Religious phenomena, such as prayer, have more or less always interested and engaged people, but most likely for different purposes. Since the early 20th century, starting notably with Edmund Husserl and especially Martin Heidegger, phenomenologists have taken an interest in understanding and expounding the meaning of religious phenomena. The attention of such a discourse have not ceased but is rather current, and also of importance seeing that religious themes, such as prayer, still occupy a great extent of human life and practice.Phenomenology of religion is not a science of religion: the former approaches religion in terms of its meaningfulness, whereas the latter as an object of inquiry and in the same manner as an economist approaches economical indicators in order to understand and explain how the whole economy functions. In other words, phenomenology of religion expounds religion, as it were, from within, while science of religion does it from without or externally.When approaching prayer phenomenologically, it shows itself to be a process or structure through which the one praying empty himself in order to be able to receive the valuable presence of the other. The value that is received from the other will also be reflected by the one praying and in that sense effect his surroundings and fellow humans..

Göbekli Tepe is an 11000 year old religious center where Totem has been exercised. It was raised by megalithic hunters and collectors that still during the construction lived in small-scaled mobile groups in order to find food and therefore should not have had time to raised costly stone monuments. The religious center consists of four enclosures with two T-pillars decorated with pictures of different animals and birds. Any dwellings have not been found. The place has been constructed by a well-organized elitist organization that has been capable of raising constructions in order to exercise their religion in a way we did not thought was possible such a long time ago. Analysis and findings from the near east existing from this time shows however that social changes happen in the communities around the region. Can archeological finding from the excavations on the religious center give any answer or clue regarding how man came to develop from hunter and collector to farmer? Do the findings reveal that the religion has changed Mans way to think and organize so that she was prepared to introduce the agriculture that occurs? The aim of thesis is to clarify whether Göbekli Tepe has played any role in the complex origin of agriculture..

Since 2007 the American sitcom the Big Bang Theory has spread throughout the world. With its twenty million watchers it is one of the most popular sitcoms of our time. The starting point for this essay is that the humourus series with the more or less geeky main characters is more than just entertainment - it is a part of the mediatization of religion. This means that media is affecting the recipients? view on religion in general and the personal religion.

In January 2004 two members of the Pentecostal community Knutby Filadelfia in Uppsalamunicipality, Sweden, were shot by their fellow member Sara Svensson. With a qualitative hermeneutic case study as the principal method this essay takes on the task of not only investigating if and how Stockholm Syndrome can be used as a model for interpreting and understanding the violent incident in Knutby Filadelfia, but also to see if the unique characteristic of the Knutby incident can tell us something about Stockholm Syndrome as a model for understanding violence in religious movements. The material shows Stockholm Syndrome as having been present in Knutby because of among other things, a mileu, leadership and theology that supported the normalization of abuse and the enabling and maintaining of self punishment in the community. While Stockholm Syndrome still is a controversial theory this study shows that it can be used as a powerful tool in the understanding of violence in religious contexts..

In this essay, I research and discuss new spirituality (or what is commonly known as New Age) within some congregations in the Church of Sweden, Gothenburg. I question how and why this new spirituality has come to be accepted in parts of the Church. My hypothesis is that the church is a part, and a reflection, of a larger change throughout society, and I claim that this change depends much on the individualization and globalization during the last decades.The research is conducted through interviews with representatives from the Church ofSweden who are in charge of new religious activities. During these interviews we discuss their views on the change that has already taken place and is going on today.The interviews are then analyzed by applying rational choice theory on them. I discusswhether the Church can be seen as a producer of goods and services and if the churchgoers canbe seen as consumers of these goods and services.

  AbstractAnne Reese: Under oändliga lovsånger sannerligen med rinnande tårar ?  sångerna vid den heliga Katarinas translation. Uppsala universitet: Institutionen för musikvetenskap, uppsats för 60 p. 2005.The aim of this essay is to contribute to the knowledge about one of Sweden's greatest religious events during the late Middle Ages, the translation of Catherine of Sweden. By collecting and examining the chants used at Catherine's translation it is possible to see what kinds of music was used at this occasion and also to determine some thing about how and why these chants were chosenBy using manuscripts containing the chants which are close to the occasion in time and place, the melodies and texts are presented in the versions most likely to have been those used in the translation.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och kartlägga attityder gentemot religionsundervisningen på gymnasiet och drama som undervisningsmetod, samt att föreslå en med drama integrerad religionsundervisning, där drama är metoden, och religion står för innehållet. Detta för att utforska utförbarheten av en sådan undervisning, där drama är metoden för religionsundervisningen på gymnasiet. Jag har med hjälp av intervjuer och litteratur undersökt vilka dramametoder som går att använda, samt vilka effekter dessa kan tänkas ha för undervisningen. Sedan har jag gett förslag på en serie konkreta religionsundervisningsexempel, vilka jag stödjer mot de didaktiska hjälpmedlen vad, hur och varför. Jag använder mig av Mia Marie Sternudds doktorsavhandling, Dramapedagogik som demokratisk fostran?, för att kategorisera mina lektionsförslag efter undervisningssyfte.

