DECOUPLING CHURCH-STATE RELATION IN SWEDEN: A Brief Post-Mortem

ISTR Working Papers. Volume X. The Third Sector in Transition: Accountability, Transparency, and Social Inclusion 12th International Conference , 2017

The Church Ordinance [Kyrkoordning] which came into force on 1 January 2000 marked the transition of the Church of Sweden from a state church to independence. The article traces the history of the gradual process of disestablishment.

Polonia Sacra, 2016

The Church in Sweden. Secularisation and Ecumenism as Challenges "Secularisation" is a concept that is used in many different ways. By secularisation one may, for example, mean a process through which the state ceases to legislate on the basis of religious faith and instead does so on the basis of what is commonly acknowledged. Or a process through which the state ceases to grant special privileges to religious bodies and stops supporting for instance religion-based education. Or a process meaning that people cease to hold religious beliefs and uphold religious practices. Or transfer of properties from religious or ecclesiastical to civil possession. Or a change meaning that society is no longer under the control of religion. If secularisation means that a society frees itself from coercion or even tyranny of religion over the conscience of individuals, then secularisation must be valued positively from a Christian point of view. As the Second Vatican Council stated, this is a necessary consequence of the dignity of the human person: 1

Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2011

Abstract. When the Church of Sweden ceased to be a state church in the year 2000, the parameters for a change in the relation between academic theology and religious studies (religionsvetenskap) at the state universities in Sweden was in place. My article, which is ...

Exploring a heritage : Evangelical Lutheran churches in the north, 2012

State and Church in the European Union, 2019

Churches as essential components of European culture have major significance for European integration. A Europe, bound by common constitutional traditions, cultures and traditions of its Member States, their national identity and the principle of subsidiarity, will have to respect the deep-rooted systems of State and Church relationships in its Member States. The volume presents in its third edition a broad comparison of different systems of State and Church relationships in the Member States of the European Union. It includes the new Member States and gives an account of the new developments throughout Europe. The volume shows the implications of European integration on the position of the Churches. It is of interest to all working in the field of State-Church relationship as well as to public and church institutions. For Denmark, membership of the Church of Denmark is decreasing due to immigration, increasing religious diversity and growth in atheist sentiments. At the same time, there is a small increase in new baptisms. This reflects an increasingly polarised attitude towards religion, in general, and the Church of Denmark, in particular. With increasing immigration in the second half of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first, Denmark has a growing number of different religious denominations and faith communities. While it is illegal to register information on religious conviction or affiliation, demographers of religion estimate that about 5.3 % of the population, or about 300,000, are Muslim, either nominally or practising. The second significant religious minority is the Catholic Church in Denmark, which had 47,600 members as of 2017, up more than 25% since 2008. This is mainly due to immigration, most significantly from Poland and other European countries.

Critical Research on Religion, 2016

This article is an analysis of the recognition of the Missionary Church of Kopimism as a faith community by the Swedish state. The analysis draws on post-Foucaultian writings on governmentality and seeks to understand what kind of normative and proscriptive understandings of “religion” guide the process. The authors argue that the recognition reveals fundamental aspects of the Swedish state’s performative role in the recognition of faith communities which challenges any unreflective classification of it as “secular.”

Politics and Religion, 2012

Local governments in Europe are facing difficulties in meeting citizens' demands for welfare provision. This opens new opportunities for profit as well as non-profit providers of social welfare. Faith-based organizations (FBOs) are one type of non-governmental organizations addressed by governments to complement or replace parts of public welfare provision. This article gives some examples of FBOs in action as providers of welfare in a European context, with a particular focus on Sweden. Following the introduction, the second part locates the phenomenon of FBOs within the scholarly debate about secularism/post-secularism as related to multi-level governance. The third part gives an overview of potential roles of FBOs in welfare provision combating poverty and social exclusion, illustrated by a few examples from European contexts. Focus in the fourth part is upon the role of FBO engagement in Sweden as developing after World War II. It is concluded that no system is all encompassing in catering to those who suffer from poverty and social exclusion. There will always be a need for the competence and avant-garde role potentially provided by FBOs. However, due to historical circumstances FBOs in Sweden have been, and still are, complementary rather than an outright alternative to public welfare provision.