For almost a century the debate about women as ordained servants in the Church of Sweden has raged on and on. The decision to open up the priesthood for both genders in 1958 was a milestone in the women?s liberation movement as well as it marks an important time in the church history. The debate has mainly been about how to interpret scripture, who has the right to do so, and so on. Feminist theology has become one way in recent decades to paint a wider and more nuanced picture of history and how to interpret the texts often used to repress women.This essay surveys some of the steps towards that decision, as well as it paints a rough picture of what leadership among women in the church could involve before ordination became an option.

For almost a century the debate about women as ordained servants in the Church of Sweden has raged on and on. The decision to open up the priesthood for both genders in 1958 was a milestone in the women?s liberation movement as well as it marks an important time in the church history. The debate has mainly been about how to interpret scripture, who has the right to do so, and so on. Feminist theology has become one way in recent decades to paint a wider and more nuanced picture of history and how to interpret the texts often used to repress women.This essay surveys some of the steps towards that decision, as well as it paints a rough picture of what leadership among women in the church could involve before ordination became an option.

For almost a century the debate about women as ordained servants in the Church of Sweden has raged on and on. The decision to open up the priesthood for both genders in 1958 was a milestone in the women?s liberation movement as well as it marks an important time in the church history. The debate has mainly been about how to interpret scripture, who has the right to do so, and so on. Feminist theology has become one way in recent decades to paint a wider and more nuanced picture of history and how to interpret the texts often used to repress women.This essay surveys some of the steps towards that decision, as well as it paints a rough picture of what leadership among women in the church could involve before ordination became an option.

This essay examines the Swedish missionary association Bible Faithful Friends? (Bibeltrogna Vänner, BV) ecclesiological development between the years 1911 ? 1986 and their relation to the Church of Sweden. This essay?s three main questions are:- How did the ecclesiology of BV develop during the years 1911 ? 1986, with certain focus on 1967-1986?- In what way was this ecclesiology imprinted bya) the structure of the missionary association?b) and the ecclesiological standpoint of the leader Axel B. Svensson?As regards the first question, the study shows that BV's ecclesiology, particularly in the years 1967 ? 1986, is characterized by a church debate between BV's board and the promoters and founders of the Lutheran Confessional Church (Lutherska Bekännelsekyrkan, LBK).

In the essay the author examines how pilgrimage can be used as a tool to radicalise democracy in a late modern society marked by neoliberalism. Applying a dialectic perspective on social movements the essay puts forward how the pilgrimage movement Pilgrim?s Walk for Future, administrated by Church of Sweden, is working in line with the historical pilgrimage theology - a modern critical ecclesiology- to mobilise political action to prevent climate change. The result of the study shows how PWFF meet the neoliberal hegemony with a mobilisation of alternative values beyond the order of capitalism, in line with Christian theology and tradition. The mobilisation is made possible by new forms of identifications with oneself and the social world that meet a modern power/knowledge- regime based on rational thought, and which questions norms and practises by paying attention to their negative effects on nature and on human life in general.

This essay examines the using of consensus method for decision making within the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the process that led to the decision to adopt its usage. The main question of my essay is why the method was introduced to the WCC and what motives lay behind its introduction. Other questions are how the consensus method works; both in theory and in practice, and what the predecessors and prototypes for the method are.The consensus method belongs to a broad Christian tradition of spiritual discernment and spiritual decision making. The New Testament, in particular Acts, gives examples of decision making in the early church which show that discerning God's will was considered essential. However the most influential model for the consensus method have been the decision making process of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers, and also the consensus model of the Uniting Church in Australia.

The aim of this essay is to examine what happens when Veronica Roths Divergent-trilogy is read with a lutheran theological pre-understanding. Using reader-response theory and lutheran theology written for and in a post-modern context, three lutheran figures of thought are presented as one way of understanding the trilogy. The conclusion is that it is possible to reveal lutheran ideas concerning justification, guilt, forgiveness, mercy and self-sacrificing love in the Divergent-story. .

In a press release from the Swedish church it says that the pressure from people who are in need is increasing on the deacons in Sweden and that it?s getting higher each year. This study contains the search of knowledge about the deacons of the Swedish church, if they actually feel an increasing pressure and in what way, how they are handling the possible pressure from people in need, if that pressure is too high and if the deacons feel that they can assist the people seeking their help. The study also aim to provide more knowledge about the deacons experiences of the opportunities and boundaries (or obstacles) they meet in their line of work and how they handle the boundaries when/if they can?t provide the help that the people need.

The essay is about islam in swedish prisons. Problems and restrictions from the view of muslim inmates, prison imams and the swedish muslim counsil..

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.

A paper about islamism and democracy, in particular HAMAS, Hizbollahs and JIH:s view on democracy..

In this essay I examine how in seven different congregations that belong to the Church of Sweden the preparatory office is formulated in ways that differ from the form that is prescribed in the current service-book of the Church of Sweden. My purpose is to examine how and why the congregations have chosen these alternative preparatory offices. This I have tried to find out by reading the written instructions and/or homepages of the congregations, studying their orders of service and interviewing one pastor in each congregation.Before describing, comparing and commenting on the different ways these congregations have chosen to formulate their preparatory offices, I give a historical background to the preparatory office itself and how it is formulated/designed in the current service book of the Church of Sweden. I also describe the history and the introduction of the Kyrie.I then describe each congregation, trying to point out the main characteristics of it, then concentrating on the process that lies behind the urge to formulate an alternative preparatory office, the reasons for it and the results.One of the conclusions I draw is that in the congregations I have examined there is an ongoing discussion about and reflection on the advantages of including the Kyrie in the preparatory office. I also found that in the congregations there are different opinions about the words following the prayer of penitence - should they be words of direct absolution or words that speak about the promise of God's forgiveness? This discussion is closely connected to a discussion about what is the connection between the preparatory office and the holy communion/Eucharist.

This essay studies the christening rites in Church of Sweden and what theological motives that are present herein, and how the current revision of the rites have brought in new theological motives with the basis in the contemporary theological debate about the liturgy and theology surrounding the christening rites.The conclusion of the essay is that the revised christening rites have not included any new motives, but has rather restructured and re-emphasized the motives to adopt the christening rites to the findings of contemporary research regarding the christening..

The controversial phenomenon of ?seeker-oriented? megachurches are currently transforming the American religious landscape. These churches, some housing up to 30,000 worshippers every week, are targeting religious seekers as their primary objective. Their success in attracting and converting those who usually wouldn?t even think of attending church can in large parts be explained by changes in liturgy, the removal of visible theological discussion and use of shopping mall styled buildings, designed to make the religious seeker feel like home.