Music and religion are concepts, which have been continually associated with spirituality throughout the history of Western religion. Since the dawn of mankind, it has been considered that music has had a clear function about how individuals grasp their inner emotions to reach the transcendent and comprehend "Self". The aim of this thesis is to gain greater understanding as to how a group of young catechists in the Swedish Lutheran Church feel, interpret and construct their identities through popular music. An exploration as to how this specific group perceives concepts such as the Bible, church, spirituality, and religion was undertaken. The theory forming the basis of this essay is derived from a sociological perspective of postmodernism.

This study aims to investigate how, in Montesquieu?s Persian Letters (1721), religion and religious structures are presented to influence women?s position in French society.In Persian Letters Montesquieu presents a dogmatic religious life, which proceed from a literal interpretation of the bible. Such a reading raises critical questions concerning the nature of women, and subsequently places man over woman. Persian Letters show how this male dominance gets institutionalized in marriage. The religious life depicted is also distinguished by a non-genuine religious conviction and by acts which take on a simulation form.

The study focuses the evil within human beings and evil actions against other humans and the human kind. The evil is defined as evil actions such as murder and actions in war. The questions asked is whether the evil has a face and if it is possible in that case to paint that kind of face. The medieval mural paintings in old churches include Cain murdering his brother Abel based on the Bible. The study also includes reliefs, sculptures in stone describing Cains´s murder of Abel and sculptures with the Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem according to the Bible.

The aim of this study is to examine the Christian community called Plymouth Brethren and how they interpret religion in relation to their entrepreneurship and business practices. The community has a strong faith in God, uses the Bible as the guiding principle in everyday life, and also has the ambition to live together within the group in seclusion from the rest of society.Based on interviews with Plymouth Brethren in the county of Småland, the study describes how they perceive the relationship between the Christian faith and entrepreneurship and practice religion in the context of their family business. As the study illustrates the Christian faith is significantly motivating their enterprises of business and the Bible is their guiding principle even when it comes to how they should run their businesses..

The purpose of this work is to map what musical praise and worship means to different church members. What do they think of today's worship? Are there music styles or any instruments that are not suitable? What do the members think of contemporary Christian music and the regular traditional music in church? Do we need to make changes or not? How does the Christian Music affect their spiritual lives? Finally, what do the members think of what the Bible has to say about praise and worship? My method has been to interview four persons, who all are members in the Seventh-day Adventist church in Malmö. Beside literature and magazines, I have also listened to DVD sermons and searched on the Internet and in the Bible, to find out what others have to say about praise and worship.Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga vad lovsång betyder för olika församlingsmedlemmar. Vad anser de om dagens tillbedjan? Finns det musikstilar som inte bör finnas med i gudstjänsten? Eller finns det instrument som inte är passande i gudstjänsten? Vad tycker församlingsmedlemmar om den moderna lovsången kontra den traditionella? Behöver vi göra några förändringar eller inte? Hur påverkar den kristna musiken deras andliga liv? Och till sist, vad har de för syn på Bibelns lovsång? Min metod har varit att intervjua fyra personer som alla är medlemmar i Adventkyrkan i Malmö.

In this essay the renewal of the modern sacred art has been examined through the creation of three works of art from the art project ?Kyrkorummet?. The aim has been to show that renewal of the modern sacred art is best accomplished by the combination of the artist history and Bible knowledge and the open mindness of the beholder towards the new and creative, in order to communicate the gospel in modern time.The large extend of the art project demanded a selection of the art works. Therefore, three were chosen and they show the last supper and the baptism in a renewal way including both symbolism and creativity. To complete and facilitate the analyses, a theme, light and water, have been used as well as relevant theories in art history with Kandinsky as main art critic.Through the art project and it?s teaching, history in combination with present time through visits in different and modern churches, thoughts have been stimulated and the result has been new works of art that speaks of our time.

The story of Jonathan and David is a part of the deuteronomical view of Israels history from the occupation of the holy land all the way to the exile in Babylon. I am aware of that this is not true history, but it is nevertheless interesting to ask oneself: Why are those people a part of the deuteronomical history? What was the meaning in telling the story in this way?Exegetes and researchers are trying to give the relationship between Jonathan and David a place in the political realm, but here I have used several sources to show that it is not only a political story, but a loveaffair, where Jonathan is pictured as a submissive woman and thereby excludes himself from the throne of Israel. David on the other hand, acts as the perfect man, who is in command in spite of his youth. He does not break the rules of the patriarchal society, where the relation between two men was accepted as long as the older one did not play the womans role.

