The purpose of this essay was to study how Swedish teachers of religion view and contemplate topics like diversity, neutrality, subject view and the relationship between religion and science, in teaching of the “religious belief and science” theme, at the upper secondary level. The “religious belief and science” theme is included in the basic religion course (Religionskunskap 1) in Swedish upper secondary schools and therefore it is likewise a mandatory course and, furthermore, theme, for Swedish students at this level. However, due to the multicultural nature of the current Swedish society, which includes people and students with a broad variety of cultural and religious backgrounds, it is arguably a complex task to teach a theme which include two such contrasted §phenomena, in a context which is based on natural science. Consequently, religion and religious beliefs risk being designated as abnormal. During this study, teachers were interviewed and asked about their experiences teaching this theme and about their views of the topics above, utilizing a qualitative research method. The results derived from this study were many and some results stood out. Regarding diversity among students and students´ backgrounds, the theme clearly requires planning and a certain attentiveness from teachers in order to neutralize and counteract intolerance among students. Furthermore, regarding neutrality and subject view, teachers´ own opinion and subject view in accordance to the theme seems to affect the teaching, even though teachers aspirations might be to appear neutral and to clearly take a neutral stand. Regarding teachers´ view on the relationship between religion and science, a majority of teachers consider both perspectives equally relevant and, additionally, that they bring unique perspectives on complex questions and matters.

In 1919 Anton Nyström became the first person in Sweden to publish a comprehensive defense of homosexuality. He believed that its classification as a mental illness was erroneous and that Sweden's law against homosexual sex was both irrational and cruel. Nyström was a physician whose work in the medical area dealt primarily with dermatology, psychiatry and human sexuality; however he was also a prolific historian, who took a staunchly anti-Christian view in his analysis of how Christianity affected European culture, especially in the area of sexual morality. In fact, much of Nyström's medical texts dealing with human sexuality consisted of anti-Christian cultural and historical commentary. The object of this "C-uppsats" is to analyze Nyström's pamphlet, Om Homosexualitet och Hermafroditi: Belysning af Missförstådda Existenser and illustrate how its defensive structure was consistent with the pattern used by the author in his other books and articles on human sexuality. Specifically, that irrational and neurotic Christian beliefs caused both mental and physical suffering and were the source of deleterious forms of morality. Additionally, this paper will also show that the solution Nyström had for the problem of negative and erroneous attitudes towards homosexuality was to replace the sodomitic view of homosexuality with one based upon a more rational and naturalistic belief system, the basis of which could be found in the pre-Christian cultures of Europe, most especially in Greece. This new conception was to be constructed primarily out of historical example and cultural analyses. For Nyström, history writing was used both as a weapon to fight the source of negative attitudes towards homosexuality, as well as a tool that could be used to build a positive cultural model which would be beneficial for homosexuals.

Denna studie undersöker hur religionskunskapslärare behandlar ateism och sekulära livsåskådningar inom ämnet religionskunskap. Syftet med denna studie är att analysera hur religionskunskapslärare förhåller sig till och resonerar kring ateism och sekulära livsåskådningar i sin undervisning. De frågeställningar som jag utgår ifrån i denna studie är följande: Hur förstår religionskunskapslärarna begreppen ateism och sekulära livsåskådningar, hur ser lärarna på betydelsen av att undervisa om ateism och sekulära livsåskdningar och vilken plats får ateim och sekulära livsåskådningar i religionskunskapsundervisningen enligt religionskunskapslärarna och vad är deras motivering? Metoden som jag har använt mig av är semistruturerande intervjuer som varade mellan 20-30 minuter och ufördes under perioden april-maj år 2018. Jag har intervjuat sex religionskunskapslärare på gymnasiet som arbetar i olika gymnasieskolor inom Stockholms län. Dessa informanter är mellan 25-45 år gamla och har varit verksamma lärare i olika antal år. Den teori som jag utgår ifrån och har kopplat mina interjvjusvar till är Karin Kittelmann Flensners avhandling där jag utgår från den sekularistiska diskursen. Resultatet som denna studie har kommit fram till är att informanterna förstår begreppen ateism och sekulära livsåskådningar på olika sätt, men att vissa av informanterna har gemensamma nämnare i deras definitioner. Alla informanter tycker att begreppen hör hemma i religionskunskapsundervisningen, att de kommer till uttryck i läroplanen på olika sätt trots att de specifikt inte uttrycks i läroplanen och att de därför bör därför behandlas i religionskunskapsundervisningen. Detta visar på att de tycker att det är viktigt att inkludera dessa aspekter i undervisningen. Alla informanter förutom en använder sig dessutom av dessa begrepp i sin undervisning. Trots detta får varken ateism eller religiösa livsåskådningar ett eget moment i undervisningen, utan de behandlas istället som bihang och i relation till olika religioner. Ateism och sekulära livsåskådningar behandlas inte i så stor utsträckning och detta förklarar informanterna att det beror på den rådande tidsbristen och att man därför väljer att prioritera de olika religionerna istället. Resultatet visar även på att det finns en rådande sekulär norm som dessa informanter förhåller sig kritiskt till.

