This essay intends to examine the atheists Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Michel Onfray's arguments against religion, based on the themes of religion, atheism and the perception.of their present worldview. In addition, the research aims to find out whether it is suitable to talk about a new atheism. And, if so, whether such newatheism correspond with the definition represented by the Christian critics. The essay intends to contribute to a very limited research on the so-called new atheism without applying pro-religious arguments.Previous research and theory highlight the problem of defining the terms atheism, religion and secularism a concern that is reflected by the five critics troughout their arguments. What really united the critics were the idea about religion taking too much place in society, and the opinion that atheistic morality is at least as good as religious morality.

The main discussion in this essay concern what the Emerging Church is, its sociological and theological context, their main critique of modernism and the consequences in theology and praxis. EC is not a new church but wants to be a new way of being church. In England much of the discussion concerning EC has found a context within the report Mission-Shaped Church (MSC). EC differs from Emergent Village which is a continuing discussion from a postmodern philosophical view.EC is born in an evangelical context with the tensions in the postmodern context, the liminal situation with among other items the disussion about a liquid culture and liquid church. Other backgroundfactors are the ChurchGrowth-movement, Willow Creek and the Gospel and Our Culture.EC critisizes its evangelical background and moves the center from justification to incarnation, from propostionalism, individualism, mission and activism to a theology of incarnational community life.Four different proponents are considered; Brian Mclaren, Dan Kimball, Karen Ward and Ben Edson.

Coping theory asks what the cognitive and behavioral patterns of individuals dealing with stress are. This essay includes, besides the perspective of the psychology of religion, theories of culture and ritual in exploring two Swedes coping with the natural disaster in Thailand year 2004. The vacation paradise was struck by an enormous flood wave, called a tsunami, causing vast destruction and the death of over 200.000 people. Among these 543 were Swedes on vacation. When a disaster of such measures happens, what kind of stress does it cause? How do you cope? Are religion and ritual important? What is the function of the culture in the copingprocess? Using hermeneutical analysis this essay interprets the material from two books by Swedes, who not only experienced the disaster, but lost two children and husband and wife in the flood wave.

The aim of this study was to describe how retired nurses, educated in Uppsala, and students at Uppsala University's nursing program experience the importance of vocation in education and career choice. None of the participants had experienced vocation as a reason for choosing nursing as a career. The main reason was instead a desire to work with people. They also expressed that it was a profession like any other. The retired nurses said that the education was something of an up-bringing with religious elements.

The Church of Sweden has in recent years offered activities such as Christian deep medita-tion, mindfulness and health days. This may be a way for the Church of Sweden to reach the modern man who would not otherwise have come to the church, but there are critics who argue that new spirituality has made its entry in the Church of Sweden. The phenomenon of Christian deep meditation has become increasingly common in the Church of Sweden. In order to satisfy my curiosity about what a Christian deep meditation is, I decided to write an essay about this. My question is as follows: How important is Christian deep meditation as a religious practice in the Church of Sweden? This essay is a qualitative study and I have cho-sen to perform eight pieces of interviews, two of them are recorded.

In this essay I investigate how the Roman colonization (around 50 BC to 400 AD) affected the Celtic religion. I inquire which operators that were behind these changes and under what circumstances they happened. I take a closer look on three places in Gaul and one place and one area in Britain. In my study of these places I see that it was the elite of the Celtic societies who together and under pressure from Rome made these changes. The religion and gods did not change; instead the ritual ceremonies changed to fit into something that Rome thought was right.

The aim of this essay is to study how the University Church is represented in student newspapers. By conducting an inductive thematic analysis on sixteen articles chosen from newspapers distributed by the student union at three Swedish universities, the main purpose of the study is to further understand the role and function of the University Church in a contemporary Swedish context. Three themes emerging from the initial step of the thematic analysis were chosen for further analysis: (1) a secularized church?, (2) provocation and (3) reasons to seek out the University Church. The themes were then highlighted by two theoretical perspectives: Mark Chaves? theory of internal secularization and a theoretical framework developed by Anders Bäckström with the aim to explain the role of the church as a welfare agent in Sweden.The study shows that the University Church is portrayed as both an ambiguous and complex organization.

