This paper studies the fragmentation and reuse of early christian monuments ("eskilstunakistor") in churches in Östergötland during the medieval period. This is found to have been done in two stages. The first stage shows a collectivization of society. Within religion the change from ancestoral cult towards the saints' cult is important as the fragments are reused like relics. During the second stage the collectivization has been fulfilled, and the reuse is instead part of the christian churches' strategy for incorporating old powerful symbols from the landscape into their own church building..

This report is an attempt to clarify how religious and non-religious views-of-life [livsåskådningar] are created through the collaboration and opposition of religious and scientific elements/ideas. This with the hope of reaching a fruitful result related to the solution of world-view related conflicts, such as the ones existing between science and religion, on an individual and societal level.This is accomplished with the help of two assertions: (1) Mankind has a need to explain its existence and surroundings. (2) Religion and science has their origins in the same seed and aim to serve the same purpose, or function. Together these two assertions lay the theoretical foundations of this report which implies that all humans have an innate need of sustaining a stable world-view.The result of this report is that a final solution to world-view related conflicts are beyond reach as our mental and physical nature limits us. However there are strategies for minimizing world-view related conflicts effect on society..

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.

This bachelor's thesis examines three books in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The aim is to increase understanding for what Harry Potter could contribute in terms of morality in religious studies, and how the story about Harry Potter, as a popular literary phenomenon, can be helpful for this. Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development is central to this essay.I have used an hermeneutic method for the analysis of the Harry Potter books. The result shows that the main character, Harry Potter, can be seen as kind of a role model when it comes to moral development. Pupils may benefit by reading this book series because it can open their eyes to life questions and moral values.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa de problem som har uppstått då indiansk andlighet har blivit en vara som produceras och konsumeras inom New Age rörelsen. Studien har genom-förts genom att tillämpa kvalitativ textanalys på insamlat material mestadels från Internet. Det insamlade materialet består av annonser där man säljer olika former av indiansk andlig-het. Material som berör indianernas motstånd mot försäljningen av deras andlighet har också insamlats från Internet. Analysen av texterna visar att det framkommer stereotyper i annonse-ringen inom New Age, vilket blir ett problem för indianerna i form av tillskriven identitet.

Den här studien använder sig av en queerteoretisk utgångspunkt för att försöka reda ut vad som kan sägas om genuskonstruktionen i två välkända religiösa berättelser: den hinduiska Ramayana samt Ruts bok som återfinns i den hebreiska bibeln. Studien använder en hermeneutisk metod och en queerteori med teoretiska modeller av Judith Butler och Yvonne Hirdman. Det kan ses i båda berättelserna att genuset hos både manliga och kvinnliga karaktärer ändrar sig under berättelsens gång, flera gånger och i relation till varandra. Slutligen diskuteras resultaten och det visar sig att den teori som används i uppsatsen, queerteori, saknar en förståelse för det slags dynamiska genus som finns att se vid en läsning av Ruts bok och Ramayana..

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

The aim of this Master´s thesis is to examine which type of regime the state Iran is. There has been much research on this issue and the discussion is not over yet. I have departed from three theoretical perspectives in order to understand which type of regime the Middle Eastern nation is: theocracy, democracy and hybrid regime. The theocratic regimetype is composed by David L. Websters archeological theory about governments ruled by God.

In a Swedish classroom today there will be students with different ethnicities, world views and religious beliefs.  The students will be taught religion through a non-denominational education, where as a teacher you are meant to be objective, open-minded and fair in the representation of different traditions. This representation is colored by the outsider-perspective and the students then learn about religion from a party which is not involved in the religion being taught. This essay discusses how to balance the outsider-perspective in religious education in the Swedish school with insider-voices. More specific, the use of Muslim websites when teaching about Islam.The material this essay studies are three Muslim websites: al-islam.se, islaminfo.se and islamguiden.se. In order to make a didactic analysis of the websites, they are compared to a standard Swedish textbook.

The secularization theses has over the last decade been a central issue within the sociology of Religion. The two classic theses has been criticized for being one-sided and only focus on the change from traditional to modern society. The intention of this study is to evaluate this critique and to discuss what is defendable in the early secularization thesis in our contemporary world.This essay?s primary purpose is to compare the secularization theses Weber?s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Durkheim?s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. I use two analytical models, posing three levels and three categories of secularization, in order to make the comparison explicit.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att reda ut om det finns ett samband mellan religiös åskådning, nationalitet och etnicitet i Bosnien och Hercegovina och hur sex personer från landet påverkas av detta samband. Meningen är att undersöka intervjupersonernas identitet i jämförelse med begreppen religion, nationalitet och etnicitet. För att reda ut detta problem har sex intervjuer gjorts och fokus har varit på deras känslor och åsikter kring deras egen tillhörighet. Den teoretiska bakgrunden till uppsatsen utåtgår från Peter L Bergers socialisationsteori och Gellners definition av begreppet nationalism och etnicitet. Den tredje teorin utgår från socialpsykologen Mead, som förklarar hur människors identitet skapas.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

Enkäter användes för att undersöka studenters och yrkesverksammas (inom yrkesinriktningarna PA, lärare och sjuksköterska) upplevelser av stressorer och val av copingstrategier. Totalt deltog 193 respondenter i studien. I resultatet framkom att stressorn ekonomi rapporterades av studenter men inte av yrkesverksamma. Yrkesinriktningarna skilde sig åt i valet av copingstrategierna; aktiv coping, positiv omtolkning och planering. Studenter och yrkesverksamma skiljde sig från varandra i copingstrategierna; aktiv coping, planering, självanklagelse, missbruk och det fanns tendenser till skillnader i Religion.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

BakgrundMänniskors trosföreställningar, religiositet och andlighet kan ha stor betydelse för deras önskningar om bemötande och behandling i en vårdsituation. Det finns omvårdnadsteoretiker som anser att det också ingår i sjuksköterskans uppgift att hjälpa patienten att leva i enlighet med sina trosuppfattningar. Möjligheten att fritt få utöva religion kan ses som en mänsklig rättighet men finns det ytterligare anledningar till att vi bör beakta religiositet och andlighet inom vården? Kan det vara så att religiöst engagemang kan vara bra för hälsan?SyfteSyftet var att beskriva hur religiösa och andliga trosföreställningar kan påverka människors hälsotillstånd samt beskriva vad detta kan innebära för människor som drabbats av sjukdom.MetodMetoden som användes var en systematisk litteraturstudie av kvantitativa engelskspråkiga vetenskapliga studier som var publicerade inom de tio senaste åren.ResultatArtiklarna berörde religion och/eller andlighet samt dessa variablers samband med olika hälsoaspekter och olika sjukdomstillstånd. I de nitton artiklarna gick det att utläsa trettiotvå olika resultat, då andlighet och religiositet ofta undersöktes separat fick många studier fler än ett resultat.