For some time, there has been a general thought that churches built in the Early Middle Ages in Scandinavia, around the 12th century, directly replaced cult buildings or cult sites from the Late Iron Age. There are archaeologists who have criticized this and were instead skeptical that churches at all were built on places where a pre-Christian cult building existed. Several examples from Scandinavia contradict this and show a continuity of place and cult from the Late Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages. The aim of this thesis is through a spatial analysis, study Late Iron Age archaeological sites in the landscape around thirteen churches located around lake T?kern in the western part of ?sterg?tland, to see if there is a place and cult continuity from the Late Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages at the selected locations.

The aim of this paper is to examine how gender and religion is described and portrayed in relation to one another in Swedish textbooks. The research questions used in order to reach the aim of the study is what interpretation of gender and feminism is represented in the textbooks and is the gender perspective consistent regarding all religions described in the textbooks, or does it vary depending on which religion that is described?This study is based on four Swedish textbooks used when teaching religion in Swedish upper secondary school. The books chosen are published after the most recent curriculum for the upper secondary school, published in 2011. The curriculum gave new directions stating that questions of gender in relation to religion should be a part of the education.

By examine cremated remains from graves dated to late Iron Age I wanted to find out what sorts of animals were placed in the graves. But also to see if the animal sacrifices had any connection to the Old Norse religion. The osteological material that were analysed were from both cremated humans and animals and had been dated to Viking Age. The material is from burial ground 59 at Laxare, Boge parish on Gotland. In addition to the human remains, the material contains bones from horse, cattle, sheep/goat, pig, dog, cat, bear, birds and fish.

Ever since the nation-state has existed identity has been a big deal, it is told that identity is a tool needed to be able to receive consensus from the people concerned on a certain matter. As the European Union is continuously shaped and reshaped due to changing geographical borders, as a consequence of new member-states the aim to integrate the Union equally across its surface has not been an easy task to solve. A lack of trust from the inhabitants in the European Union is a fact, and therefore the main duty of the Union has become to rebuild the trust from beginning to end, creating a Union which easily can be identified with. Since the process of national identity relies upon an excluding-including process and the use of the Other, the identification process on an European level has indeed had fierce effects on the inhabitants within and outside the Union.One of many things that this essay aims at showing is how mythmaking has become a way used by the elite in the Union to integrate a European identity, the myths refer back to a Golden Age when Europe was prosperous and in bloom. Among other tools used to integrate and create a European identity we find such as; unity in diversity, a cultural inheritance based on common denominators such as Christianity and Latin traditions, symbols and a European citizenship.

Alla människor frågar sig någon gång vad som kan komma ske efter att vi dör. Tankar om döden och livet efter detta är alltid ett aktuellt samtalsämne, inte minst inom religionsvetenskapen. Att vara ovetande om framtiden kan vara skrämmande och religioner gör nästan uteslutande alltid försök till att svara på dessa frågor och ge ro till den oroliga människan. Något som fungerat som en lösning på människans rädsla för döden inom den judiska och kristna traditionen är tron på den kroppsliga uppståndelsen.Denna uppsats ger större kunskap om hur judiska och kristna teologer och traditioner sett på kroppen i samband med uppståndelsen inom båda religionerna. För att utkristallisera de olika kroppssyner som figurerar i denna diskussion har en kvalitativ litteraturanalys använts för att analysera utvalda teologers forskning.

The connection between rune stones and churches is a known phenomenon. Unfortunately, very little is known about the previous function of the church sites, and consequently very little is known about what the connection between rune stones and churches means. The purpose of this study is to examine the rune stones connected to churches in the administrative province of Jönköping, in an effort to ascertain their purpose, symbolism and function. The aim is to find out if the rune stones connected to churches were primarily or secondarily placed on the site where the church was later built, and why some rune stones were built into the churches. Further, the inscriptions and iconography of rune stones have been analysed, and also their relation to their immediate surroundings.

The study is aimed at investigating the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj ?i?eks theories ofthe ontology of the subject, the crisis of our modern society and his views on how theology,especially Christian theology, can provide the answer for the threats to our society.My main object is the article Descartes and the post-traumatic subject (2008)where ?i?ek elaborates thoughts about the subject and our capitalistic society. To be ableto grasp these thoughts in full I have undergone an investigation not only on the writingsof Slavoj ?i?ek, but also on the philosophers to whom he owe much of his theories,such as G.W.F. Hegel, Friedriech Schelling, Karl Marx and Jaques Lacan.In the study I have shown how the subject is, according to ?i?eks psychoanalytictheories, decentered.

