Private religion is a faith that isn?t practiced in an organised religious community. Many people do not want to accept a religious concept that is already defined. To choose a conception of faith based upon personal preferences fits some modern man better. The purpose of this thesis is to examine if it?s possible to create a personal religion and how such a process looks.

This is an essay within the subject of practical theology. The main interest is baptism. The aim of this essay is to describe the baptism theology of the Church of Sweden (Svenska kyrkan) and the history of the baptism. The goal is also, with the help of qualitative research, to study the view of the baptism with the ones who choose to let their children be baptized according to the liturgy of the Swedish Church in the diocese of Härnösand. The attempt is to give the Swedish church a pattern of action and a direction based on the result of my research.

This essay is an attempt to study some post-modern theological positions with regard to their growing interest in the use of mystical theology and mysticism in theological research in the academic post-modern world, and to see if the 19th century theologian Albert Schweitzer couldprove a resource for this understanding of mystical theology. This position is known in the essay as ?the mystical turn.?To present the background and understanding of this post-modern view of mystical theology the essay presents three theologians, namely: Andrew Louth, Mark A. McIntosh and Sarah Coakley.These three theologians argue for the use of a contemplative and transforming mysticism as a postmodern epistemology in relation to theological research, with growing concern of the status of theology in the secular and post-modern world. Having made clear the views of these three theologians the essay then presents Albert Schweitzer's view on the mysticism of Paul.

In this essay I set out to investigate the differences between the creed that was formulated at the council of Nicaea (325 A.D) and the creed that was produced at the council of Constantinopel (381 A.D). The majority of the differences are caused by the fact that the second of the two creeds isn?t based on the the first in text although it?s producerers thought of it as a confirmation of the first with an elaborated theology about the Spirit. This theological elaboration was made in accordance to the theology of the holy Spirit developed by the Capadocian theologians..

The aim of this study was to examine how sports journalists used religious metaphors when covering football during the time span of the study, and how the athletes were portrayed as a result of the usage. The aim was also to study if the usage differed between the two newspapers chosen for the study, one of which is a morning paper (Dagens Nyheters sport section) and one which is an evening paper (Sportbladet).To answer our questions we used a quantitative and a qualitative method, the later of the two was based on a metaphor analysis. The quantitative method consisted of a content analysis where different variables were examined. The time span of the study is articles from one year.The results show that the religious metaphors were used in many ways. Some religious metaphors, such as ones including the word miracle, were more prominent than others.

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 aim of this paper is to describe and explain how the separation between state and church effects the power relations between state and religious groups and organizations. Former state church, The Swedish church, is in this paper, not included in the definition of religious groups. The reform (?stat-kyrka reformen?) took place between 1995 and year 2000.I?m examining if religious groups had any influence on the reform. My expectation is to give a clearer picture of religious groups and its power position in Swedish politics and society.

I min uppsats har jag sökt visa hur den grekiska filosofin har påverkat den islamiska genom att koncentrera mig på Avicenna/Ibn Sina (cirka 980-1037), en av de främsta bland islams filosofer. Jag har lagt särskild vikt vid relationen mellan Avicennas och Aristoteles tänkande, men spårat inflytandet via översättningsverksamheten med centrum i Vishetens hus (Bayt al-Hikma) i Baghdad och tidigare tänkare som al-Kindi och al-Farabi. Jag har också beaktat självständiga inslag i Avicennas filosofi och antytt dess senare inflytande, inte bara på hans anhängare utan också på kritiker som al-Ghazali och, via Suhrawardi och andra, på den fortfarande livskraftiga illuministiska traditionen. Avicennas skrifter har också starkt påverkat den västerländska filosofin; de var under en del av medeltiden en huvudkälla till kunskap om Aristoteles tänkande..

