This master’s thesis will thoroughly analyze the discourse that is the transformation and interaction of the Maoist ideology with the previous Confucian traditions and its importance in institutional spheres of society in contemporary China. The thesis aims to analyze correlations and causations to the aspect of the rise of Maoism from a non-Communist Chinese society highly influenced by Confucian values and traditions to a Maoist dominated Chinese cultural, social, and political landscape. With a comparative discourse analysis and a theoretical framework based on the development and rise of authoritarian ideologies and the correlations ideologies and religions can have interchangeably, the thesis aims to shed light on the aspects of rising authoritarianism and how they influence contemporary Chinese institutions of power. This is indeed of utmost relevance and importance since the Chinese Communist Party under the rule of Xi Jinping now increases its cultural, social, and political influence within the country itself, the greater Chinese speaking world, and on the international stage. The CCP utilizes Confucian centers of learning around the world to strengthen the nation’s political, social, and ideological influence and power monopoly and to spread CCP propaganda through the Confucian centers. In other words, the Confucian philosophy and ideology has had an increasingly more important role in the Chinese political, social, and cultural landscape. The usage of comparative discourse analysis linked to authoritarian development and continuation of authoritarian systems is useful to understand the contemporary Chinese context but also other contexts where religiously linked authoritarian rule has been replaced with a communist or Marxist authoritarian rule based on ideology, such as the case of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union and the rise of Communism in Eastern Europe after World War II.

This study examines the state of research concerning the ideology of New atheism and interactions and implications in relation to religious studies in Swedish upper secondary school. The text primarily aims to examine which the core values of New atheism are, and to what extent these core values are expressed in religious studies in Swedish upper secondary schools. The study also attempts to position new atheism in a wider socio-political context, in order to establish why it might be problematic in relation to the anti-discriminatory aspects of the Swedish school curriculum. The study concludes that there are few works specifically investigating new atheism in the context of Swedish schools. In response to this, the study has primarily focused on two themes: defining core values of New atheism and discourses on religiosity in Swedish upper secondary religious studies classrooms. The results on the former are primarily based on literature by Dr. Stephen LeDrew, and the latter from observational studies by Dr. Karin Kittelman Flensner. These results are compared, resulting in a short analysis of the prevalence of New atheism in the Swedish religious studies classroom. The results show correlations between classroom discourses and new atheist values but present no evidence of causality. Further research that examines the transmission of values through social media are suggested.

The main point of this study was to research on how the description of biomedicine was described and valued in educational material for upper secondary school.  To assist this research, this study took the help from two theorist, Francis Fukuyama and Bart Simon. These two individual had vast differences in how they view biomedicine and its relationship with the perspective of what defines a human. Therefore it was essential that these two individuals were included to assist and aid the research, by pointing out their different argument on why biomedicine had different interpretations. The study showed that a majority of the educational materials had an open and reflective questionnaire about biomedicine and it was often built around letting the pupils think and analyze about different ethical events regarding biomedicine. Another point that also showed up was that a minority of the educational material, didn´t even mention biomedicine and instead decided to point out other part of ethics that did not include biomedicine of any sorts. While other educational material often compared biomedicine to older form of science like the race biology from the beginning of the 20th century or bringing up the argument of  crossing the line between man and God and what our roles in the world is. These educational material had a more critical view to biomedicine and had more argument that pointed out negative attributes then they did with the positive. A noteworthy point that also came out from this study, was that the majority of educational material had similar attributes and arguments that Bart Simons mention in his theories. Meanwhile those educational material that had more of a critical viewpoint toward biomedicine, followed those argument that Francis Fukuyama had discussed in his theory. The conclusion of this research showed that most of these educational material had different form of influence in their way of describing biomedicine but most had reflective and open questionnaire when regarding the description of biomedicine.

