The Secularization theses has over the last decade been a central issue within the sociology of religion. The two classic theses has been criticized for being one-sided and only focus on the change from traditional to modern society. The intention of this study is to evaluate this critique and to discuss what is defendable in the early Secularization thesis in our contemporary world.This essay?s primary purpose is to compare the Secularization theses Weber?s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Durkheim?s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. I use two analytical models, posing three levels and three categories of Secularization, in order to make the comparison explicit.

The reason behind this essay has been to study if previous research is relevant for Jehovah?s Witnesses in Sweden and see if Secularization has affected the organization or not. The empirical material is made from two qualitative group- interviews and open observations during two meetings in the Kingdom Hall. These studies were performed in Oskarshamn and Mönsterås during the month of February. The reason that these studies have been limited to Oskarshamn and Mönsterås is mainly because they were the only ones willing to do an interview.  According to previous research by James A.

The reason behind this essay has been to study if previous research is relevant for Jehovah?s Witnesses in Sweden and see if Secularization has affected the organization or not. The empirical material is made from two qualitative group- interviews and open observations during two meetings in the Kingdom Hall. These studies were performed in Oskarshamn and Mönsterås during the month of February. The reason that these studies have been limited to Oskarshamn and Mönsterås is mainly because they were the only ones willing to do an interview.  According to previous research by James A.

 This essay is a study of whether Japan is secularized on an individual level or not. It is written with the aim of examining if Secularization on an individual level has taken place in Japan, and if so, is it possible to make a comparison to Europe and the USA.Key words: Japan, Secularization.

The reason behind this essay has been to study if previous research is relevant for Jehovah?s Witnesses in Sweden and see if Secularization has affected the organization or not. The empirical material is made from two qualitative group- interviews and open observations during two meetings in the Kingdom Hall. These studies were performed in Oskarshamn and Mönsterås during the month of February. The reason that these studies have been limited to Oskarshamn and Mönsterås is mainly because they were the only ones willing to do an interview.  According to previous research by James A.

This master thesis summarizes contemporary theories on Secularization processes in the Western world, and compares these with the example of Sweden, which by many scholars is considered to be the most secularized country in the Western world.I do this by dividing the most influential theorists in five different groups. In each group I explain how the theorists formulate and motivate their positions. These groups are:1) The Secularization paradigm, where Secularization always accompanies modernization. (Therorists: Steve Bruce and Peter Berger (in the 1960s)2) The paradigm basically accepted, but revised to depend on existential security, rather than modernisation as such. (Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart)3) Religion returned in the public sphere.

This master thesis summarizes contemporary theories on Secularization processes in the Western world, and compares these with the example of Sweden, which by many scholars is considered to be the most secularized country in the Western world.I do this by dividing the most influential theorists in five different groups. In each group I explain how the theorists formulate and motivate their positions. These groups are:1) The Secularization paradigm, where Secularization always accompanies modernization. (Therorists: Steve Bruce and Peter Berger (in the 1960s)2) The paradigm basically accepted, but revised to depend on existential security, rather than modernisation as such. (Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart)3) Religion returned in the public sphere.

This master thesis summarizes contemporary theories on Secularization processes in the Western world, and compares these with the example of Sweden, which by many scholars is considered to be the most secularized country in the Western world.I do this by dividing the most influential theorists in five different groups. In each group I explain how the theorists formulate and motivate their positions. These groups are:1) The Secularization paradigm, where Secularization always accompanies modernization. (Therorists: Steve Bruce and Peter Berger (in the 1960s)2) The paradigm basically accepted, but revised to depend on existential security, rather than modernisation as such. (Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart)3) Religion returned in the public sphere.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to examine how individuals, part of a rural Christian parish,express their religiosity and beliefs in a Swedish context. Furthermore this study seeksto understand these religious expressions through different views on social construction,Secularization and the privatization perspective, such as lived religion, in particular. Byusing qualitative interviews with 8 individuals analyzed with the theories mentionedabove my results show that Secularization has provided many individuals with aChristian identity, however, not necessarily a Christian faith. Instead several of theparticipants show a self-developed religious expression not automatically connectedwith Christian religious practices. One of the participants has, despite a Christiansocialization, developed a non-religious identity.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how Irish people on a rural location practice their faith in everyday life. The intention is also to find out what strategies my interviewees use to negotiate the abuse scandal and what their thoughts on the Catholic Church are. The material mainly consists of interviews with seven people part of a rural parish in Ireland. My research also entails smaller observations and conversations in the homes of the participants.The results indicate that they all consider themselves religious, however not all Catholic. All of the participants integrate their religion in everyday life.

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 is a hermeneutic study that analyzes and discusses whether it is possible to find Christian ethics in the TV-series Beverly Hills 90210 (1990) and the spin-off 90210 (2008) and how they differ in the preparation of these. I also aim to, based on my research, illustrate the discussion of Christian ethics in the curriculum and why we need a multicultural education.I have chosen three episode of both TV-series and I divided each episode into different themes, each theme is a phenomenon that I perceive to be a part of a Christian ethical position. Then I argue, using the theologian Stanley Hauerwas, these themes really can relate to what may be perceived as Christian ethics. In order to discuss how Christian ethics and secular ideals are connected I find the theory of Secularization usefull. The results I came upwith is that I find a theme in each episode which I percieve to be a part of a Christian ethical position.

Since Sweden can be considered to be a secular society it is interesting to investigate how different actors experience swimming education in the course syllabus of sports and health education, for practicing Muslim girls in middle and high schools. The investigation is based on qualitative interviews with sports teachers, practicing Muslim girls and the staff of the public swimming center in Växjö. The result shows that swimming education can be somewhat problematic, since the Muslim girls only want to attend lessons that are gender separated. In the public swimming center, there are no pools exclusively intended for women, and there are only a few times available for women every week. However, the teachers stress opportunities instead of obstacles, and the students? experience that their teachers are trying to create possibilities for them to have a gender separated swimming education.

Christendom has under a long period of time in Swedish history been the central component in legitimating the monarchs' power, a continuous process than can be clearly observed through the customs of royal coronation and baptism rites. However, during the 20th century those close ties between the state and the church of Sweden have been dissolving at a steady rate, alongside a growing societal democratization and modernization process. Officially the monarch still had a clear constitutional power legitimated through the transcendent, but unofficially his power was in reality heavily reduced. How do the Swedish monarchy relate to a rapidly changing society and Secularization process? This pilot study investigates this relation by analyzing the news reports of the royal coronation and baptism rites between 1858 and 2012 from two leading newspapers, Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter.

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.