During the later part of the 13th century, two female convents of the Dominican order were founded in the realm of Sweden, both in the diocese of Linköping. The Dominican order first came to Sweden as early as in the 1220’s, and the history of the brothers’ convents has been described to a much greater extent – at least up to the end of the 14th century –than the history of the sisters. Therefore, a conclusive history of the female convents is still lacking. In this master thesis, I aim to describe the foundation and the history of the Swedish sisters of the Order of Preachers from around 1270 to the closing of the convents in the Reformation Era, around 1540, and also attempt to clarify who the benefactors of the convents were. In part due to the fervour of the reformators, there is a substantial deficiency when it comes to source material pertaining to the Dominican order’s history in Sweden and especially concerning the sisters’ convents. I will therefore try to compile all available relevant source material, in order to build a comprehensive picture of the history of the convents. This is however not enough when it comes to describing the everyday life of the sisters. To this end, it becomes necessary to partake of research concerning the female convents of the Order of Preachers and the spiritual development in the rest of Europe, mainly in France, Germany and Italy, and compare it to what the Swedish source material can reveal. This research will also be used as a comparison with prominent features in the Swedish convents. Primarily the Swedish source material consists of charters and annals, but there are also some literary sources that will come into consideration. The theoretical framework discusses the possibilities of applying gender theory to the history of the sisters’ convents, furthermore a sociological approach to networks of families as well as any possible mentalities that could have influenced medieval women in their decision to enter a monastery. Certain modern research on Swedish female monasteries of different orders, or with a different historical aim from the one applied in this thesis, will also be discussed. The conclusions reached are that a modified version of gender theory might possibly be applied to the results, furthermore that there were visible connections between the patrons of the convents even though they are difficult to interpret, and that the mentality of women has to be taken into consideration when trying to outline the history of medieval monasteries. Another conclusion is that there still remains a great academic effort to establish and write the history of the Order of Preachers in Sweden in the middle ages, and the Orders’ impact on society, in its entirety.

Several studies have argued that there exists a hegemonic, secularist discourse within Swedish classrooms, which implies a way of talking about religion as something irrational, outdated and restrictive in concern for individual freedom. Within this discourse, a non-religious or atheistic position is seen as neutral and unbiased, whereas a religious position is considered the opposite. This, I mean, is problematic against the background of the Swedish curriculum, where it is stated that some of the main goals with religious education (RE) is to help students develop tolerance and understanding for other people, with other beliefs than one’s own. Thus, the aim with this paper is to investigate if and how, a teaching material that is being used within the Swedish RE education, can express a secularist discourse and what implications the results may have for a neutral RE. By using a modified version of discourse analysis together with theoretical contributions from Karin Kittelmann Flensner, I have analyzed four episodes of the audiovisual teaching material/reportage series Från Sverige till himlen to try to answer how one, from a critical perspective on a secularist discourse, can interpret representations of religion in the reportage series. The conclusion is that the series portrays religion in accordance with especially four themes within the secularist discourse, namely; Criticism of Religion, Prime Time of History, Individualism and a Neutral Position. These results indicate that students need to be trained to critically examine not only religion, but also, and maybe in particular, what is taken for granted as the normal and neutral in a secular culture.

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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 Prose Edda chapter, Ragnarok as recorded by Snorri, was taken as a pivotal point for exploring fate according to the Norse mythology. The eschatological concept of collapsing gods and destruction of the world was explored through the logical and theological fatalist theory, diverging the orientation from standard textual exploration. The thesis examines the concept by employing the methodology of hermeneutics to scrutinise the text. The analysis derived results confirmed the existence of belief in fate embedded in the text; the logical fatalism that polarises statements by their truthfulness, even though it was not found or indicated textually, provided a strong contrast to theological fatalism, evidenced throughout the text. The weak theological fatalism (determinism) was suggested in the findings based on Ragnarok text, by which the inexorable change of aeons as set-in motion by the Universal Force (predicted by the three Volvas), does not entirely compromise the Aesir's free will; such as the cosmic order includes the free will in its mechanism; while Aesir's voluntary choice was dependent on God's forescience, it was still free to operate within the remit of its emission, unperturbed within the cosmic design. The Nietzschean concept of Amor Fati (Love for Fate) in accepting the inevitable, through the cyclicality of time, and as it appears with a reason that is to keep one happy, additionally illuminated our understanding of fate in Ragnarok. To counterbalance this idea and bring it into equilibrium, I reflected upon the notion of "Designer of Destiny", whereby human beings are assumed to run the entirety of their destiny, soon to learn that this human urge clashes with theit biology (over which they do not have complete control) and the cosmic power that has already predetermined the human path.

