In the year of 2015 and 2016, the European Union had experienced the refugee crisis in relation to the unprecedented influx of refugees. In collaboration with other member states, Sweden granted a significant number of residence permits to these refugees, and has continued this work proportionally when the number of asylum applications decreases. The ongoing challenges to integrate refugees into society socially, culturally, and economically have stimulated the entire Swedish society to conduct a kaleidoscope of integration projects. Take the aspect of employment for example. The Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) has the main responsibility to connect these newcomers with the vacancies in the job market. However, some feedback has shown that the limited options are not able to take into consideration newcomers’ diverse conditions and meet their needs. Changes of the direction of policy sometimes make their relatively disadvantaged condition even worse. Seeing such incoherence as a hindrance to integration, a few Christian communities responded by initiating new employment projects in an attempt to overcome the difficulties faced by both the government and refugees. This study is designed as case study research of two Christian belief-based employment integration projects: Talenterna and Jobbprepp 2019. I intend to use these cases to support a claim that with the application of Christian beliefs, churches or individuals, as a visible form of a social force, could be involved in employment integration more actively to transcend the structural boundary and facilitate the sharing of social capital with refugee job seekers. By comparing the qualitative data collected by six interviews and organized by narrative and thematic analyses, this study identifies the functions of religion for employment integration and displays the implementation of the selected projects. The final finding highlights the significant methodologies applied by the projects and implies these methodologies are the contributor for positive employment integration.

The aim for this essay was to study the concept of cultural and religious heritage. Background to this essay is a personal interest in Swedish folklore and folk tales but also an interest in cultural and religious heritage as a concept. The theoretical framework is based on the Australian heritage and museum researcher and archaeologist Laurajane Smith. Smith criticize the way western civilizations tends to create and legitimize cultural heritage in a way that some groups’ cultures protects while others risks too fall into oblivion. She discusses the possibilities for the concept of intangible heritage to challenge the heritage creation of today. A major part of the folk tales in Sweden contains several religious themes and motives which originates from Christianity and folklore. Through text analysis, this essay shows the variety of religious themes, motives and subcategories that is the common denominator for the narratives. Discoveries from the text analysis combined with previous research lays the foundation for the discussion. What we consider to be a cultural, or religious heritage today has, according to Smith, been established by a minor elite who has had the interpretive precedence to accept or dismiss certain cultural expressions as a heritage. The folk tales, as an intangible heritage, can become the cultural and religious heritage of, and for the people. In the tales that have been preserved it is not the kings voice, nor the church voice we hear. It is the voice of the worker, the farmer and the crofters. Intangible cultural heritage can provoke the meaning of cultural heritage and who’s heritage we speak of.

The present questionnaire study examined attachment-religion connections among 175 believers from Christian congregations within the Læstadianism revival movement in Sweden and Finland. Results generally supported the study’s hypotheses, thus partly replicated, and extended previous research. Replicating previous research, reports of secure attachment predicted the adoption and transmission of Christian beliefs and values. Reports of relative insecure attachment was linked to aspects of religious changes and predicted religious changes occurring in a life-context of emotional turmoil. Results for emotional compensation were, however, not consistent with previous research. Reports of secure attachment predicted emotionally-based religiosity and insecure attachment did not predict the intensity/suddenness of the religious change. Extending previous research, reports of secure attachment predicted the adoption and transmission of the congregation's Christian standards and perceived religious support from one's congregation. Findings are discussed in the context of the Læstadian population of the study.

Stakeholders in Education are concerned with the continuous low enrolment of girls in schoolin Northern Nigeria. Studies have shown that religion has had a negative impact on schoolenrolment of girls. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the relationshipbetween religion and school enrolment of girls. The study also investigated other factors thataffect enrolment of girls in school in northern Nigeria. The theoretical framework for thestudy was Adam Smith’s Human Capital Development Theory. Results of research showed asignificant relationship between education and five variables (Religion, culture, poverty,violence, and poor policy implementation) which hinder increase in enrolment. Findings maybe used to develop strategies to increase enrolment of girls in school in the future.

En uppsats som genom komparativ teologisk analys undersöker vilka Jesus-epitet som används i den gnostiska (valentinianska) skriften Sanningens Evangelium och vad de och sättet de används på jämfört med i Matteus- och Johannesevangeliet kan säga om den syn på Jesus som speglas i Sanningens Evangelium.

This essay is about how sexuality is written about in Swedish textbooks for the upper secondary school in Sweden according to the curriculum. Sweden got a new curriculum for the upper secondary school in 2011 and the term sexuality entered the chapter about the religion education for the first time. The essay works through textbooks systematically and see how they write about the subject and how they chose to interpret the curriculum. Some textbooks have editions issued both before and after 2011 and the essay analyses how they have changed in order to fit to the new curriculum.

In this thesis, three perspectives on the justification of intellectual property rights are investigated in the light of conflicting socioeconomic human rights. This is done by using a comparative method, where the perspectives chosen are reviewed through the lense of rights as legitimate claims, as well as accessibility of rights. The purpose is to review as to how the ownership of ideas and inventions can be justified in relation to the socioeconomic challenges faced in many parts of the world. The principal research question is: How can intellectual property rights be justified and how can it be evaluated against the backdrop of socioeconomic rights and moral obligations? To answer this question, I posed three sub-questions: First, how are intellectual property rights justified in the existing research chosen as an entry point for this thesis? Drawn from this, how can the justification of intellectual property rights be understood as a moral concern in a socioeconomically unequal world? Taking a cue from this, what questions need to be answered to better understand the transnational moral obligations linked to intellectual property rights? By reviewing the perspectives presented on the justification of intellectual property rights, I make three concluding statements ​— intellectual property rights cannot be justified in cases where they affect other individuals’ socioeconomic rights negatively; excessive benefits gained for creators is not morally reasonable; and the unequal distribution of power and opportunities in relation to transnational moral responsibilities need to be recognised.

