University College Stockholm
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Time and Space : An essay about young adults view of the church as a space for spiritual health
No full textThe purpose of this essay has been to monitor the thoughts and feelings of young adults/adults about the physical church as a space for spiritual health. It has been done with the help of three pictures in A3 format depicting three spaces in different churches where the seven informants were asked to grade the potential for existential health in each space on a scale of 1-10 on eight questions. The eight questions were based on WHO:s eight aspects of spiritual health. They were also asked to rank the churches in order of most to least pleasant. The result was that the two pictures that depicted churches belonging to Svenska kyrkan were ranked high in all questions. Bromma kyrka was the church who five informants found most pleasant and two informants found Adolf Fredriks kyrka most pleasant. Kyrkan vid Brommaplan were always picked as the least pleasant. A reason that the results came out the way they did is that most of the informants had experience in churches like Bromma kyrka och Adolf Fredrik and not so much in churches like kyrkan vid Brommaplan. Many of the informants viewed themselves as cultural Christians and had connections to Svenska kyrkan at some point. That could be a reason behind their ability to read and understand the rooms connected to Svenska kyrkan. As a whole the essay made clear that the informants thought of the pictures of spaces as more good than bad in the spiritual health aspect.
How does one experience the participation of Communion in the Church of Sweden? : A study regarding participants experiences and interpretations of Communion within the denomination Church of Sweden, in Stockholm.
No full textThis study treats participants' attitudes and interpretations of participation in communion within the denomination Church of Sweden. This study has had an inductive approach by conducting interviews and questionnaires during the spring of 2023. Interviews were conducted with 6 informants and questionnaires were handed out at one worship with mass on 2 April, which generated 68 answered questionnaires. The questions this study has sought to answer are: - Which attitudes do worship participants have towards walking procession and kneeling when participating in communion? - Which interpretations do worship participants have regarding walking procession and kneeling when participating in communion? The result which in itself is an inductive processing of the material was analyzed by two main theoretical standpoints. The first was implicit ecclesiology and theology and the second was participation. What emerged was that there are a variety of attitudes and interpretations regarding both walking procession and kneeling, when participating in communion. The result points towards that participating in communion overall is a rite people appreciate and have a variety of interpretations regarding. The majority of the informants tend to show a more positive attitude towards walking procession when participating in communion contra kneeling. The material is constricted regarding only having handed out questionnaires at oneworship occasion with a walking procession. For future studies within this field, it would be sufficient to also hand out questionnaires at worship occasions where kneeling, when participating in communion, is the normative practice.
Child soldiers - when a child is no longer a child : A legal-doctrinal analysis of the international legislation on child soldiers
No full textThe child soldier problem is an escalating and growing phenomenon around the world. It is a complex issue as it involves a wide range of areas such as human rights, politics and cultures. A comprehensive legal framework is in place to protect children in armed conflicts, yet they are still being targeted, recruited and deployed in armed groups and organizations. The purpose of this study is to conduct an exhaustive examination of current international law, de lege lata, regarding child soldiers aged 15-18. The legal-dogmatic method will be used to identify the merits, but above all the shortcomings and problems of the legislation. The result shows that international law treats children differently in terms of age and when they are no longer considered child soldiers. The findings demonstrate the difficulties between the two frameworks of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in relation to child rights and protection issues. Furthermore, it has been discovered that the international law regarding child soldiers is outdated, contradictory and inconsistent, as society and warfare have changed since the adoption of the documents. The lack of legal sanctions against recruiters and enablers complicates the situation even further
Unto His Death : A Comparative Study on How Martyrs' Interpretations of Martyrdom and Its Suffering Have Changed
No full textThe objectives of this study is to investigate how the church has changed over time, with focus on how modernity has influenced the church’s construction of its identity through martyrs’ texts, and to contribute to theory development through analysis. The study takes its theoretical starting point in Rowan Williams perspective on history as stories we tell to understand who we are. My main question is: how are changes in the church’s identity reflected in texts of martyrs from two historical periods? This question is answered through comparative analysis of texts written by martyrs from both the early church and the twentieth century, focusing on how the martyrs interpret and describe their coming martyrdom and suffering. Ignatius of Antiochs letters together with the prison narrative from The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas is compared to texts by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and by four trappist monks from Algeria: the brothers Luc, Paul, Christophe and Christian. Six motifs are identified as common