In this article I discuss homosexuality and Christian faith as a ”rhetorical crisis” in some Swedish churches. I refer mainly to articles from the Christian newspaper Dagen from 2000-2015, with a special focus on an intense debate in the spring of 2015. The study shows that the discussion changes over time, that it moves between different media and that new actors with their agendas affect what could be described as an ongoing struggle for discursive power. Yet there is also a meta-level in the discussion which relates to the theme of “rhetorical crisis” since it concerns communicative issues like how and where one should talk about the subject. The study also shows that the leadership of the Pentecostal movement time and again are challenged to take a stance but that they are reluctant to do so and instead attempt to mold the discussion and position it in the local churches.
How do Christians, who try to understand their lives according to the Christian narrative, cope with illness and suffering? This issue is the main concern of this article. Its point of departure is the assumption that the concept of “narrative” expressed in the idea that Christian faith is a narrative, might be taken to refer to a worldview, to a larger narrative (ie salvation history) or to the fact that Christians, in a process of hindsight, interpret their lives narratively. Based on talks with students and a process at Örebro Theological Seminary (ÖTH), in which we have been discussing the subject of illness and healing, I argue that some Christians are rethinking their understanding of illness and suffering. Since these Christians often have a high view of the Bible, it is important to examine how these issues are handled in scripture, and how biblical texts have been used traditionally. These Christians also refer to their experiences and to common apprehensions of illness and suffering in society. I propose that the Christians I refer to tend to avoid religious causal or teleological explanations of illness and suffering. They even seem to prefer not to involve God in these issues at all. This could be taken as a token of secularisation, but I argue that this is not the only possible explanation. I suggest instead that it can be linked to a reconsideration of basic tenets of these Christians’ theology and I make the claim that this reconsideration occurred during the process at Örebro Theological Seminary I have referred to above. The narrative reinterpretation of illness and suffering in the personal lives of these Christians is thus closely linked to a reinterpretation of the Christian worldview and salvation history.
When early Pentecostal leaders tried to understand certain religious experiences they referred to the narratives of Acts. Yet the narratives of these leaders came also to function as interpretations of the biblical narratives. In this process narrative patterns were shaped that have been important, yet also problematic, to Pentecostalism. In this essay two such features are discussed: Spirit baptism as a moment of crisis that leads to a passage from one level in the life of a Christian to a new and higher level, and the traits that should characterize the experience and confirm that it really is a baptism in the Spirit.
The subject that is examined in this article is how young Christians in Swedish Charismatic and Evangelical churches talk about their faith. The study takes its point of departure in Charles Taylors suggestion that both believers and non-believers in the Western world live in a “secular age” and that this affects the conditions for religious beliefs. Taylors reasoning as well as some American and Swedish studies about young believers are presented in the first part of the article. The main part consist of a presentation of two focus group interviews with young adults. In a final section the interviews are discussed in relation to earlier research. The authors argue that the interviewees emphasize the personal and the authentic, and that it is vital to have “a relation with Jesus”. They refer to, and long for, charismatic experiences butare also searching for a mature faith and an acceptance of “ups and downs” in their spiritual life. Although they shy traditional expressions and admit that they find certain dogmas difficult to understand,their belief offers them a certain “wholeness” in life. They are unhappy about the stereotypes about Christians they encounter in society but want to share their beliefs through testimony and a loving life style. Ethics, in the form of love and tolerance rather than rules, is very important. However, this is a problem not least in relation to issues about homosexuality. Finally, the au-thors note, that the church, or groups within the church, are salient for these Christians.
The purpose is to clarify the concept of cognitive biases and to describe some common cognitive biases. Cognitive biases have widespread occurrence and widespread consequences for individuals and society.
This article sets out to explore how Muslims in Sweden identify with and create social life in the place where they live, that is, in their neighbourhood, in their town/city and in Swedish society at large. In a paradoxical religious landscape that includes a strong Lutheran state church heritage and a Christian free-church tradition, in what is, nevertheless, a very secular society, Muslims may choose different strategies to express their faith, here roughly described as “retreatist,” “engaged” or “essentialist/antagonistic.” Focusing on a non-antagonistic, engaged stance, and drawing upon a combination of authors' interviews, and materials published in newspapers and on the Internet, we first bring to the fore arguments by Muslim leaders in favour of creating a Muslim identity with a Swedish brand, and second give some examples of local Muslim individuals, acting as everyday makers in their neighbourhood, town or city. Third, we also give attention to an aggressively negative Islamophobic stance expressed both in words and in physical violence in parts of Swedish society. In conclusion, we reflect upon the challenges and potentialities of an emotionally engaged, dialogue-orientated Muslim position facing antagonistic interpretations of Islam, and an ignorant, sometimes Islamophobic, environment.
