This essay analyzes the doctrines of the revival preacher E.W. Kenyon (1867-1948), such as perfect health, faith and positive thinking. Two of his late works from 1941 and 1942 is analyzed and contextualized referring to the contemporary New Thought movement, Christian revival movements and religious pragmatism in America during the late 19th century continued into the 20th century. Kenyon?s anthropology, his soteriology and epistemology is showed to be pneumocentric in a way that can be compared with the New Thought movement, but also has connections to Christian revival theology and Christian mysticism.

The discussion concerning what role the church and theology should have in a modern, western society is a question that is ongoing in Sweden as well as in other countries. The present; American theologians Stanley Hauerwas and Max L. Stackhouse have different ideas concerning the identity of the church and theology as well as their relation to the society they are in. This essay surveys their views on the church and the theology and how they should relate to the society. Hauerwas focuses his theology on the church, and the first part of the essay deals with his view on what makes a church, how it differs from the rest of the world and what the church?s calling is.

The purpose of this study is to examine discussions held by politicians and experts concerning the concepts Christian ethics and western humanism. I will examine the argumentation for and against the concepts Christian ethics and western humanism, which finally ended in a resolution of using these concepts in the curriculum Lpo/Lpf 94. In this study I am using a qualitative method to examine how different opinions and views are expressed in two different committee reports, initiated by the Ministry of Education, as well as protocols from the debate in the Swedish Parliament.I will attempt to elucidate the political views of these concepts, which will become an integral part of the base of values in the curriculum. Results show that the politicians are unanimous regarding the content itself, but disagree of the thought of establishing the base of values in Christian ethics. But the discussion is ambiguous because the opinion of the politicians is that the concepts, especially Christian ethics, stand for general human values.

Vi ämnar undersöka hur attityder gentemot queerteorier har förändrats och påverkat några prästers yrkesutövande. Målsättningen är att synliggöra utifall queerteorier på Bibeln används på ett aktivt praktiskt sätt eller enbart på ett akademiskt plan. Vi har använt oss av queerteorier utformade av Judith Butler och Gayle Rubin. Genom en intervjustudie utförda med kvalitativ analys, har vi kommit fram till att queerteorier tycks sträcka sig enbart till den akademiska sfären. I diskussion ställer vi oss frågan: vad queerteoriernas funktion är och varför de inte appliceras i större utsträckning? Nyckelord: Queer, Bibeln, Svenska kyrkan, Heteronormativitet.

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.

My aim for this essay is to investigate if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a religious sect, on the basis of literature and information about the Mormons organisation and their religious standpoints. My conclusion is that Mormon Church is a religious sect. Their organisation has several sect characteristics according to sect definitions; see for example Göran Gustafsson (2000), Mikael Rothstein (1997) and Bryan R. Wilson (1970). Other researchers in religious studies think that the Mormon Church is not a sect but a cult.

The aim of this paper is to compare the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the belief, confession and faith of the Swedish church in order to see similarity. The research questions that have been used are:1: What is the main feature of Dietrich Bonhoeffers theology?2. What are the main feature the belief, confession and faith of the Swedish church?3: Which are the similarities between the main feature of Dietrich Bonhoeffers theology and the main feature of Swedish church belief, confession and faith?The research method that has been used is comparative where the Dietrich Bonhoeffers theology is compared whit the Swedish church belief, confession and faith.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the ideas that have influenced parents' choice of a Christian private school and how parents justify their choices. The essay also aims to examine the expectations that parents have in the schools, as well as the pros and cons as they consider private school compared to other schools.My study is based on qualitative data collected through interviews with parents who have chosen to place one or more of their children in a specific Christian private school. Using a qualitative approach has made it possible for me to get a deeper understanding of this investigation. I have also used the previous research on this field and theoretical starting points to explain and connect to my inquiry as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the school Weber document types and identity in a multicultural society.The study shows that parents seek to or from the public school due to various reasons. To seek out a Christian private school depends on different reasons.