Starting in the socio-cultural changes associated with the recent proliferation of various post-terms, this essay explores Mattias Martinson’s proposal for a theological response to these developments. Based on Martinson’s Post-Christian Theology and The Cathedral in the Center, the essay sketches a post-Christian theology that attempts to transcend both traditional Christian theology and atheism as a response to a societal situation of widespread disbelief. To address the ambivalence of the post-Christian society, post-Christian theology needs to be open, adaptable, and provisional, characterized by a ‘neither/nor’ and an ‘in-between,’ rather than by strong metaphysical claims. In a second step, the essay investigates the post-Christian Christian church. To this end, the essay develops an ecclesiological heuristic model to examine the ecclesiological implications of Martinson’s proposal. Situating the Christian church in the nexus of tensions between the divine and the human, the past and the future, and the open and the bounded, the essay demonstrates how the post-Christian church breaks with the established ecclesiological thinking about the church, rejecting the divine elements, the normativity of past and future, and the boundedness of the church. The result is a flattened or weakened church that is better described as a post-Christian atheist church.

In this essay I will be examining the protagonist Niels Lyhnes naturalistic ambitions in J.P. Jacobsens novel Niels Lyhne (1880), more accuratley how the novel Niels Lyhne succeedes as a naturalistic novel through the failure of the protagonist Niels Lyhnes own ambition to live by the ideals of naturalism. Niels remains throughout his life a strong atheist because, in his childhood, God did not answer his prayers to save his dying aunts life. His atheism and his naturalistic ambitions turn into, which I will show, a form of idealism. This could be viewed as inevitable. To renounce ones belief in something also means that one embraces a belief in something else, even if this ”something” is the lack of what one used to believe in. Niels Lyhnes failure, however, means that the book Niels Lyhne succedes as a naturalistic novel. What Jacobsen has achieved is to depict man as the incomplete creature that she is.

ABSTRACT OCH NYCKELORD    Böneutrop har debatterats mycket i Sverige sedan våren 2018, en bidragande orsak är stiftelsen Växjö muslimer som fick tillstånd av polismyndigheten att ha högtalarsända böneutrop. Syfte är att studera religionens plats i det offentliga rummet genom att analysera böneutrop i Växjö. För att belysa händelsen använder jag kvalitativ metod, baserad på överklagan till tingsrätten, mediedebatten samt lagstiftningen. Min uppsats visar på att religionen har ett stort utrymme i det offentliga rummet i Sverige, oberoende om individen är troende eller inte.

The overall aim of this bachelor thesis is to discover the portrayal of atheism in eight textbooks, published by established publishers and authors. And through that see if there is a secularist norm in the textbooks. The eight textbooks are written in accordance with the curriculum for the mandatory, non-confessional school subject Religious education, used in upper secondary schools. The result of this thesis is tied in to the four different themes of the analysis:  Atheism as Marxism, existentialism?  A secularist norm?  A religious norm?  The textbooks discussion and factual issues? Related to the keywords  The findings of this bachelor thesis indicate that there can be a secularist norm as well a religious norm. This has been presented through the textbooks description of atheism and the relevant keywords. The thesis has also demonstrated that the portrayal of atheism is linked to the description of Marxism and existentialism among other non-religious worldviews, such as humanism and secular humanism.  The result of this bachelor thesis is also linked to Karin Kittelmann Flensners thesis Religious Education in Contemporary Pluralistic Sweden, especially her secular discourse.

This study examines the state of research concerning the ideology of New atheism and interactions and implications in relation to religious studies in Swedish upper secondary school. The text primarily aims to examine which the core values of New atheism are, and to what extent these core values are expressed in religious studies in Swedish upper secondary schools. The study also attempts to position new atheism in a wider socio-political context, in order to establish why it might be problematic in relation to the anti-discriminatory aspects of the Swedish school curriculum. The study concludes that there are few works specifically investigating new atheism in the context of Swedish schools. In response to this, the study has primarily focused on two themes: defining core values of New atheism and discourses on religiosity in Swedish upper secondary religious studies classrooms. The results on the former are primarily based on literature by Dr. Stephen LeDrew, and the latter from observational studies by Dr. Karin Kittelman Flensner. These results are compared, resulting in a short analysis of the prevalence of New atheism in the Swedish religious studies classroom. The results show correlations between classroom discourses and new atheist values but present no evidence of causality. Further research that examines the transmission of values through social media are suggested.

Upplysningen var en period av radikala förändringar. Religion, vetenskap och politik influerades under denna period av de vetenskapliga framgångar som gjordes under 1600-talets vetenskapliga revolution tack vare bland annat Galileo och Kopernikus. Trots att upplysningens påverkan inte begränsades till enbart vetenskap och filosofi utan även religion finns det en etablerad definition av upplysningen som icke-religiös. Christopher Hitchens och John Gray är båda ateister men har markanta meningsskiljaktigheter när det kommer till upplysningen och deras tankar om periodens främsta representanter. Hitchens tillskriver upplysningen ideal som förnuft, framgång och en ärlig intellektuell strävan medan Gray menar att upplysningen var en era av blind hängivelse till förnuft och vetenskap som ersatte den monoteistiska guden. Han menar även att upplysningens tendens att intellektualisera och legitimera rasism genom att inkorporera den i vetenskap har lett till moderna rasistiska ideologier. Även om dessa perspektiv skiljer sig i hur de beskriver upplysningen och deras främsta tänkare är Grays analys mer historisk och även fri från en form av ytlig romantisering som Hitchens gör sig skyldig till. En granskning av utdrag ur verk från Voltaire, Baruch Spinoza och David Hume gör det svårt att känna samma vördnad för dem som Hitchens gör och legitimerar Grays beskrivning av eran som fylld av rasism, kolonialism och intellektuellt förtryck av allt som inte var europeiskt.

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