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This essay studies and compares three clergymen that were stationed in Sápmi during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and their writings that deal with the Saami population of the northern parts of Sweden. How they portray the Saami people and their culture is analyzed though postcolonial concepts as Edward Said’s othering and other concepts by the likes of Loomba, Lincoln and Pratt. The three priests portrayal of the Saami people and their culture are similar In that way that they all confirm some of the colonial stereotypes of the Saami during the time they were writing. But especially one of the priests stands out in his effort to give a nuanced portrayal of the Saami people.

Death is a privacy, a central loss for the closest relatives, but it is also official because it is involving different kinds of parts that needs to take care of the people that is dead. The purpose of this study is to view four of the Swedish state public investigations ( SOU) that is focusing on funeral and the business in Sweden. How the official handle funeral in a society characterized by secularization, civilreligon and how the part of this official gives to religion. With focus on explicit religion, in this case it is the Swedish church, other religious communities, foundations and organisation. But also,how this official reflects to one or more religious attitudes. In this case with implicit religion were the focus is on the unconsciousness, how the attention of this things that says is unspoken and were this behaviour is surrounding as not religious. The four investigations published the years 1990:82, 1997:24, 2013:82 and 2015:26. Two of them were written before the Swedish church and state was together and the other two were investigated after the divorce. To do this study I have the theory of rites of passage, secularization and civilreligon. The methods that is going to be used in this essay is content analysis and the professor Caroll Lee Bacchi´s method What is the problem represented to be?

This essay examines how a priest named Erik Grape stationed in Torne Lappmark at the turn of the nineteenth century looked at the Sami people, their religious life and religious practice. It also investigates how Grape looked at Christianity teaching, but also why in his texts he makes a clear opposition between Sami and Finns. Using Bruce Lincoln's theories in Holy terror the essay concluded that Grape sees the Sami as less Christian than the remaining population of the country. that he divides the Sami and Finns to strengthen the collective community by putting "we" vs. "them" groups against each other.

During the 20th century, our planet and its population have faced a number of environmental challenges. The climate on earth is changing and it is most likely due to human activity and the destruction of the earth's resources, ecosystems and waterways. More recently a very active environmental movement is taking up more space in people's lives. In many ways, it can be considered that climate change, and the movement that accompanied it, created a generation of people who proclaim a doom as a result of human destruction of the planet. I have conducted qualitative online interviews with nine representatives from the Church of Sweden, mainly church pastors from southern Sweden, to see how they relate to climate change, their views on judgement day and how they respond to people in their office who have anxiety and are concerned about climate change and the possible destruction of the human race. The result shows that all respondents in the survey place a great focus on man's individual and collective responsibility in the care for the earth, that is, according to them, God's creation. Through Berger’s social-constructivist theories of secularization, the study shows that the climate movement itself sometimes lacks Christian values of optimism and Christian concepts, such as God's grace, forgiveness, and hope. It thus gives the impression that the movement in some ways has a secular character. In contrast to this, the representatives of the Swedish Church claim to have a hopeful attitude and mostly believe that climate change is not part of the eschatological prophecies described in the Bible. However, they often reason that one cannot know for certain what the future holds, but as they hope and long for Christ's return, they have no fear but instead put their faith in hope and in God. They believe there is a clearer optimism on their part in the form of forgiveness, grace and hope and are willing to lead by example by caring for people who fear and encourage them to ho

The purpose of this study is to examine the colonisation of Sápmi though the works of a local priest, by the name of Eric Grape. To do so, this study uses postcolonial theory when analysing the content of the works by Grape. Eric Grape was a priest active in the Lappmarks of northern Sweden in the early nineteenth century and who wrote articles for the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. The focus of the study is the othering of the Saami people and their culture, and the colonial production of knowledge that Grape produced about the Saami. Othering is a term by Edward Said and it is about the constructed difference between “we” the European culture and people regarded as the “other”. This term, the study argues, can also be applied when studying the colonial encounters between the Saami and Swedish colonial actors such as Grape. The main result of this study is that Grape portrays the Saami as different and more primitive than the Swedish settlers that occupy the northen part of Sweden, he describes the Saami as childish.