This paper deals with a taphonomic study of contexts with osteological material of dog (C. familiaris L.) from the Mesolithic and Neolithic of Sweden and Zealand, Denmark. The general aim is to develop and test a method to try to understand the activity behind and define specific archaeological structures. My questions also regards to wether a taphonomic analysis of the material could be used to identify treatments as wrapping and contraction of the dogs, but also dismembering and other preparations of the body. The study focuses on the relation between the space of decomposition, disarti-culation of the joints, evidence of wall effect, cutmarks, weathering and signs of postdepositional arrangements.The analysis is based on contexts from the materials Hornborgasjön, Vedbæk, Skateholm I and II, Sjöholmen, Ertebølle, Bökeberg, Bredasten, Löddesborg, Bergsvägen and Röekillorna, dating from early Maglemose culture to Neolithic Battle axe culture.The analysis shows that a closer study of taphonomic processes can be used to identify different structures as graves, offerings, religious and non religious contexts or parts of animals, probably put into the ground as waste.

Religious theater or erotic sculpture? A study of how the sculpture group Ecstasy of Saint Teresaand the Cornaro chapel have been described and used in literature of art history.This study aims to investigate how the sculpture group Ecstasy of Saint Teresa and the Cornarochapel has been written about and presented in literature about art history. The method has been tostudy literature, to visit the Cornaro chapel, and to make comparisons between pictures, texts andown experiences.The questions set out to be answered was; How has the Cornaro chapel and the Ecstasy of SaintTeresa been described and interpreted in literature of art history? What kind of pictures are beingused to illustrate the chapel? What is in focus and what is withheld in the presentation of the chapel,in text and in pictures? Is it possible to see a change, in how art historians write about the Cornarochapel, over time?Reading and comparing the texts and pictures that illustrates the literature, makes visible how thebaroque period, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Teresa av Avila and the Cornaro chapel has been presented inthe chosen literature, and answered the questions.The similarities between the Cornaro chapel and a theater stage, Bernini's interest in the theaterand his devout Catholicism, as well as the Counter-reformation's use of art to reach their goal ofmaking people more devout to Catholicism, is in focus. The erotic overtones in the sculpture groupare being withheld as well as Bernini's personality.

In this essay I have chosen to do a cursory study of the spread of the figural gold foils. Emanating from foremost the Vendel time (550 ? 800 e Kr) in the Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I will also discuss their relationship to so called central places. Three central locations are in focus in this essay: Borg in Lofoten, Slöinge in Halland and Uppåkra in Skåne. I will also discuss when and why the religious cult changed during the Vendel period to Viking age..

The thesis treats how the German public libraries originated and how they were affected by the Nazi era. It deals with how the library system began to cover the whole nation, and describes the struggle between public libraries and commercial and religious ditto. It also treats the weedings out and what happened to the staff and the stocks between 1933 and 1945.Furthermore it gives a picture of what books one could find in a German public library,and how these volumes were catalogued and classified. Moreover it describes how thelibraries managed during the Second World War, and ends by giving some topics fordiscussion and asks questions that additional research might be able to answer..

Abstract:The purpose of this study is to get increased knowledge of how teachers motivate and teach youth about existential questions at junior highchool. My issue for this composition is to find out how ? and how much ? teachers in fact teach about existential questions in the religious education.I interviewed four teachers at junior highschool, with various experiences. One teacher had about thirty years of experience in teaching, and one teacher was quite young and unexperienced.The result indicates that the youth were interested in a lot of existential questions. The study also indicates the teachers view of youth?s identity-work and their existential questions.The resultat is compared with studies of Dahlin, Hartman and Sjödin..

The ambition of this paper is to study the construction of the categorization between ?us? and ?them? in a religious minority, represented by Jehovah?s Witnesses and a nationalist political party, represented by the Swedish Democrats. This will be done by a discursive psychology analysis of their official publications on each group?s website. By a deductive study using Henri Tajfel?s Social Identity Theory trying to disclose the psychological processes; social categorization, social identity, social comparison and psychological distinctiveness.

This is a study concern high school student?s view of religion and their religiosity. I dispensed a questionnaire to 124 high school students studying comparative religion in a large high school in Sweden, with the students from different socio-economic backgrounds. The result I came up with is that traditional religion activities have decreased, religion has not disappeared but taken other shapes than before. And I also came up to with the result that more than half of them who answered the survey likes the subject and there are tendencies by them who doesn?t like the high school subject religion that they live in a non-religious family.The study concerns following aspects: sociology, youth, human needs, religion, spirituality and individualization..

This essay comprises a study of the bridal crowns of Tjust, with respect to their national history, concept and aspect of mythological symbol. The tradition of bearing the parochial bridal crown is closely associated with religious medieval politics, and has also come to include elements of superstition and folklore. Attention is paid to these aspects dealing with the position of the bridal crown within current forms of tradition and culture and the impact on brides of this day and age. As the tradition of Church-owned bridal crowns is intrinsic to this country, and especially in the area of which Tjust is a part, possible solutions to the continued tradition are investigated..