participants experience negative consequences from the divide in churches, as they strive for unity in Christianity as a whole. The theological differences between the churches proves not to be as significant as expected, the actual predicament lies partly in language-and phrase division along with a general rejection of each other’s interpretations. In many instances all the churches mean to express the same things, but it is the explanation of expressions that vary and cause misunderstandings. Consequently it is imperative for these churches to develop functional communication to (amongst other issues) solve their interpretations. If not to unify, then to develop an acceptance for each other and the different understandings.