In the medieval ruling catholic time the church walls was swarmed with programs of pictures with religious motives there the animal figures rich symbolics was significant first and foremost for the illiterate. Principally the inspiration comes from the antiquitys pagan world of fables and bestiary Christian world of symbols with the bible as the essential source. The essay describes six of the most common animal symbols who occur; dragon, the sneak in the Paradise, mouth of hell, lion, the fox as a preacher and the devil.To attain to a discussion about why just animals are used as symbols for human characteristics in the medieval church art instead for human beings as it's actually be about, I have studied bestiary and other literature about medieval churchpainting to get an understanding about the history of ideas about the thoughts of the time and about symbolics of animals, worth and how the Christianity have had an influence on the pictures.I have used Johannes Rosenrods church pictures from Tensta church in Uppland from 1437 as an exemplification but also mentioned other unknown painters who used similar animal codes and motives.It's plausible that the purpose of the animal figures was both religious and political, which was used by both the spiritual and the worldly authority so they could keep their dominance over the peasant. The figures was simple to read and remember and they made a deep impression on the people together with the sermon. The churchgoer get so to speak a sound- and image experience, a medieval reality who impress their world of ideas.When it's about the artistic formation of religious expression and characteristics it was undoubtedly a great advantage for the artists to use an animal code like a schemata.

Adolescents are coming to high school counselors to talk about sexuality for various reasons and the purpose of this study is to gain an enhanced understanding of how adolescents in high school talk regarding sexuality and LGBTQ. The empirical material is assembled on eight narrative interviews with high school counselors. The school counselors have through their experiences in meeting adolescents, submitted stories about the adolescents´ conversations regarding sexuality to us. The empirical data were analyzed by a standard critical perspective and with the help of heteronormativity it made norms about what is normal and abnormal visible and problematized. The result demonstrates that adolescents are influenced by norms of society, the media, family and friends.

My problem comes out of the bigger question ?why the Catholic church is featured in horror films whenever a religious organization is in one?? I have detected in the horror films that I've seen that when a religious organization is in a horror movie it's the Catholic church that gets to act as church and religion. I have chosen the following problem: How is the Catholic church presented in the horror movies The Exorcist and The Rite, and how can one understand these presentations from a role theoretic perspective?Since role theory has it's background in the world of the theater with it's actors and roles, it came naturally to use role theory, and specifically Goffmans dramatic model. I've used this model in a film analysis of the movies.

The globalization of political and economic processes is a growing moral concern for theologians and political philosophers alike. My thesis aims to outline, analyze, and compare church studies of globalization with global theories of justice.To do this, I draw upon recent studies of globalization made by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The WCC and LWF are two global reaching church organizations. They have a common aim of uniting churches for ecumenical dialogue and are involved in social, economic, political, and ecological questions. The WCC and LWF analyze globalization by applying biblical and theological principles from the Christian tradition.

Based upon theories founded on social constructionism, and criticism raised against these theories, this study aims to present a more complex perspective on non-heterosexuality from what has earlier been presented in Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexuality and transsexuality research. Fourteen semi-structured interviews with non-heterosexual women were analyzed using a discourse analytic approach. Four discourses about sexuality were described: "definition, preferably as either-or (heterosexual or homo-sexual)", "normality", "sexuality as constant and unchangeable", "sexuality as homogenous". Different ways of relating to and challenging the positions offered through these discourses were discussed. In conclusion, the study discussed which implications these findings have for psychologists working with non-heterosexual women, and how discursive positioning can be understood from within a psychological framework..

The globalization of political and economic processes is a growing moral concern for theologians and political philosophers alike. My thesis aims to outline, analyze, and compare church studies of globalization with global theories of justice.To do this, I draw upon recent studies of globalization made by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The WCC and LWF are two global reaching church organizations. They have a common aim of uniting churches for ecumenical dialogue and are involved in social, economic, political, and ecological questions. The WCC and LWF analyze globalization by applying biblical and theological principles from the Christian tradition.

Denna uppsats består av en jämförande studie av två ärkebiskopar ? KG Hammar (Svenska kyrkan) och Rowan Williams (Church of England) - ur ett postmodernt teologiskt perspektiv. Syftet var att söka finna postmoderna influenser hos de båda ärkebiskoparna i såväl teori som praktik och undersöka konsekvenserna av ett postmodernt teologiskt agerande.  Undersökningen visade att båda ärkebiskoparna influerades av postmodern teologi i teorin. Hammar förde också som ärkebiskop fram sina personliga postmoderna insikter, medan Williams av olika anledningar generellt valde att endast föra fram kyrkans åsikt. Båda handlingsalternativen medförde såväl kritik som uppskattning.