In this essay I have aimed to examine how the theology of Paul Tillich relate to modern views of reality, both the way it was expressed in his contemporary time and the way I see it today. Reality I have defined as an entirety of the physic- and metaphysic reality. A so called panentism where God is reality and the world is a part of this reality.With Tillichs Systematic Theology as my principal material, I have first made a brief presentation of his theology, of its construction and main concepts. Then I have chosen to further examine the way he describes being, reason and revelation to see how this particular concepts of Tillich agree with my definition of reality. In this I have consulted the books Tillich in Dialogue by Mackenzie-Brown and Natural Theology Versus Theology of Nature, a book edited after the forth international Tillich symposium 1992, which had "Tillichs thinking as impetus for a discourse among theology, philosophy and natural sciences" as a theme.I have tried to point out the possibilities opened up by the ontology and epistemology of Tillich for the dialogue between theology and natural sciences.

A large part of the Iranian population resented the west, in particular USA and Great Britain, during the Islamic revolution in Iran 1979. The people were also resenting the adverse effects of the trumped up frame made in Iran. The last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was detested by many in Iran for its west-oriented regime. The resentment among many Iranians is a consequence of the violations of e.g. the lack of political and civil rights, there were no existing legal security in the society, there were no economic distribution and the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah violated the human rights.The resolution from an Iranian perspective for riot is not new, during the last centuries the abomination against the despotic kings have been existing varyingly and big riots have been raised.  The Islamic revolution in 1979 was new because the revolution added adverse effects of west, the population detested west and expressed it by protesting through demonstration.  The significance of the revolution in 1979 was also attributable to Islam.

I have chosen to investigate the relationship between Latin American- and African Liberation Theologies. My purpose is to analyze, understand and compare the similarities and differencesbetween the two. The bulk of the study addresses two Liberationists, Gustavo Gutiérrez from Latin America and Jean-Marc Ela from Africa, both of whom are considered by many to be the most important theologians on their continents. This is done with the aim of deepeningthe knowledge of other theologies which have also influenced present day theological thinking.The questions I pose concern Liberation Theology in general, its background and its history. I will journey through Latin American and African church history in order to understand the contexts in which these two theologies have arisen.

The aim of this study has been to try to understand the meaning of dikaiosuvnh qeou` in Rom 3:21-26, and how man receives this righteousness.The study has two main parts. The first part is a study of Greek terms and words, where the following terms are examined: First the iJlavskomai word group, and especially the word iJlasthvrion. Secondly the words divkaio" and dikaiosuvnh. Thirdly the word novmo" and fourthly the words pisteuvw and pivsti". The final term examined is ajpoluvtrwsi".

En känsla för Gud ? Komparativ teologi enligt Keith Ward och perspektiv på religionsteologi.(A feeling for God ? Comparative Theology according to Keith Ward and perspectives on Theology of Religion)We all have preconceived opinions regarding people, cultures and especially religion and religiousness, and according to one´s own subjective formed opinion, they are surely truthful and moral. But my main concern with this essay must be thought of as a brief and personal mapping of Christian belief and it´s rational status in relation to both basic philosophy and the other great religious traditions. Furthermore, I am anxious to widen the perspectives of that which theoretically can be considered substantially real, and the existential consequences that follows on such a study. In doing so I must make sure that it´s properly anchored in history of both philosophy and religion, and of course ? with the general idea of God.

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.

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.

The main aim of my research essay is to examine two congregations, one in Sweden and one in Democratic Republic of Congo, how theology and the life in the church shape the cultural context. The analysis uses semi-structured interviews of two pastors responsible for organizing the Easter celebration in their churches. The interviews serve the purpose to reveal how they apply theology in their context, how they interpret the Easter celebration liturgically in relation to the early church and how they perceive the cultural development in the congregations Easter celebration 2010-11. To give complementary insights to the interviews I use computer-aided interviews with members of the congregations. The methodological approach is based on a study of contextual theological theories, Easter traditions in the early church, Easter theologies and then applying these theories in the interviews.