Whereas interpreters commonly assert that women play a marginal role in 1 Corinthians 12-14, this article argues that Paul's prohibition of women's public speaking in 1 Cor. 14:34 is actually the main issue. Paul's use of the insinuatio, the Subtle Approach, as his rhetorical strategy is the key interpreters need to reconstruct the rhetorical situation and to understand adequately his argumentation. A group of tongue-speaking women who have gained the status of a spiritual elite, pose a threat to Paul and create disorder in the worship services. In a critical dialogue with Antoinette Clark Wire, it is maintained that Paul designates these women pneumatics to be not "prophets" but merely "tongue speakers."Paul uses much male/female imagery for the polemical purpose of making a gender-based dissociation and redefinition of the wider phenomenon "inspired speech," into the categories "prophecy" and "glossolalia."He connects prophecy with rationality, order and male social roles in the public sphere, and glossolalia with contemporary ideas of female inferiority. Paul's negative portrayal of glossolalia is part of his rhetorical effort to silence the women tongue speakers in the church meeting.
Taking our point of departure in securitization theory the aim is to analyze how the Lutheran Church of Sweden responded when the Swedish Government in late autumn 2015 made a sudden halt to a previously generous posture towards refugees. Applying the concept of counter-securitization we demonstrate how the Archbishop, and other Church leaders, strongly contested this official policy shift, legitimating their standpoint by referring to a radical, cosmopolitan reading of the gospel. Employees and lay members were mobilized to support immigrants through protest, everyday service, consultation and lobbying. Articulating a view that securitization should not be reserved for cases of a perceived existential military threat is highly relevant for the debate about the role of religion and secularism. Securitization and counter-securitization appear as two complementary approaches, where the Church may stand up as a bulwark defending immigration rights in contradistinction to retrotopian and xenophobic interpretations of the gospel. We contribute to this field by illustrating how research should not be caught in a one-dimensional reading of 'security' and 'securitization', but has to be interpreted within a non-linear, non-binary framework, with a sensitive ear to different political, cultural, social and religious contexts, not forgetting the time dimension.
Slava or Krsna lava is the Serbian Orthodox celebration of a family's patron saint on a given day of the year. During the decades of Socialist Yugoslavia 0943-1994 it was confined to the private sphere only. Since the 1960s, there is a sizeable group of Yugoslav or Serbian immigrants in Sweden, and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Sweden claims 40,000 members. The article is based on eleven semi-structured interviews with immigrants who have started celebrating the Slava in Sweden. We identified four frames of interpretation used in order to provide the ritual with meaning: Orthodoxy, family, ethnicity, and local community. A closer discussion of three cases illustrates different ways of finding a balance between Slava's possible meanings. The ways of celebrating display individual variation and varying influence of the culture and values of the host society.
The Church of Sweden (Lutheran) was disestablished on January 1, 2000. The new situation in the Church clearly calls for organizational change.
Using well-known test instruments, 240 Swedish vicars were asked about their leadership style, decision-making style, motivation profile and perceived operational demands. The questionnaires were related to a model of leadership strength for initiating and implementing organizational change. The results indicate that most vicars have a relationship-oriented leadership style. Most are feeling types in their decision-making style. Almost 60% were affiliation motivated. Almost 80% perceived relational operational demands to be most important. It is assumed that managers who have a change-centered leadership style, who are intuitive in decision-making style, power motivated and see urgent demands for change and development, will have an optimal capacity for implementing major changes in their organizations. This means that only 1% of the vicars seem to have a propensity for change at a time when many think that change is crucial for the Church.
Abstrakt
Den viktiga målgruppen för min undersökning i etikfrågor i religionsundervisningen är religionslärare. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur lärare på en gymnasieskola lyfter upp den etiska och moraliska frågan i religionsundervisningen. Genom intervjustudier har lärarnas synpunkter om etik och moralfrågor i religionsundervisningen undersökts.
Enligt läroplanen ska religionskunskap öka förståelse för människor med olika kulturella bakgrunder och den kulturella mångfalden inom landet och skolans främsta uppgift är att förmedla kunskaper, färdigheter och kompetenser. Eleverna ska lära sig hur de ska uppföra sig mot varandra som medmänniskor och samhällsborgare. Utgångspunkten är att eleverna skall ta kunskapen med sig vidare så att de blir till nytta för både hem och samhälle.
Etik och moral i religionsundervisningen är en bra utgångspunkt för att öka kunskapen om andra kulturer och religioner, rätt och fel och ömsesidighetesprincipen.
Syftet med religionsundervisningen är att skapa förståelse för andra människor och andra kulturer. Etik och moral i religionsundervisningen är angelägna om man som lärare vill uppnå detta mål, alltså om man inte tar sin utgångspunkt i etik och moral är det svårt att koppla till förståelsen för andra människor. En undervisning i religionskunskap och där utgångspunkten är etik och moral är enligt de intervjuade lärarna ett sätt att beröra elevers livssyn. I undervisningen tas det livsåskådningars syn på människan, hur man ska behandla andra människor. Diskussioner kring alla dessa frågor är viktiga enligt de intervjuade lärare, elever ska lära sig mer och öka förståelse för olika religioner och livsåskådningar i ämnet religionskunskap på gymnasiet.
