Sweden  has  been  characterized  as  one  of  the world?s most  secular  countries, even though  it is  becoming  increasingly more multicultural.  This,  combined  with  the fact that pupils do  not  feel  they  have  enough  time  in  school  for  Religious  Education and that the requirements are increasing made me interested in how they talk about religion in upper secondary school. The aim of this study is to see if there are any differences between how pupils in vocational programs and academic programs are talking about religion and Religious Education. The main questions that were raised revolved around 1)  how  pupils  talk  about  what  religion  is,  2)  how  they  talk  about  religion  in  the Swedish  society  and  3) how  they  talk  about  Religious  Education  in  upper  secondary school. The questions were also about what similarities and differences I could find in the way they talked about these subjects.

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.

This is a qualitative research paper, which aims to examine how religion classes are conducted in inner-city and suburban schools. Interviews have been performed with two religion teachers, one at Grindtorp School in Alby and one at the English Gymnasium in Södermalm. There have been performed interviews with eight students, four from each school. The students have a different age, sex and Religious beliefs. With these interviews we can get a better understanding how the students of today?s school think about the Religious education.

Encounters between students and Religious believers is common in the subject of Religious Education in Swedish schools. For pedagogical reasons teachers arranging these encounters hoping that exciting things will happen. But which qualities and experiences arise out of these encounters?In this study representatives of eight different Religious communities are interviewed who regularly receive pupils coming to their respective communities. The proposed theoretical framework is related to Phenomenology and Hermeneutics and the methodological approach is interpretive.

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.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the perception of Christianity in nine textbooks andidentify changes in-between them and over time. The content of the textbooks will also bediscussed in relation to the steering documents connected to each book.I have chosen to focus on three curriculums, Lgy 70, Lpf 94 and Gy 11. My researchquestions are: how Christianity is treated in textbooks in Religious studies in relation to theperception of Jesus, God and man? What are the differences/similarities across time andlearning materials? In what way does the textbooks change with the syllabuses?Text consumption and discursive practices is analyzed with the help of a set of tools thatare based on the critical discourse analysis and Fairclough's three-dimensional model. Theimage of Jesus, if described by a textbook, is also analysed.Three textbooks were chosen from each curricula.

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 investigate whether the new Swedish curriculum, GY11 brought with it changes to how non-Religious world-views are presented in five different books in Religious education, RE. The method used to analyze the material was a qualitative content analysis as well as counting the pages that dealt with secular world-views. This was later analyzed using philosopher Charles Taylors description and theory on secularization. This was used to identify secular processes as well as to define wether the books definition and description of secular world-views using Taylors concept of ?exclusive humanism?.The research questions are:? What are the authors writing about when describing the secular world- views?? What differences and similarities are there between the different editions prior and after the implementation of the new curriculum, GY11?? Are the secular world-views presented in a way that is compatible with Taylors concept of ?exclusive humanism??The results that are being presented are, first of all that the change between the different editions are not big.

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.

The study will examine how teachers relate to Religious studies for middle school students. Religious studies are the oldest but also the most contested subject undergoing the most changes over time. The subject is far from being obvious. Politicians and people within the school community disagree about the subject?s content and its name, some within the school system but also politicians like to call it topic of life studies or belief studies, while others want to keep the name religion studies.

The autumn of 2011, saw a new curriculum being put to use in Swedish schools, a curriculum whose purpose was to supply the Swedish schools with a larger national equivalence. This new curriculum was meant to counter the strong variations in grading that the ministry of education felt was a result of the Lpo94, the curriculum previous to lgy11's introduction.With the introduction of the new curriculum there followed some changes to the objectives and emphasis on content prepared by teachers in the subject of Religious studies. As a result this also affected the teachers planning and execution of the course and its content. From the perspective of a teacher-to-be I hold a great interest concerning how lgy11 affected the Religious teachers planning of their lessons and teachings. This essay is written with the hope of being able to determine how some of the now active teachers perceive that they have been affected by the curriculum in its structure of teaching and planning and the content of material.

This essay looks to examine the view on Religious and non-Religious people thoughts on the possible relationship between feminism and religion. The essay in itself relies on semi structured interviews conducted with five informants where focus has been centered on the informants main thoughts on the subject. The theoretic basis of the study is found in post-structuralistic feminism and intersectionalism. The result will show that while all the informants believe there is a kind of relationship between feminism and religion, this relationship greatly varies depending on the informants? preconception of religion and feminism..

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.