in the martyrs’ texts regarding their interpretation of martyrdom and its suffering: 1. Suffering as freedom and liberation, 2. the transformative suffering, 3. suffering and martyrdom as argumentation, 4. suffering as communion with God, 5. the martyr’s suffering as the special path, 6. and martyrdom as combat. Changes within these motifs are identified between the historical periods. Central differences between the texts involve a recurring shift from a transcendental to immanent interpretive framework, a movement from power to powerlessness and an increased focus on humanity and mankind in the modern era. The image of God has changed: from identification with the risen powerful Christ, the martyr rather identifies with the incarnated, suffering, serving, powerless and dying human Jesus in the modern era. The self-image of the martyrs has changed: the modern martyrs see themselves not becoming anything other than human, and instead becoming more human through her suffering and martyrdom. The political potential and hope have also changed: powerlessness is premiered, the martyr’s own guilt as human beings replaces the demonization of the other, and the change the martyrs hope for is in the immanent realm of humanity for the common well of all mankind in modern times. These changes can only to some extent, but not fully, be explained and understood by Charles Taylors theory on modernity and suffering presented in his A Secular Age (2007) and Byung-Chul Hans theory on modernity and suffering as discussed in his Palliativsamhället (2021). The immanent frame, the process of disenchantment and the anthropocentric shift helps to understand some of the differences between the eras. But both Taylor’s and Han’s basic thesis is that suffering is impossible to handle and by default meaningless and negative in the modern west, and that suffering in modernity has lost all its political and societal dimensions that previously could result in the fight for political change, and that there is no possibility to maintain a Christian belief in God whilst suffering. This is by this study proven to be incorrect. The modern martyrs, and the church in the modern era reflected through the texts of the martyrs, is influenced by but not synonymous with the modernity pictured by Taylor and Han. They are not non-modern, but neither do they repeat the same interpretations and theology as their precursors in the early church. Instead, we see in them the expression of a renewed Christian identity. The modern martyrs in this study have, through theological creativity, recontextualized and reinterpreted their faith informed by the experience of modernity as pictured by Taylor and Han. The church has changed over time and it shows through the martyrs accounts and interpretations of their suffering and martyrdom. The renewed identity, both anthropocentric and theocentric, formed through creative theological recontextualization, has made it possible to maintain a Christian belief in God, a hope for a better world and a sense of meaning midst suffering, in the modern era. Taylor’s and Han’s theories about the secularization of the church’s identity and the modern west have not happened in practice
Unaccompanied children in the asylum process
No full textThe Convention on the Rights of the Child was incorporated into Swedish legislation in 2020 to strengthen the child's best interests and perspective in areas such as asylum law (UNICEFSweden, 2020a). The purpose of this essay is to examine how the individual asylum grounds of unaccompanied children are handled in the asylum process and in what way the child's best interests are actually considered in the asylum process before and after the incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This essay will answer the following question:How has the application of the best interests of the child according to Article 3 in asylum cases for unaccompanied children changed before and after the incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child into Swedish law based on the theory of the best interests of the child as an open concept? Through a qualitative content analysis of judgments, changes and deficiencies in the protection of the rights of unaccompanied children are identified. The study examines how the courts take into account the best interests of the childbased on Schiratzki's (2005) legal theory of the best interests of the child as an open concept.The results of the study have shown that before incorporation, the judgments extensively consider the best interests of the child according to Article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by highlighting potential consequences upon return. However, after incorporation, the migration court fails in considering the best interests of the child. This is because the concept of 'the best interests of the child' is comprehensive, and the court does not assess this from a holistic perspective, which is important for a fair assessment according to Schiratzki (2005)
Ryska ortodoxa kyrkan och kriget i Ukraina
No full textReligion and the Wars of the 21st Century: Mapping the Narratives, Examining the Causal Factors, Understanding Teleolog
The doom of deep penetration : A postcolonial, feminist theological and constructive analysis
No full textI den här uppsatsen görs en postkolonial, feministteologisk och konstruktivistisk analys av det ursäktstal Svenska kyrkan framför till det samiska folket hösten 2021. Med hjälp av den postkoloniala feministteologen Kwok Pui-lan och den kontextuella teologen Marcella Althaus-Reid närmar sig uppsatsen frågan om det i ursäktstalet finns uttryck för koloniala tendenser eller möjliga befrielser från sådana. Analyses leder till ett utforskande av dynamiken mellan föreställningar om kön, sexualitet, den Andre och naturem, där dessa visar sig vara tätt sammanvävda i en dualistisk ontologi konkretiserad i heterosexuella antaganden. För att bli fri från koloniala tendenser krävs de gamla heterosexuella antagandenas undergång. Bara i den ömsesidiga enhetens harmoni skapas nytt liv.