Resultatet visade vidare att de tre religionslärarnas sätt att väva in etik och moral i religionsundervisningen berodde mycket på tiden de har till sitt förfogande. Deras vilja att väva in etik och moral i religionsundervisningen är stor men de önskar att de hade mer tid för att kunna utveckla diskussioner kring etik och moral.
Based on John Rawls’ later theory of political liberalism, this article critically analyses what religious education could mean in times of increasing societal pluralism and a worldwide revival of religion. Important elements of political liberalism – such as the notions of reasonable persons and public reason – are elaborated on and related to religious individuals and perspectives. It is argued that political liberalism supports mandatory religious education, but of a certain kind. Schools have an obligation to provide students with knowledge about religions, and to foster a spirit of tolerance and respect for the demands of public reason. But they cannot legitimately give students the impression that all religions are equally true or false. This makes for a problematic situation: how is it possible to teach students about religion without crossing the line and teaching religious relativism? If it is not possible, then political liberalism seems to be more controversial than Rawls would admit.
The aim of this study was to describe nurses' conceptions of decision making with regard to life-sustaining treatment for dialysis patients. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 nurses caring for such patients at three hospitals. The interview material was subjected to qualitative content analysis. The nurses saw decision making as being characterized by uncertainty and by lack of communication and collaboration among all concerned. They described different ways of handling decision making, as well as insufficiency of physician-nurse collaboration, lack of confidence in physicians, hindrances to patient participation, and ambivalence about the role of patients' next of kin. Future research should test models for facilitating communication and decision making so that decisions will emerge from collaboration of all concerned. Nurses' role in decision making also needs to be discussed.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate one ethics rounds model by describing nurses' and doctors' experiences of the rounds.
METHODS: Philosopher-ethicist-led interprofessional team ethics rounds concerning dialysis patient care problems were applied at three Swedish hospitals. The philosophers were instructed to promote mutual understanding and stimulate ethical reflection, without giving any recommendations or solutions. Interviews with seven doctors and 11 nurses were conducted regarding their experiences from the rounds, which were then analysed using content analysis. Findings: The goal of the rounds was partly fulfilled. Participants described both positive and negative experiences. Good rounds included stimulation to broadened thinking, a sense of connecting, strengthened confidence to act, insight into moral responsibility and emotional relief. Negative experiences were associated with a sense of unconcern and alienation, as well as frustration with the lack of solutions and a sense of resignation that change is not possible. The findings suggest that the ethics rounds above all met the need of a forum for crossing over professional boundaries. The philosophers seemed to play an important role in structuring and stimulating reasoned arguments. The nurses' expectation that solutions to the ethical problems would be sought despite explicit instructions to the contrary was conspicuous.
CONCLUSION: When assisting healthcare professionals to learn a way through ethical problems in patient care, a balance should be found between ethical analyses, conflict resolution and problem solving. A model based on the findings is presented.
The aim of this study was to evaluate agreement between nurses’ and physicians’ opinions regarding aggressiveness of treatment and to investigate and compare the rationales on which their opinions were based. Structured interviews regarding 714 patients were performed on seven general wards of a university hospital. The data gathered were then subjected to qualitative and quantitative analyses. There was 86% agreement between nurses’ and physicians’ opinions regarding full or limited treatment when the answers given as ‘uncertain’ were excluded. Agreement was less (77%) for patients with a life expectancy of less than one year. Disagreements were not associated with professional status because the physicians considered limiting life-sustaining treatment as often as the nurses. A broad spectrum of rationales was given but the results focus mostly on those for full treatment. The nurses and the physicians had similar bases for their opinions. For the majority of the patients, medical rationales were used, but age and quality of life were also expressed as important determinants. When considering full treatment, nurses used quality-of-life rationales for significantly more patients than the physicians. Respect for patients’ wishes had a minor influence.
The role of secularization remains underdeveloped in theoretical studies of democratization. We hold that the relation between the two processes is difficult to analyse by help of standard, cross-sectional analysis. We therefore propose a process-oriented model of democratization in relation to secularization. We suggest that these processes do not unfold in random patterns. Theoretically they follow one of four distinct paths: democratization may precede secularization, secularization may precede democratization, democratization may occur without secularization, and democratization and secularization may occur as parallel processes. The contrasts between our model and cross-sectional analysis become particularly obvious when the first and the fourth paths are considered in historical perspective: secularism (as an independent variable) is in both cases positively correlated with democracy (the dependent variable), even though these processes are reversed temporally (path one), or even occur simultaneously (path four). The model therefore demonstrates the need for further research on the relation between democratization and secularization. This includes the problem of why certain states tend to follow certain paths; whether countries may shift between paths; the problem of democratic consolidation; the role of state-formation to secularization and democratization; and the contextual dependence of the model, including the relation between institutions and values/behaviour.