Followers of three world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are waiting for the Messiah. Muslims are even waiting for aspiritual leader al-Mahdi. Two different persons claimed the title of al-Mahdi, at the end of the nineteenth century. Theyappeared almost at the same time, at the totally different places of the earth, with a completely different message and underthe rule of the British colonial power. The aim of the study is to compare the both religious figures, Mirza Ghulam Ahmadfrom India and Muhammad Ahmad from Sudan regarding their different messages, to illustrate the social, political andreligious factors that lead to the entirely different profile and image of these two men and how their organizations havedeveloped after their death up till today.

The purpose of this thesis is to present a number of examples of how the debate concerning same-sex marriages in Sweden was conducted in religious media between the year of 2005 and May 1st 2009. I intend to examine if and how these debate articles can be descibes as examples of religion taking part in the public sphere according to José Casanovas theory of deprivitization and public religion (1994) and Jürgen Habermas theory of religion in the public sphere (1964, 1989, 2006, 2008). I will apply the theories to the material by using four criteria for public religion, based on Casanovas and Habermas two theories, designed by Marta Axner. I also intend to compare the arguments used in the material to the arguments found in Marta Axners dissertation Public Religions in Swedish Media (2013). To identify these arguments a textanalysis containing seven argumentschemes, designed by Gunnar Björnsson (1994), is applied.

This study concerns ways in which Muslims in Sweden construct their identities. The theoretical approach of the study is based on the assumption that people construct their identities through narratives. Circumstances such as time, place, and relationships affect how narratives are told and therefore how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.In the wake of 11th of September 2001, the old colonial narrative of ?the West vs. the East? has become powerful, and makes many question the possibility of successfully integrating Muslims immigrants in Western countries.

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.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att ifrågasätta den ofta antagna åsikten att en dialog mellan olika religionstraditioner kan skapa enhet, samstämmighet och en stadig grund för att lösa sociala problem, såsom diskriminering, fördomar, segregering och motsättningar. Nordirland valdes som fallstudie på grund av att religionen där förespråkas ha en betydande roll i historien, och för att en konstruktiv dialog mellan katoliker och protestanter ses som en möjlig åtgärd i syftet att lösa problemen i samhället.Slutsatsen är att religionen kan ha en värdefull roll i lösningen av konflikter och överkommandet av negativa stereotyper, fördomar och diskriminering. Det är dock problematiskt att godta denna funktion som den ultimata lösningen på konflikter och problem, och man bör inkludera andra faktorer som samverkar med religionen. Även maktrelationer inom den religiösa kontexten samt en utbredd segregering i samhället kan utgöra hinder för en interreligiös dialog. Med utgångspunkt i uppsatsens resultat kan man således ifrågasätta religionens roll som en del av lösningen på problemen i dagens Nordirland, där en alternativ lösning istället kan vara ett undvikande av den starka fokuseringen på religion och istället en uppmärksamhet på den nordirländska identiteten, som sällan förespråkats i historien..

I 1 Korintierbrevet finns två ofta diskuterade avsnitt som med speciellt fokus på kvinnorna talar om ordningen vid kristna sammankomster: 11:2-16 och 14:34-36. Denna uppsats gör en analys av dessa texter och deras behandling i den vetenskapliga litteraturen. Hur ska man förhålla sig till att kompetenta forskare kommer till rakt motsatta slutsatser? Är det fel i argumentationen, i premisserna, eller saknar vi helt enkelt tillräcklig kunskap? Går det att skilja på vad som är omstritt av exegetiska respektive teologiska skäl?Slutsatsen är att bland tre typer av argumentation som förekommer i litteraturen, som jag kallar den värderande, den datainsamlande respektive den konstruktiva, har forskningen en olycklig slagsida mot den första typen. Alltför mycket har skrivits utan att tillföra något av varken fakta eller ideer - man refererar bara till tidigare forskning och väger olika uppfattningar mot varandra.

What is the?self? and to become ?one-self?? To resolve this questions possibility I´ve been using the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard metaphysic paradoxes. This essay about the ?self? shows the reader the difference between describing a transcendent and immanent phenomenon and if it´s possible to become or to not become ourselves. The process is a key of the ?self? which Kierkegaard explains the ?self? in and for it-self.

Denna uppsats underso?ker hur den kristologi som kommer till uttryck i Elisabeth Ohlson Wallins fotoutsta?llning Ecce Homo kan fo?rsta?s i relation till det kristologiska projekt som artikulerats av Marcella Althaus-Reid. Underso?kningen sker i tva? steg da?r Althaus-Reids kristologi fo?rst rekonstrueras utifra?n de texter i hennes fo?rfattarskap som tydligt behandlar a?mnet, varefter en serie bildanalyser go?rs av fem fotografier ur Ecce Homo. Studien visar att ba?de Althaus-Reids texter och Ecce Homo inneha?ller inte en utan flera olika kristologier.

