This study is about a King of Sweden and his relationship to Martin Luther’s theology. Gustavus III was king in Sweden during the 18th century and he is mostly famous for being a friend of the theater and arts. This study investigates the religious relationship between the king and the image of Martin Luther’s theology. My main question in this study asks how Gustavus III described himself as a Lutheran Monarch. The method consists of a content analysis of primary sources from the late 18th century, mainly Helgdagsreduktionen from 1772 and the Eccelesatique-samlingar from 1789. The result shows that the King had churchly ambitions and was interested in liturgical questions. The result also shows Gustavus III worshipped former kings of Sweden which influenced how the king wanted to describe himself as a good Lutheran in the shadow of Gustavus I and Gustavus Adolphus. The household theology of Martin Luther shows the position of the king and how he absorbs this position in his writing to the subjects and the priests. The king’s function is viewed as a father that maintained the subject’s true path to Christianity. The image of Gustavus III is also central in this study because the idea of the early modern monarch was forged in the very foundation of the protestant reformation which Martin Luther started.

Through the Zohar, the major medieval kabbalistic work, the human body is used in order to symbolise the divine structure. Present throughout are also dire warnings against the dangers of the flesh – a sense of anxiety often surrounds matters of the body. This study examines how the central notion of the body as created in God’s image relates to the negative zoharic characterizations of the body and further, how notions of gender and Jewish religious affiliation are reflected in the zoharic views of the body. The results show that characterizations of the body can work to reinforce boundaries and define the own group. The female body is valued differently than the male, the Jewish differently than the non-Jewish body. The idealized human body belongs to the circumcised Jewish male who adheres to proper religious behaviour. The aim of this thesis is to enrich our understanding of the human body as depicted in the major kabbalistic tradition of the Zohar.

The essay describes how leaven was perceived during Israelite times. In what ways it came to be incorporated into the theology of the Hebrew Bible. The inheritance the leaven carries with it is used in various ways in Nt. The essay describes Paul's and Jesus' use of leaven and gives a context for why this use was reasonable. The essay theorizes that the knowledge that the leaven came from Egypt meant that it could not be incorporated into the Israelite cult without exception. Egypt is in some respects the image of idolatry because several gods are worshipped. This means that the sourdough gets a legacy that needs to be managed. The bread leavened with sourdough is necessary during a time when there is a shortage of food at certain times. A bread leavened with sourdough provides more nutrition and makes it possible to store food for a longer period of time. The essay shows how the regulation in the Hebrew Bible lives on in Paul's letter in Nt. Jesus' references to the leaven are more general, where the leaven represents the spiritual in man. Leaven also takes on a different meaning in Nt in that it is attributed both positive and negative qualities. Leaven goes from being regulated in the Hebrew Bible to becoming in the NT a representative of the spiritual in man.

In this essay, Ingeborg Wikander's book Fem år i Kina has been examined through a thematic analysis method. The result showed three distinct categories, each with their own subcategories, which are: Wikander and the women, Wikander’s piety and Wikander, homesickness and national romanticism. When the theoretical framework was applicated onto the study it showed that Wikander generalised and grouped all Chinese women into one category. A category Chandra Talpade Mohanty refers to as “third world woman”, which was a way for Western women to distance themselves from women of another ethnicity, which also can be referred as “othering” a group, creating an Us and Them. Drawing on Malin Gregersen’s reasoning about paternalism and social motherhood, one can see how Wikander took on a nurturing role in the relationships she engaged in while in China. Shirley S. Garrett’s liberation ideology in relation to missionary work is also visible in the letters and works from Wikander.

The thesis aims to present and evaluate Liselotte Frisk’s usage of the father of charismatic research, Max Weber’s, theories regarding charismatic leadership. It does this by examining, using textual analysis, chapters from two works meant to examine and categorize new religious movements. The two works are “Nya religiösa rörelser” and “De nya religiösa rörelserna-vart tog de vägen?”. Three specific New Religious Movements have been selected: the Osho-movement, the church of Scientology as well as Hare-Krishna. The study details Frisk’s usage of Weber’s theories based on an analytical model that in itself is based upon Weber’s own definition of what constitutes charismatic leadership. The study finds that while Frisk uses aspects of Weber’s theories, there are certain aspects that do not align. Rather than seeing this as a fault of Frisk in her application of Weber, it should, however, be seen as a sign of the fact that Weber’s theories are somewhat vague and difficult to adapt and use. There is a reason for why he has been challenged and questioned on his views and terminology concerning charismatic leadership when it comes to New Religious Movements. That being said, there are aspects of it that in the present author’s opinion are still worth to investigate and use when it comes to leadership in religious organizations.

