The purpose of this study is threefold: (1) to give a historical background of the concept of religion; (2) critically examine the challenges in the Study of Religions based on David Thurfjell and his essay Religionswissenschaft and the challenge of multi-religious student groups; and (3) to offer a solution that might improve and turn the Study of Religions into a more fruitful field. The results show that the concept of religion is the result of the developments in Western Europe and Christian theology. Secondly, the results illustrate that the methodologies of the department for the Study of Religions at Södertörns University College are seriously flawed. Finally, some personal suggestions and reflections are made that might improve the methodologies of the field.

This paper surveys the most prominent research done by Swedish scholars of religion in the years 2010-2019 on the subject of the definition of religion in order to ascertain the dominant trends in the findings of this area and speculate as to what prospects these findings offer for the development of a more general definition of religion. The dominant trends are categorised as supernaturality, ineffability and unusability, where the first defines religion in terms of conceptions of supernatural beings, the second defines religion in terms of conceptions of something ineffable or indescribable, and the third maintains that the concept of ‘religion’ is unusable on the grounds that it cannot be coherently defined. These trends are then further categorised in terms of a dichotomy of positive/negative definitions of religion, where positive definitions of religion propose that religion can be coherently defined and negative definitions of religion propose that they cannot. The final and speculative part of the paper offers two roads ahead for future research, firstly to investigate the difficulties inherent in the concept of “supernaturality”, and secondly, in the event that the different religious traditions of the world are found to be ultimately incommensurable, to aim at defining the ways in which different religions define each other.

This is a qualitative interview study that examines the life of young Jewish women in Sweden. The purpose of this essay is to investigate what parts of the Jewish tradition that the young women has chosen to maintain in their lives as well as to investigate the relationship between the Jewish girls and their non-Jewish environment. Material was collected with the help ofeighth semi-structured interviews and used to further be discussed and analyzed alongside previous research and chosen theoretical aspects. According to the result, a Jewish community in terms of family, friends or assemblies is crucial for the Jews’ ability to maintain their culture. In their very own community, the young women celebrate several Jewish holidays and create a strong bond to Israel. The religious aspect of Judaism has none or very little impact on the girls’ lives. This can be explained by their secularized environment and the fact the Judaism is more than just a religion. It is an ethnic group that shares history where the young women see themselves as a part of this collective. Furthermore, their relationship with their non-Jewish surroundings turns out to be quite uncomplicated even though they all have experienced antisemitism to a varying degree. The conclusion from this study is that even though the girls are not religious at all and despite their concerns related to being Jewish, the young women are very proud of their heritage and want to pass it on to future generations.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate two leading voices in the religion and secularizationdebate in Sweden during the 21st century, with a special focus on how the term secularisation isused. The investigation will be conducted using hermeneutics, and the method that will be usedis the hermeneutics of suspicion. The primary focus of this investigation is the source materialwritten by David Thurfjell and Christer Sturmark. The investigation has revealed thatThurfjell’s and Sturmark’s description of secularisation and religion in Sweden differs and thiscan be linked to their different backgrounds and starting points. The difference in theirdescriptions shows that the use of the concept of secularisation is not self-evident, it can varydepending on when during history it is used, but also who uses the term. The investigationrevealed the complexity of the concept of secularisation, a result that gives support to previousresearchers results within the field.

I have come to a point where I feel a need to understand more about my own work methods and my motivations. Departing from a process diary written during my master studies, I take a closer look at my own artistic process — the questions which inform my work, the questions that arise in it, and how my work is an attempt to understand those questions. Wherein lies the urgency for me to work with art in the way that I do?  This is an essay about a search, about trying to make sense of something, about not knowing. It is also an exploration of how my work in the non-verbal domain transforms my not knowing, how working with art is a tool for thinking and understanding.