The study is aimed at investigating the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj ?i?eks theories ofthe ontology of the subject, the crisis of our modern society and his views on how theology,especially Christian theology, can provide the answer for the threats to our society.My main object is the article Descartes and the post-traumatic subject (2008)where ?i?ek elaborates thoughts about the subject and our capitalistic society. To be ableto grasp these thoughts in full I have undergone an investigation not only on the writingsof Slavoj ?i?ek, but also on the philosophers to whom he owe much of his theories,such as G.W.F. Hegel, Friedriech Schelling, Karl Marx and Jaques Lacan.In the study I have shown how the subject is, according to ?i?eks psychoanalytictheories, decentered.

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.

"One life in two worlds" is a qualitative study of Syriac boys constructs ethnic and religious identity in different social contexts.Based on these three questions: how do the boys describe the importance of the parents' cultural and religious background in relation to their own identity? How do the boys describe their experiences of being categorized in school? Which significance is given to religion and ethnicity when the boys describe their experiences in relation to home and school context?I did reach the aim of this essay which was to investigate by interviewing the Syrian boys how they construct or reconstruct ethnic and / or religious identity in relation to different social contexts with a focus on the home and the school.In this study, I assumed the qualitative method in which I interviewed six Syriac boys who attend grade nine. The starting point of the study was social constructivism. Therefore, knowledge in this study is seen as something that is constructed in language, social and cultural interactions. The reality and perspective of reality is socially constructed, meaning that knowledge is created through the interplay of common action.The results of this study show that all the informants are agreed that their parents' ethnic background has had and has great significance for their identity formation.

The aim of this study is to examine the media coverage of gender-neutral marriage from an intersectional perspective ? with particular regard to gender, sexual orientation and religion. By focusing on the spokespeople who appears in the articles we have made an attempt to answer questions regarding who was heard in the debate on gender-neutral marriage and how the homosexual couples are portrayed in relation to the above criteria.The collected material consists of 89 articles, published in 2009, in Swedish newspapers which have been analysed by using quantitative content analysis. Ten articles have also been selected for a critical discourse analysis based on Norman Fairclough?s approach.

The aim of this study is to analyze the construction of "Christian masculinity" during the modern era. This is made in opposition to earlier research that has claimed that masculinity could not be constructed religiously, that is, without at the same time being constructed as effeminate or anti-masculine.Using a wide variety of theoretical concepts - such as discourse analysis, class, secularisation, masculinity as constructed from countertypes, and finally masculinity as a homosocial construction - I analyze a free church in Sweden, the Scanian Missionary Society (Skånes Missionssällskap), during the period of ca 1939-1945 (the society was a district of the Swedish Covenant Church, or Svenska Missionsförbundet), in order to argue for the standpoint that masculinity, in fact, could be constructed religiously. The primary source is the society's weekly journal Sydposten.The main results in this study can be summarized as follows: 1) The leading men in the Scanian Missionary Society did, in fact, construct a Christian masculinity, i. e. a masculinity whose core values and ideals were Christian, e.g.

The contents of the school subject religion in Sweden, has gone through a radical change during the past century. With an origin of only treating Christianity and being a major cultural and social actor, it has developed into more of a multicultural and philosophical subject. The fact that the subject no longer has cultural recognition makes it more abstract and harder for students to relate to. Additionally, religion is experienced as a rather dull subject in school. My essay is therefore written to provide teachers encouragement of interest for religious education, by using humor. The well-known psychologist Jean Piaget claims play to be a prime state of learning.

The Swedish RE curriculum states that a major purpose and aim of education inreligion is to make the students accepting and understanding of people, regardlessof religious beliefs and conceptions of life. Previous research has shown that thereare tendencies indicating that these goals are not being attained thus Swedish adolescencespeak of religion and religious people in a stereotypical manner. Thesetendencies are causes of concern which is why this study seeks to make a contributionto the previous research. This research is required since there may havebeen a change in terms of results since the last study was made. In addition, resultsfrom research that are based on interviews are hard to generalize.

Selma Lagerlöf var en mångsidig författare med skiftande religiösa föreställningar och litteraturvetaren Sven Stolpe har lyft fram flera av de andliga element som förekommer i författarens romaner, brev och dagböcker. Utifrån hans teori om Lagerlöfs tro har vi undersökt dessa drag i tre av författarens verk och tolkat dessa med inspiration från den hermeneutiska metoden. Romanerna är Gösta Berlings saga, Herr Arnes penningar och Körkarlen.Frågorna vi har utgått ifrån är:Vad visar Lagerlöf för exempel på luthersk kristendom, katolicism, folktro, och andra ockulta läror i Gösta Berlings saga, Herr Arnes penningar och Körkarlen?Hur gör Lagerlöf för att förena dessa?Finns det några tendenser till att de olika trosföreställningarna ställs emot varandra och i så fall hur?I texterna vi studerat har vi funnit ett antal detaljer och motiv som kan förknippas med de olika andliga föreställningarna. Lagerlöf tar upp Gud, Jesus och djävulen men visar även prov på spiritistiska och teosofiska influenser.