In 1809 the citizens of Sweden where given the freedom to practice their Christian faith through the Swedish constitution of 1809, 16 §. This proclaimed that there should be religious freedom in Sweden, albeit restricted to Evangelical-Lutheran faith. Although after the law regarding dissenters was passed in 1860 by choosing another church than the Evangelical-Lutheran church you lost some civic rights, for example you could not become a public official. The freedom to choose religious affiliation was given through the Law of Religious Freedom in 1951. The purpose of this study is to evaluate in what way the concept of religious freedom has developed in Swedish law between 1809 and 1951.In the background I treat two historical events and one era, with focus upon religious freedom, which have in my opinion influenced the view of religious freedom in Sweden during the chosen period of 1809?1951.

This essay is about the religious change that Jing-cult underwent 600-1500 A.D. It is a historical-critical essay based on literature studies, using Ha?kan Rydving?s theory of religious change. In chronological order, it will go through the religious change from ancient Japan to the late Muromachi-period when Shinto was created. It describes the early temple- cult, buddhism's mission to Japan and how the Jingikan was created.

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the religious education is implemented in junior and grammar school. As a base for my examination I used two private schools and two municipal schools. My main goal was to get a better view of the content of the education, the treatment of the students and the conditions for the students to get a greater understanding and respect for others? religious beliefs and opinions through education. To reach this goal I did interviews and field studies which means that the paper has a qualitative approach.The examination showed clearly that the private schools spend a lot more education time on their respective religions while the municipal schools have a more comprehensive education.

The previous research in the field of new religious movements has mostly focused on the spectacular parts where phenomena such as ?brainwashing? and the ?charismatic leader? have attracted both media and the scientific studies of religion. Professor Liselotte Frisks has done several enquiries about sects and new religious movements in Sweden. One of her main conclusions is that the relation between these new religious movements and the rest of society has changed; a relation that used to be characterized by conflicts and tension is now becoming more open as both parts are changing.This study does not focus on the spectacular parts. Instead I have studied something more common and general.

[?If we zigzag in the middle, it?s OK?] The purpose of the following study is to examine the relationship between tourism and religion in a Balinese context. We look specifically at changes in religious practice, culture and mentality, as well as how religious philosophy is used as a tool for limiting the negative impact of tourism. The methods used are semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Central themes in the following essay are globalization in the form of tourism, westernization, subsystem theory and capitalism, which also make up the theoretical framework.

This study is a reception analysis regarding the theology of Martin Luther, specifically in the areas of eschatology and anthropology, in to the funeral practices of the Church of Sweden (Svenska kyrkan).The main theme in the anthropology of Martin Luther is that of the freedom of all men and women. The price that we have to ?pay? for this freedom is that we need to act as humble servants to all other persons.The eschatological view of Martin Luther tells us that the only condition we need to fulfill in order to be admitted into God?s kingdom is faith alone.The Church of Sweden and their views on anthropology and eschatology are inspired by the writings of Martin Luther as it proclaims itself to be of evangelical Lutheran denomination, but it has incorporated other views as well over time.The conclusions of the study is that the principals guiding funeral practices, including eulogies held by priests during the funeral services, are in fact influenced by the anthropological and eschatological views of Martin Luther, and the study concludes that the theology of Martin Luther is a very good stand point for the Church of Sweden to stay relevant in today?s society..

The purpose of this study is to explore how teachers at Swedish upper secondary schools perceive the so-called value words and knowledge requirements of religious studies 1 as defined by the present curriculum for upper secondary school 2011 (Gy11) how they consider themselves to apply these value words in their teaching, and whether they consider the knowledge requirements as alegitimate basis for equivalentassessment. My studyis based oninterviewswithfour teachers in religious studies at four different upper swcondary schools in the municipalityof Jönköping, Sweden. The results of my study show that the interviewed teachers perceive the value words in the knowledge requirements of religious studies 1,as defined by the present curriculum Gy11, aredifficult to interpret and that the value wordsare not definitive, but interpretable. All teachers use the knowledge requirements in theirplanning of teaching,but also in teaching where they are to concretize the knowledge requirements and value wordsthrough their own examples. Half of the teachers, however, experienced a lack of interest in the knowledge requirements by the pupils, which make it even more important to discuss knowledge requirementswith them, while the teachers?assessment has to rely on these knowledge requirements.