The aim of this essay was to study the public debate about the porn industry and whether human rights are being violated due to pornography, from a porn liberal and a porn critical perspective, using debate articles and two reports on the subject of porn. In addition to that I wanted to examine whether the porn liberals and the porn critics have different approaches to the subject of porn. To be able to examine this I used following questions: What conceptions of human rights and human rights violations exist in the different sides of the debate, and are the rights similarly interpreted on both sides? What approach do the debaters have when it comes to dealing with people in pornography, the porn industry, and its effects on society, and what is their perception on personal empowerment? The theory I used was Amy Allen’s power theory, where she discusses empowerment in relation to oppression and domination, the three factors she relates to power, and the methods used were a qualitative text analysis and a reconstructive interpretation. The results that came out of this essay regarding human rights in connection to porn, the porn critics mean that the porn industry violates several human rights by still being legalized, while porn liberals think that criminalizing pornography would mean a violation against human rights, and therefore want to protect those rights. Moreover, the porn liberals tend to focus on the porn consumers and what is preferable to them, or the positive empowerment that can come out of taking part in pornography. The porn critics, on the other hand, only focus on the negative parts of pornography, where women in pornography, pornography consumers and their sex partners all take harm in one way or another due to porn.

Uppsatsens syfte är att belysa formandet av diakoners yrkesidentitet. Fokus har legat på uppsatsens forskningsfråga; Hur förbereder utbildningen de studerande till uppdraget som diakon i Svenska kyrkan (SvK) respektive i Den norske kirke (DNK)? Jag har jämfört diakonens utbildning och uppdrag mellan Svenska kyrkan och Den norske kirke. Materialet har bestått av styrdokument såsom Kyrkoordning i SvK och Kirkelov i DNK, vigningsordningar och protokoll från styrande organ samt utbildningsplaner för diakonutbildningen. För att fördjupa begreppet diakoni har jag studerat Biskopsbrev om diakoni i SvK och Plan for diakoni i DNK, med hjälp av nyckelorden förhållningssätt och handling. I min fördjupning av diakonens yrkesidentitet har jag diskuterat begreppen kall och profession.  Diakonens yrkesidentitet är påverkad av tre delar. Dels utbildningen och relationen mellan välfärdsprofessionen och kallet. Dels uppdraget och relationen mellan uppdraget som det beskrivs i officiella dokument, vigningslöfte och möjligheten att praktisera sitt uppdrag. Och till sist diakonens vigningstjänst och relationen till liturgin

This essay investigates the philosophies and practices of Simone Weil and Etty Hillesum from the viewpoint of their relation to eating. By analyzing them aided by Renée Girard’s theory of mimetic desire, I discuss similarities and differences between Weils and Hillesums work and spiritual development. Entering their thinking through Robert Daly’s notion of a phenomenology of redemption, which describes the form of  mimetic desire that counters, rather than produces, violence, I discuss, guided by Susan Bordo’s work on eating disorders as well as Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, how Weil and Hillesum can be said to engage in this respectively. By contrasting Weil’s decreation with Hillesum's compulsive overeating, or “life-gluttony”, my analysis argues that Hillesum's diaries depict how she copes with violence by practicing a kind of radical self-love, through which she becomes able to reconcile with both herself and her outside world. As for Weil, I argue that the self-destructive ethics that her decreation consists in prevent her from reaching a full reconciliation, insofar as it constitutes only internalized violence, and not a refusal of violence as such. Thus, my conclusion is, Hillesum's philosophy might be said to be an expression of a more complete redemption, as I formulate it taking my departure in Daly's concept, than Weil's. / Denna uppsats diskuterar Simone Weils och Etty Hillesums verk och liv med avstamp i Weils formulering av begreppet avskapelse samt den livshunger, eller livsglupskhet, som Hillesum beskriver i sina dagböcker. Med hjälp av Renée Girards teori om mimetiska begär undersöker den hur självsvält och överätande figurerar i Weil och Hillesums liv och verk, och hur dessa fenomen relaterar till deras respektive andliga och etiska övertygelser. Utifrån Richard Dalys tanke om en försoningens fenomenologi, baserad i Girards teori om mimetiska begär, Susan Bordos analys av ätstörningar som kulturellt fenomen samt Maurice Merleau-Pontys kroppsorienterade fenomenologi utreder den skillnader och likheter mellan Weil och Hillesum med avseende på hur deras etiska övertygelser gestaltas av och i deras liv och verk. Min analys gör gällande att Hillesums dagböcker skildrar hur hon gör upp med våld genom att praktisera ett slags radikal självkärlek, genom vilken hon blir förmögen att försonas med såväl sig själv som sin omvärld. Vad gäller Weil, hävdar jag att den självförintande etik som hennes avskapelse består i omöjliggör en fullkomlig försoning, såtillvida som den endast utgör ett internaliserat våld, och inte en uppgörelse med våldet som sådant. Därmed, är min slutsats, kan Hillesums filosofi möjligen sägas vara ett uttryck för enmer fullkomlig försoning, som jag formulerar den med avstamp i Dalys begrepp, än Weils.