The purpose of this study was to explore how interpersonal relationship can be affected by groing up in a New Religoius Movement such as Jehovah?s Withnesses and how it has affected them both in their youth and today. The aim was also to explore if there were people in the respondents' environment that was significant to them during their childhood and which support our respondents have received if they were in need of it.We have not found any previous research on children's social relationships within the Jehovah's Witnesses. We therefore believe that this study is of high relevance to both society and also for all the professionals who come into contact with these children. To discover a child in need, knowledge about how their social environment looks like is crucial.

This master thesis is looking into the stories on the internet forum www.resedagboken.se. The stories of Swedish teenaged exchange students in the U.S. are studied and the main purpose is to see both what they are writing about and the reason for why they are spending their time writing down their experiences in a public forum.Even though most of the teenagers here are writing with a specific audience in mind, all the stories are free to anyone to take part of and this causes a difficult position for the teenagers who often seem to forget the public point of view when they are telling about their personal lives.The study is divided into two parts. The first one looks into the content of the stories and the other one focuses on the storytellers and their reasons for writing. The teenagers are writing both a lot about their everyday lives in their new environment, but also a lot of things to keep in touch with what their friends and family in Sweden are doing.

This study deals with an important and challenging issue that each school is facing today, that is the prevention work of bullying. The purpose is to investigate how two elementary schools define bullying and how the work of prevention looks like today. The study highlights two models, Farsta and Friends, that many schools follows in their work and struggle against bullying. We conducted this study by looking at how bullying looks at two elementary schools. How these schools developed working method in order to secure a safe environment for all children in the school.The findings in this study highlighted the involvement of these two schools in the work of prevention against bullying, which methods they used and how these schools worked intensively with organisations such as Friends.

Denna uppsats undersöker huruvida den dramaturgiska strukturen är en förutsättning för att en situationskomedi ska fungera väl ? det vill säga, vara underhållande och locka till skratt. I en komparativ analys av den mycket väl fungerande amerikanska situationskomedin Friends och den mindre bra svenska situationskomedin Svensson, Svensson framkom dock inga större strukturella brister hos något av analysobjekten. Följaktligen är inte den dramaturgiska strukturen avgörande för slutresultatets förmåga att roa. The aim of this study is to find out if dramatic structure is essential to the sitcom's ability to entertain and make audiences laugh. This study is a comparative analysis of the more humorous American situation comedy Friends and the less humorous Swedish situation comedy Svensson, Svensson.

This thesis explores how participants and leaders in ?Alpha?, an introductory course to the Christian faith, relate to and practice faith in Sweden. Sweden has often been viewed as a secular country where religion has been seen as irrational, outdated, and as something that belongs to the other but not to the self. Through the eyes of Swedish Christian practitioners, this study explores what kind of relationship my informants have to Christian faith and God while also exploring how living in a secular or post-secular context affects their way of believing and interpreting God and the stories written in the Bible. Furthermore, understanding of the Bible is viewed in the light of the concepts ?mythos? and ?logos? which highlights where Western explanatory models fail to explain and understand mythological stories.

Denna studie har genom halvstrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med 13 högstadieelever undersökt hur eleverna upplever två reklamfilmer mot mobbing. Filmerna har lanserats av stiftelsen Friends och utgör en del i deras arbete mot mobbing. Resultatet sammanställdes genom induktiv tematisk analys och åtta teman framkom. Temana var: Känsloprocess, Indirekt mobbing berör mer än direkt mobbing, Kan hända vem som helst, Förståelse för mobboffret, Hjälparen väcker beundran, Medlöparens brist på ingripande, Lärarens passivitet irriterar samt Alla kan hjälpa till. Det resultat som framkom jämfördes med det som Friends önskade att åskådaren skulle uppleva.

Cancer is one of the most common diseases and it affects not only adults but also many adolecents and children every year. Those who are affected of disease face many challenges that will affect their lives. The aim of this literature review was to illuminate adolecents experience of cancer and how it affects them in their daily living. The result showed that the adolecents experience many physical and mental side-effects from disease and treatment. They expressed the need of information, support and understanding from their families, friends, school and care givers.

Cancer is one of the most common diseases and it affects not only adults but also many adolecents and children every year. Those who are affected of disease face many challenges that will affect their lives. The aim of this literature review was to illuminate adolecents experience of cancer and how it affects them in their daily living. The result showed that the adolecents experience many physical and mental side-effects from disease and treatment. They expressed the need of information, support and understanding from their families, friends, school and care givers.