The aim of this study is to investigate how frequently religious actors participate in public debates, on what subjects and with what arguments. This is done by studying the debate pages of Sweden’s largest tabloid: Aftonbladet. Furthermore, the aim is also to study what forms of authority and arguments the religious actors use while participating in the public sphere. In order to answer the research ques-tions the author takes an abductive approach and uses the theories of deprivatiza-tion and mediatization to conduct a sequential mixed method study of Af-tonbladet’s debate page between the years 2001 and 2011. The results show that very few religious actors participate in public debates in Sweden, and that the small sample of articles signed by religious actors are dominated by the Church of Sweden. The Christian groups are represented by religious authorities to a much larger extent than the Jewish and Muslim groups. However, the arguments used by all groups are predominately secular, which would indicate an acceptance of the secular norm in the public sphere.

The Swedish Church can be understood as having a large focus on social- and supportive work, in Sweden as well as abroad in their international projects. An example of their engagement is the extensive responsibility the church took during the refugee crisis 2015. This commitment in society raises questions about the role of the Swedish Church, such as how the church manifest itself in a so called secular society. On that basis, the aim of this paper is to examine how the Swedish Church’s work with refugees during the refugee crisis 2015, can help us understand the role that the Swedish Church has in the Swedish society today. The purpose is therefore to find out how the receiving of, and work with, refugees was expressed and what it can tell us about role of the Church today.   Moreover, the empirical material includes five case studies about the church’s commitment in the refugee crisis 2015, made by the Swedish Church itself. Theories about secularization is used for the analysis, and more particularly theories about internal secularization and deprivatization.   The conclusion of this paper is that the church’s answer to the refugee crisis, show us that the Church has in some aspects adopted a secular public role. This can be understood by the fact that they welcomed people to activities with main focus on integration, rather than pronounced Christian activities. Through their refugee work, the Swedish Church can also be understood as an important voluntary welfare provider supporting the Swedish state.