The purpose of this study is to address a period in Swedish political history when the politicization of the Church of Sweden was formed, a politicization that still exist. How this period came about is viewed through the writings and speeches of an important member of the Social democratic party, Arthur Engberg, who became Minister of Education and Religion in the first Swedish social democratic government in 1932. Prior to being a minister, Engberg first argued to immediately separate the church from the state. Later, he argued that the church first must be reformed by the state before the separation can take place. The question addressed in the study is, if Engberg continued his efforts as a minister, 1932­–1939, or if he instead, as some implies, aligned with the church? The most authoritative literature when studying Engberg is Beltzén Arthur Engberg – publicist och politiker (Arthur Engberg – publicist and politician) from 1973 which suggest that he did follow his early intensions. This is however contradicted by a contemporary prominent party member, Rickard Lindström in an article in Tiden 1946. The method applied to study this question was to research Engberg’s writings and speeches in a chronological order and to put them into context with the parallel processes of the formation of the Christian Socialist Group and with the internal reformation of the church.  The conclusions drawn by the study is that Engberg became a defender of the church as the cultural institution he wanted it to be. He had come to realize that the church could be accepted and even useful for managing the religious matter of the state. As such it must be controlled by the state and a separation between state and church is not necessary in the foreseeable future.

This thesis examines the functioning of the Secretariat for Church Affairs of the Ministry for Culture in Czechoslovakia between 1967 and 1989. Its activities were aimed at the implementation of political decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. It monitored the situation in churches and religious communities and defined limits and options of religious life in the country. Churches had to report their activities to the Secretariat. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The work deals with the mutual relationship between politics and religio, churchz and state and with the reality, that the religious education has its political size. Its theoretical part characterises the relationschip of religion with the politics, its situation of today´s culture and the way of education of the young people to the understanding for christianity and the different religions and cultures.