The aim of this paper is to examine how gender and religion is described and portrayed in relation to one another in Swedish textbooks. The research questions used in order to reach the aim of the study is what interpretation of gender and feminism is represented in the textbooks and is the gender perspective consistent regarding all religions described in the textbooks, or does it vary depending on which religion that is described?This study is based on four Swedish textbooks used when teaching religion in Swedish upper secondary school. The books chosen are published after the most recent curriculum for the upper secondary school, published in 2011. The curriculum gave new directions stating that questions of gender in relation to religion should be a part of the education.

This paper aims to describe how religion teachers in Swedish schools teach concerning questions about life issues and popular culture. To research the teachers' didactic approach to these issues, didactics has been defined with three educational questions: what, how and why. The essay focuses on teachers' effective implementation of teaching on life issues and popular culture, which we used a theory of offering meaningfulness describing what subject matter that may be imparted to the students. An offer of meaningfulness can be pursued and can be made visible in the context of what and how performs the teaching and also in the context where the teacher planned the teaching elements. The method that the paper has used is the interviews of four different active religious educators in Stockholm and Uppsala area.

Bakgrund: Företagsledare i dagens näringsliv blir alltmer synliga i såväl mediala sammanhang som i samhällsdebatten. Samtidigt som företagsledare agerar som PR-figurer för företaget, tycks PR-män mer och mer blir rådgivande aktörer åt företagsledarna. Därmed tycks ett nytt fenomen göra sig gällande i svenskt näringsliv, nämligen att PR-verksamhet integreras som en del i företagsledarens arbete. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att bidra till en ökad förståelse för PR som en integrerad del i det ledarskap som flera företagsledare bedriver. Detta sker genom att vi utifrån teorier kring företagsekonomi, religions- och statsvetenskap, samt utifrån empiriska iakttagelser utvecklar ett språk inom området.

Within this essay a study is made of an LGBTQ-orientated Christian service in Stockholm called Queer Service. The following questions seek to be answered: What reasons does an individual set for his/hers participation in Queer Service? Which aspects of a queer service highlight the participants as important to them?As a method to answer these questions, the author has observed a number of queer church services in autumn of 2012. Moreover communication within the group of the assembly on the social media page Facebook has been followed and five individuals from the Queer Service congregation have been interviewed. As a background to the study, the European religious climate seen from Grace Davies eyes is depicted.  The reader also learns of how the Swedish church has handled questions about homosexuality and bisexuality and what liberation theology is.

In the late 20th century the Soviet Union collapsed and the eastern European countries were freed from the communist Russian oppression. However, during the Soviet period Marxism was a recurring life stance in the Swedish textbooks for religious education in the gymnasieskola. Today the Soviet Union has collapsed, but the Marxist philosophy has had a huge effect on both single individuals and the modern society as a whole. Nonetheless, the Marxist life stance is nowadays often being replaced by other non- religious life stances in the textbooks of religious education.Therefore, this analysis is a hermeneutic study of the presentation of the Marxist life stance in textbooks for Swedish religious education. The purpose of the paper is to investigate how these textbooks portray the Marxist life stance, and to prove that the societal context and the individual author have an immense effect in the portrayal of both religions and life stances in religious education.

The aim of this master's thesis is to describe the role of language and culture as ethnical identification factors and illustrate how these have been used as political weapons by the Serb regime in Kosovo during the last decade. The thesis discusses the concept of ethnicity, the relations between the politics of identity, nationalism, ethnic mobilization and the importance of language and culture. Kosovo has historically been characterized by severe ethnic antagonism between Serbs and Albanians. Different languages, cultures and religions beside political processes led to ethnic cleavages that paved the way for ethnocentrism, ethnonationalism, chauvinism, ethnic cleansing and civil war. Since 1989, the Serbian authorities have intervened in all important spheres of life, in an attempt to Serbianize Kosovo.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur religionslärare på gymnasiet uttalar sig om relationen mellan religionsämnet och sex och samlevnad. Undersökningen syftar även till att studera eventuella motsättningar som kan finnas i lärarnas språkliga hantering av sex och samlevnad samt att undersöka hur religionslärare talar om normalt respektive onormalt beträffande detta område. Undersökningen bygger på ett intervjumaterial med nio religionslärare på gymnasiet, där ana-lysen utgörs av diskursanalys. Uppsatsen har en socialkonstruktionistisk ansats där analysen utgår från de analysverktyg som finns inom diskursteorin och diskurspsykologin. I resultatet framträder två diskurser, den politiskt korrekta officiella diskursen vilken innebär att religionslärarna säger det som förväntas av dem, samt en motdiskurs.