This study aims to investigate Christian responses to New Age practices, specifically by examining how the New Age practice of yoga, is described in Swedish Christian press. The reasearch questions were the following two: 1) How is Yoga described in the Swedish Protestant Christian Press? 2) How is yoga presented in the Swedish Protestant Christian newspapers Kyrkans Tidning, Dagen, Sändaren and Världen idag based on Lundgren’s risk and resource theory? The method used was content analysis, both in qualitative and quantitative approaches and the material consisted of 379 articles from 4 different Christian newspapers. Risk or resource theory and yogaphobia were applied to the results and the discussion. Regarding the first question, yoga is described as either a resource, a threat or other. In the resource category, the following subcategories emerged: yoga as a resource for physical health, yoga as a resource for mental health, yoga as a resource for activity in operation, yoga as a resource for a path to Christian spirituality, yoga as a resource for a path to an internal quest and yoga as a resource for a modernization of the church. Within the threat category, the following subcategories emerged: yoga as a threat to Christianity, yoga as a threat to church activities, yoga as a threat by dark forces, yoga as a threat to non-denominationalism,yoga as a threat to taxpayers, yoga as a threat to human health, and yoga as a threat to societal progress. The second research question addresses how yoga is presented based on the risk and resource theory. Surprisingly, the majority of the articles were found to belong to the other category, meaning that the article was neutral in its reporting. However, the risk category consisted of almost twice as many articles as the resource category. An interesting discovery in the analysis part was that both the theory of yogaphobia and “yoga as a risk” advocate that the practice of yoga in a Christian context contributes to a contradiction between the fundamental dogmas of Christianity and the opposite ones based in other religions. In contrast, yogaphobia is associated with a fear or phobia of yoga, while yoga as a risk is associated with criticism based on substantiated arguments. / Folkkyrkans nya ansikten - levd religion, nyandliga praktiker och teologisk legitimitet.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kau-98406 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Džanić, Amina |
| Publisher | Karlstads universitet, Fakulteten för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap (from 2013) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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