This essay examines the using of consensus method for decision making within the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the process that led to the decision to adopt its usage. The main question of my essay is why the method was introduced to the WCC and what motives lay behind its introduction. Other questions are how the consensus method works; both in theory and in practice, and what the predecessors and prototypes for the method are.The consensus method belongs to a broad Christian tradition of spiritual discernment and spiritual decision making. The New Testament, in particular Acts, gives examples of decision making in the early church which show that discerning God's will was considered essential. However the most influential model for the consensus method have been the decision making process of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers, and also the consensus model of the Uniting Church in Australia.

During the period of occupation of Norway between the years 1940-1945 the National Lutheran Church took the responsibility of supporting the Norweigans in their ideological battle against the Nazis. This was a period named Holdningskampen in Norwegian history. One person to remember was Eivind Berggrav, bishop in Oslo diocese. He was the one responsible for the theological document of importance Kirkens Grunn that became important as a document against the Nazis and the small percentage of Christians that related to the naziinspired-church. Berggrav was also one of the founders of Den Midlertidlige Kirkeledelsen, the organisation responsible for the non-nazified churches.

Abstract Spiritual gardening, historical perspective and epistemology, - how do these concepts connect? A review of the ideologies of four pragmatic growers. The purpose of this thesis is: ? to present an alternative forthcoming perspective on knowledge, that may be of significance for future theories and knowledge about growing and gardening. ? to lift experiences with Nature Spirits into an academic context, that permits us a closer look at the phenomenon. ? to contribute to an academic platform connecting humanistic and natural sciences. The intention of this text is to bridge the differences between the strictly rational traditions of knowledge and those more experience based ones. The thesis wants to show that much can be won if feeling based and mental reflections once again are approached as equal sources of knowledge. The aim is to give an orientation about the subject of Nature Spirits. The interesting fact is not whether (that) one can talk to nature, but how one does it and that more can be understood about nature and the reality that the established sciences study. The form for this study of literature is a describing presentation; to put names on and give wording to the phenomena of Nature Spirits and Plantdevas. The sources of literature are four pragmatic practitioners of spiritual gardening who have written extensively about their own work.

Public confession and declaration of grace in the mass, following the book of worship of the Church of Sweden, is considered by many to be problematic, and hence the topic of frequent discussion. This is apparent already in the proposal for the existing book of worship, as well as in those official proposals that have been presented in recent years for a revised order of worship. This paper provides a summary account of the historical development of the public confession (and its attendant parts) from the early church into recent times, with a focus on the Church of Sweden, focusing on church regulation and official books of worship. This account shows that a public confession existed in early Christian celebration of service/mass, and that public confession and declaration of grace as we know it today (in the Church of Sweden) has developed from the practice of private confession with a relationship to Holy Communion. In Sweden, the ambitions of the Lutheran program of reformation with respect to public confession did not materialize fully.

The Church of Sweden had barely 6.5 million members in 2012. Just over 1% of the members visit a church service regularly every Sunday. The number of visitors in worship services has diminished continuously for a very long time. From 1990 to 2010, the annual number of visitors at the main worship services has decreased by 50% from 9 million to about 4.5 million. The service activities can still be maintained at the current level because the many passive members still pays their membership fee.

This essay examines the Swedish missionary association Bible Faithful Friends? (Bibeltrogna Vänner, BV) ecclesiological development between the years 1911 ? 1986 and their relation to the Church of Sweden. This essay?s three main questions are:- How did the ecclesiology of BV develop during the years 1911 ? 1986, with certain focus on 1967-1986?- In what way was this ecclesiology imprinted bya) the structure of the missionary association?b) and the ecclesiological standpoint of the leader Axel B. Svensson?As regards the first question, the study shows that BV's ecclesiology, particularly in the years 1967 ? 1986, is characterized by a church debate between BV's board and the promoters and founders of the Lutheran Confessional Church (Lutherska Bekännelsekyrkan, LBK).