From autumn 2008 Sweden has reinstalled the Special Education Needs teacher education. For future special education teachers and active teachers in the field, it is important to know the history and be aware of future visions to create a good role for the Special Education Needs teachers. This study examines attitudes towards special education and Special Education Needs teachers amongst school principals and classroom teachers at seven schools in Umeå municipality. School principals were interviewed, and a survey was handed out amongst the selected General Education teachers. From this it appears that school principals have a picture of special needs education and Special Education Needs teachers' work that corresponds well with the objectives of the school's governing documents.

In this essay I want to investigate how the Viking aristocratic warrior elite in Scandinavia used religious mythology for the construction of their identity. The essay also takes up the concept of honor, which was important for the warriors. Honor was central to all people during Viking age and for the warriors it was absolute. In the religious myths, the aristocratic warriors justify their position in society and legitimate their acts of war. Religion continues to have importance to the warrior elite even after the arrival of Christianity.

In this paper I aimed to explore the bodily experiences and expressions that Christian charismatics interpret as religious.  The so-called presence of God and the so-called gifts of the spirit were in focus in the gathering of information. My purpose was to find out how the social community of the Christian charismatics affects the subjective bodily experiences that are interpreted as religious by the individual. The main questions were:1: How do Christian charismatics describe religious experiences and their effect on the body?2: What bodily expressions of religious experience can be observed in Christian charismatic contexts?3: Is there a common way of expressing the experience of God's presence (individually or in a group) and how, in this case, can any resemblance be explained?The methods used to answer these questions were qualitative interviews and participant observations, which then were analyzed by the anthropologist Thomas J. Csordas theory of embodiment.

The purpose of this study is to examine the changes in law and other types of politicialregulation regarding unauthorized absence during the reformation of the Swedish schoolsystem in 2010. How was this ?new? approach on unauthorized absence established; whatmade it possible and which view on ?unauthorized absence? does it implicate? The study hasa discourse analytic approach in which it examines central policy documents regarding thetopic of inquiry. The study has found that the alliance-government?s education policy onunauthorized absence is pervaded by one hegemonic discourse termed the mono-culturaldisciplinary discourse.

The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of teacher´s motives to engage in outdoor education in their teaching. A qualitative approach through interviews was used and a total of eight teachers were interviewed. The result showed that there were several motives to engage in outdoor education. These motives were divided into three main categories which were: to engage in outdoor education from teacher`s interest, to engage in outdoor education based on teacher`s perceptions of children's needs and to engage in outdoor education based on external factors..

Since 2007 the American sitcom the Big Bang Theory has spread throughout the world. With its twenty million watchers it is one of the most popular sitcoms of our time. The starting point for this essay is that the humourus series with the more or less geeky main characters is more than just entertainment - it is a part of the mediatization of religion. This means that media is affecting the recipients? view on religion in general and the personal religion.

Being able to reflect, evaluate and justify your views is an important part of adult life. Moral education can be a path to develop this knowl-edge; however, it is possible that the moral education gets more obscure when it is not a separate subject. The purpose with this essay is to examine the need of moral education and the presence and the framing of moral education of seven teachers in religion. The purpose is also to analyse where and how the moral education should be included in the curriculum. The survey was conducted through qualitative interviews with a hermeneutic approach.

Being able to reflect, evaluate and justify your views is an important part of adult life. Moral education can be a path to develop this knowl-edge; however, it is possible that the moral education gets more obscure when it is not a separate subject. The purpose with this essay is to examine the need of moral education and the presence and the framing of moral education of seven teachers in religion. The purpose is also to analyse where and how the moral education should be included in the curriculum. The survey was conducted through qualitative interviews with a hermeneutic approach.