The Church of Sweden has, under the past few years, had a special focus on their Church-handbook of 1986. There has been a widely-discussed debate among the different congregations in Sweden if, and when, their Church-handbook should be exchanged for a new Church-handbook. But, is there also a risk of a change in liturgy and theology? In this essay, I have been able to identify both similarities and differences in the Church-handbook of 1986 and the Proposal of 2016. In the Church-handbook of 1986 there is a focus on "We" and in the Proposal of 2016 there have been a significant change to focus on "World-wide". This focuses on both "We" and "World-wide", are a direct connection to the ecclesiology that were in question of the publication of the Church-handbooks. So which path shall Curch of Sweden take 2017? Shall they continue with the Church-handbook of 1986 and keep a well-known liturgy or take the Proposal of 2016 into consideration? During the "trial-run" which follow every Proposal that the Church of Sweden publishes, members of congregations all around Sweden, has shown a reluctance towards the Proposal of 2016. They have shown that it's a Proposal that has not taken into consideration, the very importance of recognition and that not all of those that visits the different churches in Sween, are familiar with the liturgy. Therefore, they claim, the Church of Sweden shall not have the Proposal of 2016 as their primarily used Church-handbook, but they can take into consideration to use it as an edition to the Church-handbook of 1986.

The aim of this study is to get a picture of how communities in the Swedish church, more precisely in Växjö diocese, work with LGBTQ questions. Furthermore, this study pays attention to the different factors that might have affected this work over the years, and I will also investigate if the work with LGBTQ questions differ between the communities I have picked for this study. To conduct this study, a qualitative method is used in form of semi-structured interviews. This study uses Goffman’s theory of stigma, as well as Foucault’s theory of power, as a theoretical framework to analyse the collected data. The result shows that although there are no specific guidelines in how the communities are supposed to work with the LGBTQ questions, work is underway in the diocese of Växjö. For instance, in connection to the annual Pride-festival, the communities try to engage themselves by showing that there is an acceptance towards LGBTQ-persons within the Swedish church. The result also shows that there are some specific factors that affect the work related to LGBTQ questions, such as the fact that gay marriages are legal by law in Sweden.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the church verger relates to the cultural heritage in their churches and how the churches are affected by their cultural heritage. I also wanted to investigate the problem in preserving a heritage that doubles as a living religious room. Finally, I wanted to know how the verger's work is influenced by the dual responsibility towards the parish and county government. In the study the vergers were interviewed about their workplace and work situation. I also interviewed the antiquarian in Växjö diocese. I then analyzed the results by using Svante Beckman’s concept categories and value typology of cultural heritage. I drew the conclusion that the church instills a feeling based on historical values. I also concluded that the verger’s knowledge and care of the church protects the cultural heritage values. This knowledge is in itself a cultural heritage that needs to be nurtured and protected. Finally, my study found that the county government and the heritage law do not cater to the needs of parishes today. The requirements demanded by the county government have become yet another stress factor in the verger’s everyday.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att göra en jämförande studie mellan en församling från Svenska kyrkan och en från Pingstkyrkan med hänsyn till hur de anpassar sin religiösa praktik utifrån dagens sekulariserande samhälle. Detta med utgångspunkt i gudstjänst, dop, konfirmation, vigsel och begravning. Vidare läggs det en extra betoning på gudstjänsten i form av deltagande observation, detta för att gudstjänsten har en central roll i kyrkan. Teorierna som används i studien är socialisering och sekularisering som kopplas till resultatet. Metoden som studien bygger på är kvalitativa intervjuer och deltagande observationer. I resultatet presenteras det i vilken grad de olika kyrkorna anpassar sin religiösa praktik utifrån syftets utgångspunkter, samt hur de skiljer sig från varandra. Resultatet visar på att den största skillnaden mellan de respektive kyrkorna är på dopet och konfirmationen. Resultatet visar också hur interaktionen är mellan församlingsledare och församling i de respektive kyrkorna.