The purpose of this study is to develop a fruitful conception of human dignity, a conception that can be used as a guiding moral principle when trying to resolve the conflict of rights. Specifically, the question that this study attempts to answer is what is a fruitful conception of human dignity and how can it be used to deal with concrete issues pertaining to human rights? Two reports from special rapporteurs propose two different courses of action regarding the implementation of the right to protection of property, and this is the conflict that the proposed conception of human dignity tries to resolve. To develop a conception of human dignity a broad conception of human dignity is initially developed, through the usage of a Rawlsian reflective equilibrium, and it is further developed through a combination of a reflective equilibrium, examination of the conception in relation to overall coherence with the human rights tradition, and a consequence analysis. The latter is done by utilizing a consequence analysis with the aforementioned courses of action being applied in a specific case, the case of Tanzania. By using a consequence analysis, a proposed conception of human dignity and a reflective equilibrium the conception of human dignity could be developed further and contribute to resolve the specific conflict of rights that could be found in the reports of the special rapporteurs. The conclusion drawn was that both of the proposed courses of action, regarding the implementation of the right to the protection of property and in relation to the proposed conception of human dignity, had desirable and less desirable consequences. Therefore, a third way was proposed that sought to bridge the gap between both courses of action, by combining elements of both, and to strengthen the condition-dignity for the parties affected.

A new law regulating homosexual relations was in the year of 2009 introduced in the parliament of Uganda, resulting in wide condemnation from the west. The bill proposed harsh penalties for homosexual behavior and gay advocacy, including, but not limited to, the death penalty and life imprisonment. Despite the damning critique from certain western countries the law garnered strong support among Ugandan nationals. To understand this discrepansy my thesis sets out to comprehend the reasoning behind the bill’s national popularity. Is it possible to make sense of a law that from a liberal western perspective could be considered nonsensical? To develop an understanding of the motivations behind the bill, this paper aims to identify and analyze frequently used arguments in support of the ”anti-gay law”. This analysis is primarily achieved through the implementation of a postcolonial perspective containing terminology inspired by Frantz Fanon, and Kristen Cheneys discussions regarding ”postcolonial amnesia”. More general aspects associated with postcolonial theory are also included and a ”liberal western perspective” is additionally implemented to empahasize the contribution of the postcolonial perspective. The study identified four different types of arguments that were commonly used in support of the bill. The first stated that homosexuality is a western phenomenon contrary to African values, the second claimed that homosexuality is a threat to the family, the third that it’s a sin in conflict with religious values, and it was lastly argued that homosexuality doesn’t qualify as one of the human rights. All of the aforementioned arguments were shown to be more comprehensible through the implementation of a postcolonial perspective. The branding of homosexuality as western and ”un-African” was for example demonstrated as explainable when viewed as a reaction to western hegemony and historical colonial exploitation, as well as a drive to create and uphold an independent national identity. A similar pattern is also identified in connection with the other arguments, and is primarily established through the reasonings of Frantz Fanon. Kristen Cheneys use of ”postcolonial amnesia” is also implemented to make sense of glaring paradoxes in the arguments supporting the law.

The aim of this qualitative study is to examine how teachers comprehend and interpret the subject of Religious Studies in Sweden; and how these interpretations manifest themselves practically in their teachings. The theoretical framework of the subject Religious Studies can be perceived and interpreted in different ways. This interpretation, as well as its practical implementation, is a process that is largely determined by a teacher’s knowledge of: pedagogical content knowledge, subject matter knowledge and curricular knowledge. The examination is based on eight semi-struc-tured interviews with Religious Studies teachers. Perceptions and methods were explored with each of them, the output of which has been analysed and themed. The result of the study clearly demonstrated that the main purpose of Religious Studies teaching was to increase the acceptance and tolerance of its students. It also revealed that due to the breadth and complexity of subject matter, the practical implementation of their teaching approaches varied significantly. Furthermore, its effectiveness is not only influence by the teaching approach itself, but also by individual’s own personal development.