In Celtic religious studies, it is often difficult to find reliable textual sources if you are working with pre-Christian religion, since all text is written in a Christian context. As a result, Celtic scholars have to look outside of the pre-Christian Celtic context, to search for knowledge elsewhere. For example, one may use texts from Classical writers (such as Caesar) who wrote about Celts they encountered, or look to Christian material (in particular saints’ lives) to search for clues of pagan traditions which may have survived into Christianity. This has resulted in that certain Celtic pagan deities which we do not have a lot of information on, are compared to or even equated with other religious figures from outside of the pagan Celtic context. One such example is the pagan, Irish goddess Brigid, who is frequently equated with the Roman goddess Minerva, and also said to be the predecessor of the Christian Saint Brigid. Some also make comparisons between Minerva and the saint. This thesis aims to make an extensive textual analysis where all of these three characters are compared and discussed. Are they actually ‘the same’, and if not, how similar or different are they? Is the equating valid, or do we need to take another approach within the Celtic field? Using discourse theory and a comparative method, the research eventually shows that some of the characters’ most important traits are lost when we do equate them with each other.

Thousands of years ago in Ancient Mesopotamia there was an abundant Pantheon of gods and goddesses. Circa 3000–2300 B.C.E, separate cults started to form relating to two of these goddesses: Ninisina and Gula. They were quite similar, both associated with healing, as were several other goddesses in the area. Over time they all fused, and their names disappeared one by one, until one remained; Gula. Scholars of today often tend to see them all as one type of goddess, their names interchangeable. This essay researches Ninisina and Gula, and the intention is to see if they truly are the “same”. A number of hymns and healing spells are analysed and used to compare the goddesses. This comparison is based on three themes; “Healing”, “Praise” and “Prayer & Intention”, and finds that indeed the manner of their healing and their characters differ. The essay also discusses how central their roles as healers are. It is shown that even though healing is always mentioned in every chosen text, other traits are often emphasised more.

The violent uprisings in Myanmar between 2012-2014 sparked a big interest in the media around the world. The uprisings which resulted in many casualties and the destruction of muslim owned shops and mosques left around 140.000 IDPs. In an interview with Time Magazine’s Hannah Beech, the leader of the group claimed to be responsible for instigating the violence, Ashin Wirathu likened muslims to animals and encouraged burmese buddhists to shun muslims. Since the article was released an independent american organization which sympathizes with Wirathu and his ‘golden burmese’ 969 movement created a web page dedicated to portray a nuanced image of the movement and to clear up what they have claimed to be a number of false reports propagated by western media. This essay investigates the american support movement by analysing their english web page through the method of content analysis and by applying a propaganda theoretical framework to the final discussion. The aim of the essay is to identify what kind of image of Buddhism and Ashin Wirathus 969 movement the support group wants to portray and to explain this in the context of Myanmars colonial and postcolonial history.

This paper aims to explore the connections between the rural communities of Early Modern Castile and the saints they venerated through their festivities, relics and advocations and the roles that these relationships fulfilled in their societies. The Castilians of the sixteenth century seem to have used their interactions with saints not only for the purpose of the salvation of their souls, but rather, as ways to ensure the survival of their population, to cement social cohesion and identity, or to preserve the memory of their communities. Through the topographic relations of Philip II, a fantastic source that reproduces the voices of members of rural communities of Central Castile, this paper analyses the boundaries between the utilitarian and the cultural in the worship of saints, and the limits of local culture and identity.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse how and to what extent Ku Klux Klan constructed a pan-Protestant interpretation of Christianity based on its “myth of America” (Americanism) during the years 1915–30. Using hermeneutic content analysis and a theoretical approach based on Gramscian “cultural hegemony” and historian of religions Bruce Lincoln’s theory of myth, I examine the construction through three analytical themes: the Klan and the myth of America, the Klan’s pan-Protestantism, the Klan and religious patriotism. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s advocated a theological position where race and religious confession are intimately entwined, and its members hence believed that the white race is God’s chosen people and Unites States a God-ordained nation. Opposing the idea of multiculturalism, Klan members stressed the notion of America as a nation imagined to be threatened by Jews, Catholics, and blacks. Therefore, every white Protestant American had to unite in order to combat these alleged national and racial menaces. This worldview was permeated by aspects of love. It was mostly because of love to God, race and nation – not primarily due to hate – the Klan constructed its interpretation of Protestant Christianity. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s truly imagined themselves as guard-ians, or Knights, of an endangered culture.