This master?s thesis problematizes how students in two Swedish secondary schools think and speak about, and relate to, topics such as gender, class, ethnicity, religion and sex, but also how they move in, make use of, and interact within, the school space. What categorizing and positionings, if any, can be found? Students in two Swedish secondary schools, in a medium sized Swedish town, have been observed (using participant observation) and interviewed (open ended), the material was then examined with intersectional theory. A majority of the ethnic Swedish respondents position ?the religious? as ?superstitious?, ?frightening? and/or ?backwards?, also many of them equated religion with ?muslim/islam?, a greater understanding for the others religious outlook was shown by students with an ethnic background from outside Europe.

Background: Previous research has shown that the understanding and knowledge about the spiritual needs is not given high priority among nursing staff. During the latest years the body and its functions has controlled the healthcare and the spiritual needs has been placed in the background. All humans have spiritual needs that must be satisfied irrespective of religious background. Aim: The aim of this study was to in a caring perspective illustrate patients? spiritual and existential needs in palliative care.

This essay describes the phases of funeral rituals between the Syrian/Assyrian, and compares the homeland with Sweden. It describes the stage of rituals according to Victor Turner schema of separation, margin or limin, and aggregation. The rituals religious significance agrees with Clifford Geertz?s theory about the importance of religious beliefs for the human being.

The purpose of the study is to analyse the representations of Jewish festivals and how they affect the teaching in three textbooks for Religious Education 1 in Secondary Upper Education. The textbooks are Religion och livet (2007) written by Börge Ring, Religionskunskap för gymnasiet (2009) written by Lars-Göran Alm and Religion 1 för gymnasiet (2012) written by Lennart Göth, Katarina Lycken Rüter and Veronica Wirström. The basis for the study is the phenomenological perspective as described by Émile Durkheim and in particular Carl-Henrik Grenholm and Karl-Johan Illman. It tells that religion cannot purely be understood as a religious belief without its rituals. This phenomenological perspective on religion both the curriculum and syllabus encourages.

This study's main aim is to contribute with an insight regarding how employees of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) experience religion as a component of development work in religious contexts. The study focuses on whether or not religion is given enough space within Sida's development work and if the policies of Sida are enough to cover the needs in religious contexts. To answer these questions we have interviewed six employees of Sida which holds experiences of development work in religious contexts. The results show a lack of knowledge and encouragement of these questions within Sida and that the interviewees experience religion as a complex concept. The study also shows that the interviewees find policies, methods and tools within Sida as inadequate to cover the needs of religion in development work.

This study centres on the question of how interfaith dialogue can function as a meeting place for young people from different social and cultural backgrounds. The study is based on qualitative interviews with five young participants in an interfaith project taking place in Sweden in 2013 and 2014. For reading the material through a lens of late modern religiosity, Heelas and Woodheads thesis of a spiritual revolution was used. To be able to conclude whether the religiousness of the participants functions as a social resource, Hammack and Cohlers term narrative engagement is used. Lastly Knitters models of theologies of religions was used in the analysis of how the participants reads and understands their own and the others faiths.The study shows that the participants meet in the common aim of defining a religious identity in a late modern and pluralistic society.

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.

AbstractAim: The aim of this essay has been to study how the Swedish church has created the image of their religious activity through media. This has been by studying the three commercial campaigns launched by the Swedish church during the years 2000, 2001 and 2003. Questions asked are: How has the Swedish church chosen to profile it self? Which discourses can be recognized in the campaigns? Which messages has been communicated through the campaigns? How has these discourses created the image of the Swedish church?Method: The methodological framework is critical discourse analysis inspired by Norman Faircloughs? three-dimensional model. Thirteen images all part of the campaigns are analysed using a semiotic method.

This essay focuses on the elderly and their religious beliefs and is based on the origin idea of a secular Sweden, but where immigration has been the source of additional various religious affiliations. This study intends to nuance the problems that previous researchers focused on when doing research on immigration, by interviewing staff members of nursing homes in immigrant dense areas, especially Malmoe, Gothenburg and Stockholm.The aim is to investigate how the allocation of residents, with different religious than Protestant Christians, is distributed at nursing homes and to see if there is a need for adjustments. Additionally, the thesis about immigrants and immigrants' identity and attitudes to Swedish society is discussed with John Berry´s acculturation theories and strategies.The results show that the majority of the nursing homes have residents with different religious affiliations and that some practical adjustments have been done, but it also shows that nursing homes have changed to the extent that they have adapted to a secular society. Ignorance and prejudice contribute to the problem in terms of seeing all residents as individuals and at the same time ensuring adaption according to all their needs, which is exemplified in the solutions made by using multi-cultural staff members and specialized departments. The relationship between nursing homes and the Swedish church continues but the role of the church service has changed.

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 1962 Swedish parliamentary debate preluding the proposition to introduce a uniform compulsory education for all Swedish children. The proposition aimed at ending the previously heterogeneous educational system and replace it with a more equal and democratic system.A widespread debate ensued, regarding the status of Christian religious education (kristendomskunskap) and its new emphasis on scientific objectivity. This essay will examine the relative position of Christianity within the new uniform school system, as it was articulated by the members of the Swedish parliament. This analysis will be achieved through the use of a discourse analytical study of the parliamentary records, the recorded motions and bills. From these records a substantial disparity in the parliamential members articulation of the concept of Christianity can be ascertained, even within the discourse of an educational regime.

This thesis treats lending figures of literature on religion at libraries in Vårgårda and Lerum.Formulated hypotheses are: The use of literature on religion is higher at the library in Vårgårdathan at the one in Lerum; In Lerum the most literature on religion is used by highly educatedpeople; Ethnic groups and librarians have an influence on the stock.The Christian literature has other patterns than other literature regarding selection criteria,reviews and distribution. The conclusions are: The fact that there are many members ofChurch and Chapel in Vårgårda, does reflect the number of loans of literature on religion in apositive way; Education does not influence, but distance between school and library; Thelibrarians' interest and therefore knowledge regarding religious topics has an impact on theirtreatment of religious books, while ethnic groups do not effect stock and use in either Vårgårdaor Lerum..

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.

Within this essay a study is made of an LGBTQ-orientated Christian service in Stockholm called Queer Service. The following questions seek to be answered: What reasons does an individual set for his/hers participation in Queer Service? Which aspects of a queer service highlight the participants as important to them?As a method to answer these questions, the author has observed a number of queer church services in autumn of 2012. Moreover communication within the group of the assembly on the social media page Facebook has been followed and five individuals from the Queer Service congregation have been interviewed. As a background to the study, the European religious climate seen from Grace Davies eyes is depicted.  The reader also learns of how the Swedish church has handled questions about homosexuality and bisexuality and what liberation theology is.

Alevism as such is both contested and difficult to define, despite the fact that nearly a quarter of the Turkish population can be said to identify with it (See egMarkussen, 2005; Sirin, 2013). Discussions regarding whether alevism should bedefined as a religious minority or not is going on both in the research communityas among the Alevis themselves. Also the meaning of Alevi religiosity as such isdebated and can be simply described as a discussion of whether alevism should beregarded as a part of Islam. The purpose of this discourse study is therefore to examine the construction of Alevi religious identity in two English-language Turkish newspaper, namely the Hürriyet Daily News and Today `s Zaman. With the overarching aim to achieve adeep understanding of the conditions that are given the Alevi group to form their own identity.