Denna text utreder de implikationer svartsjuka ger på den övergripande lyckan i samhället idag, tolkat mot olika normer angående vårt relaterande i främst romantiska partnerskap. Det finns teorier som hävdar att svartsjuka kan vara negativt för samhället, och det finns teorier som hävdar motsatsen. Den här texten försvarar tesen om att det är medvetenhet och självinsikt hos den enskilda individen som vänder svartsjukan till något som kan höja nivån av lycka i samhället, baserat på utilitaristiskt och deterministiskt synsätt.

In this study the relatively new role-playing phenomenon is investigated, with games such as Dungeons and Dragons. This investigation is carried out in part from a religion psycho-social perspective as well as an object relations theory perspective. The occurrence, which is multifaceted, came to Sweden from the United States toward the end of the 1970’s. In this study, both ’live’ and ’table’ forms of role-playing are focused on, where the experience of stories and adventure in so called secondary worlds are particularly central. In these stories and adventures, existential questions as well as various forms of fantasy religion often take an important position. I have chosen to study these phenomena in part because I with others feel that the psychology of religion in our late modern Swedish secularized context needs to broaden its field of research by incorporating meaning-making behaviour in a more general context, partly because I feel that hypothetically speaking there exist several similarities between the practising of a role-playing game and the practising of a religion. This study has three theoretical points of departure: object relations theory, according to Winnicott, et al; Pruyser’s Three Worlds Model; as well as a theory of ritual based on Erikson. In addition, the role-playing phenomenon is compared to the late modern context and the Swedes different worldview-profiles. The study is founded in six intensive interviews, which make it impossible to draw any general conclusions, but from a religion psycho-social and an object relations theory perspective the concluded result points to that the role-playing phenomenon on several points can be viewed as a substitute for religion. From this, I feel that it is of the utmost importance for our societies psycho-social and existential health that we study how we can aid children and adolescents in their ability to create consistent functional and symbolically rich systems of meaning, which they can express and share with others. My intention is that this study of the role-playing phenomenon in some form shall lend itself to the illumination of these extremely important questions. / I denna religionspsykologiska studie undersöks det relativt nya rollspelsfenomenet, med spel som t ex Drakar & Demoner, dels undersöks det mer allmänt ur ett religionspsykosocialt perspektiv, dels mer specifikt ur ett objektrelationsteoretiskt perspektiv. Företeelsen, som kom till Sverige från USA i slutet av 1970-talet, är mångfasetterad, men fokus i denna studie ligger på (bords)rollspel och levande rollspel, s k lajv, där det framför allt är den magiska berättelsen och berättandet och upplevelsen av historier och äventyr i så kallade sekundära världar som är det centrala. I dessa berättelser och äventyr har dessutom de existentiella frågorna och olika former av fantasireligioner ofta en framträdande plats. Jag har valt att studera detta fenomen dels för att jag med andra anser att religionspsykologin i vår senmoderna svenska sekulariserade kontext behöver bredda sitt forskningsfält till att innefatta meningsskapande beteenden i mer allmän bemärkelse, dels för att jag hypotetiskt anser att det finns flera likheter mellan utövandet av rollspel och utövandet av en religion: båda utövas i den illusionistiska världen; i båda sker ett rolltagande och en identifiering med olika roller, och genom detta rolltagande och denna identifiering samt möjligheten till projicering, verkar båda kunna ge lindring för s k dåliga objekt; dessutom innehåller båda rituella inslag; och båda erbjuder en möjlighet till bearbetning av existentiella frågor. För att undersöka dessa antaganden har jag för denna studie valt tre teoretiska utgångspunkter: objektrelationsteorin, enligt Winnicott med flera; Pruysers trevärldsmodell; och en ritualteori där fokus ligger på Eriksons begrepp ”ritualisering”. Utöver detta ställs rollspelsfenomenet mot den senmoderna kontexten och svenskarnas olika livsåskådningsprofiler, där det verkar som om de unga i större utsträckning, än de äldre, intresserar sig för de existentiella frågeställningarna, vilket också styrks av denna studie. Studien grundar sig på sex djupintervjuer, vilket gör att det inte går att dra några generella slutsatser. Men ur ett religionspsykosocialt och objektrelationsteoretiskt perspektiv pekar ändå det sammanställda resultatet på att rollspelsfenomenet på en rad punkter kan ses som en form av religionssubstitut, vilket innebär att det i den svenska senmoderna sekulariserade kontexten är ytterst ändamålsenligt att religionspsykologin breddar sitt forskningsområde till att innefatta meningsskapande beteenden i mer allmän bemärkelse, där fokus gärna kan ligga på hur och i vilka sammanhang vi bearbetar existentiella och religiösa frågeställningar. Utifrån dessa resultat anser jag dessutom att det är av största vikt för vårt samhälles psykosociala och existentiella hälsa att vi studerar hur vi kan underlätta för barn och ungdom att dels skapa sammanhängande, funktionella och symboliskt rika meningssystem, dels studera hur de i sina liv kan ge uttryck för dessa meningssystem såväl som dela dessa med andra. Min intention är att denna studie av rollspelsfenomenet i någon mån ska bidra till att belysa dessa, som jag ser det, ytterst angelägna frågor.

