Muslimer och postmuslimer i Svenska kyrkan

The demographical changes during the last decades have created a sit­uation where Sweden has become one of the most secular and one of the most multireligious countries at the same time. This situation stands in stark contrast to the country's modern history in which its population have been largely homogeneous, and its religious landscape almost completely dominated by state-church Lutheranism. The growth of Sweden's Muslim population is what has caused most debate. According to calculations made by the Pew Research Center, one fifth of the country's total population is likely to be Muslim by 2050. This change also has consequences for the former state church, which now finds that also Muslims take part in its activities. In this article we present and analyze a novel survey-investigation on Muslims who self-identify as members of the Church of Sweden. In our analysis we differentiate between Muslims and what we call post-Muslims. While the former of these categories refers to those who self-identify as Muslims, the latter refers to people who do not refer to themselves as Muslims but who come from a Muslim family. These categories are mirrored by the Christians and post-Christians, who are selected by equivalent criteria. We conclude that most Muslims and post-Muslims have no affiliation to organized religious communities in Sweden and that among those who do, Christian churches are as important as the Muslim congregations. Among the churches, the Church of Sweden is the one in which most Muslims and post-Muslims are members. The Muslim and post-Muslim members of this church, we find, differ from each other. The Muslims are mostly Swedish-born 50–65-year-old women. They do not take part in any religious activities, and they celebrate Christian, but not Muslim, holidays. In terms of beliefs, they believe in a life after death, but mostly not in God or hell. The post-Muslims are mostly 30–49-year-old men who have come relatively recently to Sweden from the Middle East. They take part in congregational activities and celebrate both Muslim and Christian holidays. They also largely believe in God, a life after death, and hell. In terms of representation, they feel represented, primarily, by Muslim communities.

“And the Word was made flesh?” – Exploring young people’s situated learning in leadership and spirituality in a secular context

This article explores the situated learning found among 18 young volunteers taking part in an education programme about leadership and Christian spirituality in the Church of Sweden. Focus group interviews and observations are analysed in the framework of situated learning, using legitimate peripheral participation as a lens. The study shows how the young people, through the education programme, formed a safe community where new identities were shaped through participating in new ways of worship, making pilgrimages, engaging in peer dialogue, and in reflection. They also gained new perspectives and models for volunteering. The young people´s experience of living in a secular culture presents challenges to their identity formation and to their ongoing spiritual practice and development. The use of situated learning provides a deeper understanding of the process of learning in spirituality and of the problems associated with conflicting communities of practice.

When Facebook Becomes Faithbook: Exploring Religious Communication in a Social Media Context

Processes of digitalization continue to have a profound effect on many old, traditional organizations. In institutions such as banks, theaters, and churches, established structures and practices are being challenged by digitization in general and the participatory logic of social media in particular. This article draws on Mark C. Taylor’s concepts of figuring and disfiguring to analyze empirical data gathered from the Church of Sweden Facebook page. The aim is to discuss how social media affects the conditions for religious communication and what the consequences are for a traditional religious organization such as the Church of Sweden.

Praktisk och pastoral teologi i Svenska kyrkans prästutbildning

In this article, we discuss practical and pastoral theology in relation to Swedish theological education for future ordained clergy in the Church of Sweden. We look at how pastoral theology is understood in the Church of Sweden today and its relation to Practical Theology as an academic subject. We problematize the split between "academic" and "pastoral" theology and argue that pastoral theology should be understood as a part of the academic discipline Practical Theology. Practical Theology today is heavily theoretical and methodological, not least in the United States, the origin of much literature used in the Swedish context. Interesting as this may be from a research perspective, the discipline runs the risk of losing some of its relevance for undergraduate theological education. Here we discuss different aspects of pastoral and practical theology, and how they may feed into each other. We highlight the potential problems with a practical theology distancing itself from what has been called "the clerical paradigm" (in Sweden: pastoral theology), but also point to the importance of Practical Theology as an academic field in relation to ordination training. In Sweden, academic theology is still understood as supposedly "neutral", which complicates the relationship between "academic" and "pastoral" theology, as this obscures the influences from explicit normative and constructive practical theology on Swedish theological education. Drawing on practical theologians such as Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore and Mary McClintock Fulkerson, we discuss the normative and constructive ambitions in some practical theological schools of thought today. A changing understanding of Practical Theology may contribute to pastoral theology as a part of the ordination training in the Church of Sweden, but the normative assumptions need to be made explicit.

Dance as a contemplative practice

This article analyses ethnographic material gathered in Sweden amongst dancers in the Church of Sweden. With the help of the writings of Sarah Coakley and Simone Weil I explore if, and how, dancing could be considered a contemplative practice in the Christian traditions of the Latin West.

The Impotent Leader and The Legacy of the Church

When a leader leaves office, the leader becomes impotent, divested of power. This makes the actual moment of farewell a particularly interesting case study in leadership, as the farewell moment marks the transition of power from one leader to another. Many leaders use the point of departure as an opportunity to articulate the legacy of the institution they leave behind. This article offers a rhetorical and theological analysis of the farewell sermon delivered by former presiding bishop of the Church of Norway, Helga Haugland Byfuglien in January 2020, and a shorter, comparative analysis of the equivalent farewell sermon of the former Archbishop of the Church of Sweden, Anders Wejryd (2014). The article analyses how Byfuglien and Wejryd conceptualize the legacy of the church with the use of epideictic and deliberative rhetoric (rhetorical analysis) and discuss what kind of legacy (theological analysis and discussion) they promote. The article argues that both Byfuglien and Wejryd use the farewell sermon as a rhetorical opportunity to articulate the church`s legacy for the future, although their own formal power to execute that legacy is coming to an end. Byfuglien appeals to a diaconal vision of the church`s legacy, with a tendency to emphasize the church`s welcoming and inclusive character. Wejryd addresses the current ecclesiological situation in more detail. By assessing the church`s numerical decline and changed societal status as a crisis, he mainly appeals to the church`s missional legacy. The article concludes that the farewell sermons of both Byfuglien and Wejryd may be interpreted as a sort of inheritance dispute, or better heritage dispute: In their farewell sermons, the departing bishops present their last(ing) act of leadership, appealing to the audience to commit to a particular vision of the church`'s legacy.