Syfte – Denna studie undersöker hur verksamma lärare i årskurs 1–3 undervisar i religionskunskap om världsreligionerna, kristendom, islam och judendom i mångkulturella och homogena klasser i svenska skolor. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om det finns skillnader i undervisningen mellan de två olika elevgrupperna, samt vilka faktorer som påverkar lärares val av undervisningsinnehåll. Ur ett lärarperspektiv ska denna studie dessutom öka insikten över hur lärare påverkas och utformar sin världsreligionsundervisning utifrån olika elevsammansättningar. Metod och teori– Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av en webbenkät som innehöll 26 frågor med varierande svarsalternativ. Enkäten består av två delar, bakgrundsfrågor samt frågor om religionsundervisningen och besvarades av 103 respondenter. Den insamlade empirin undersöks utifrån ramfaktorteorin. Resultat – De huvudsakliga resultaten visar att skillnaden mellan mångkulturella och homogena elevgrupper är liten. Det finns dock en skillnad i hur mycket uppmärksamhet högtiderna gavs i de olika religionerna mellan elevgrupperna. Läroplanen anses vara den faktorn som styr religionsundervisningen i högsta grad då resultatet visar att lärarna utgår från den när de planerar sin undervisning. Avslutningsvis diskuteras resultatet i relation till den tidigare forskningen och ramfaktorteorin. / Purpose – This study examines how active teachers in grades 1-3 teach religious studies about world religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, in multicultural and homogeneous classes in Swedish schools. The purpose of the study is to examine whether there are differences in teaching between the two different groups of students, as well as the factors influencing choice of teaching content.  From a teacher's perspective, this study will also increase insight into how teachers are affected and thereby designing their world religious teaching based on different student compositions. Method and theory– The survey was conducted using an online survey that includes 26 questions with varying response options. The survey consists of two parts: background questions; and questions about religious education and was answered by 103 respondents. The collected empirics is analyzed based on the framework factor theory. Results – The main results show that the difference between multicultural and homogeneous groups of pupils is insignificant. However, there was a difference in how much attention the religious holidays were given in the different religions between the student groups. The curriculum is considered to be the factor that governs religious education to the highest degree as the results show that teachers start from it when planning their teaching. Finally, the results are discussed in relation to the previous research and framework factor theory.

Det didaktiska ämnesfältet gör det möjligt att undersöka vilka metoder yrkesverksamma lärare applicerar i undervisningen i religionskunskap 1 för att uppnå de krav som ämnesplanen kräver. Denna kvalitativa och kvantitativa undersökning undersöker vilka utmaningar lärare ställs inför och hur dessa utmaningar kan tacklas i religionsundervisningen samt i mångreligiösa klassrum. Denna studie grundar sig i en diskursteori och utgår ifrån en enkätundersökning samt kvalitativa intervjuer som visar på vilka utmaningar som existerar inom ämnet samt hur dessa utmaningar kan bemötas. Studien visar att tiden för undervisningen i ämnet religionskunskap 1 är bristfällig och att mycket stoff ska förmedlas på kort tid. De didaktiska metoder som lärare tillämpar berör kommunikationsfrågor, att arbeta ämnesöverskridande och att komprimera delar av material. Även elevperspektivet sätts i fokus som en didaktisk metod där undervisningen individanpassas. Studien visar också att det finns en osäkerhet kring vad lärare kan ta upp i religionsundervisningen i mångreligiösa klassrum och att lärare saknar ett stöd kring den didaktiska balansgång som råder.

Den här studiens syfte att är analysera den implicita ecklesiologi som kommer till uttryck i Engelbrektskyrkans kyrkobyggnad, kyrkorum och materialitet, sådan den var när den byggdes. Utgångspunkten är att kyrkobyggnaden, -rummet och kyrkans materialitet bär på ecklesiologisk information, som genom att synliggöras ger en bild av den syn på vad kyrkan är och bör vara som var rådande vid tiden för kyrkans byggande. Genom en begränsad fältstudie, litteraturstudie och en semi-strukturerad intervju avtäcks och analyseras den implicita ecklesiologi som kyrkan bär på. Studiens slutsats är ett synliggörande av en ecklesiologi där kyrkan är den plats som möjliggör mötet mellan Gud och människa. I Engelbrektskyrkan möter människan bilden av en undervisande, segrande och kärleksfull Kristus som har famnen öppen för sina barn. Både den bild av Kristus och den bild av kyrkan som framträder är bilden av det starka, vackra som inte är sårbart. Genom analysen av de konkreta uttrycken för kyrkan framträder också en ecklesiologi där ett statskyrkoideal bryter mot ett folkkyrkoideal.

The aim of this study is to examine and summarize what some Jewish, Christian and Islamic theologians answer to the question about why God created mankind. The theologians are divided in two categories. The first category deals with the time which the theologians are from; the medieval period and the modern period. The second is focused on the religions from which each one of them are a part of. The goal of this study is to reach an understanding of what different answers there are to this question and what can be concluded from what has been said. This study aims to solve this issue by working with three questions: What explanations and interpretations from medieval and modern theologians with Jewish, Christian and Islamic view give light to why God created man? What can be said of the examined answers to this question? What strategies can handle the problem of discord about why God created man? The conclusion of this study shows from the gathered data what can be said about human nature. The interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve for example, show that man and woman share a strong bond between each other due to having been created simultaneously and sharing one body. What this study contributes to as well is two alternative strategies that can help handle the problem of discord.