This is a master thesis in the discipline of psychology of religion, with a focus on the psychological and psychosocial functions of rites/ritualization and myths/narration in our lives. The main aim was to investigate adolescent male live acting role-players rites/ritualization and myths/narration, generally in their personal life and specifically in the world of the role-playing phenomenon, to see how they used the rites/ritualization and myths/narration in the role-playing world to create and maintain their sense of coherence and meaning in life. Theoretically were Erikson’s theories about ritualization, Stern’s theories about narration and Antonovsky’s theories about our sense of coherence (SOC) and general resistance resources (GRRs) used. The results point to that the six male informants, anyway when it comes to worldviews, ideologies and religions, lacked significant ritualization and narration outside the role-playing world, and that the role-playing interest in some ways could be a response by the informants to the lack of coherent and significant ritualization and narration in the family as well as in the Swedish society. In the world of role-playing was it specifically significant ritualization and narration that were related to having a place geographically-historically in a (age-)hierarchical network that seemed to be positively correlated with the informants sense of coherence and meaning in life. However, an important aspect was also that they could enter different episodic narratives together in game where they were able to express and explore personality traits and feelings they could not normally express or explore. This outlet seemed also to be used to unconsciously communicate and come to terms with intra- and interpsychical conflicts as well as existential questions. This scientific paper is a partial requirement of the European Union (EU) Diploma Program in Psychology of Religion. This paper has been administered through the Nordic Profile Program: Meaning-making, Culture, and Health, at Uppsala University, Sweden. Included in this program is the granting of a Masters Degree in Meaning-making, Culture, and Health through Uppsala University. The Diploma Program is a first research level program that can be integrated into doctoral or other advanced study programs in Europe and internationally.

The purpose of this essay is to get an understanding of how the Swedish Democrats have such a prosperity in the countryside. The aim is also to see if, and in that case how, the Swedish Democrats uses religion as a tool to increase their voter support. This will be especially focused, and compared with, what the respondents have to say about the countryside. To achieve this a qualitative interview study will be used to establish the information needed. The use of a qualitative interview study is essential due to the need of profound and complex information from the respondents. The respondents sit on a big knowledge because of their close relationship with the village and the Swedish Democrats. Further on the study will be set in a small town where the Swedish Democrats have a strong support. In this small village three out of the four Sweden Democrats who sit in the municipal council lives. The study will be in close proximity with words as xenophobia and islamophobia and it aims to supplement the research previously focused on the Swedish Democrats as ideology, with its actual representatives in the countryside.

No description available.