Soldiers´ homes in the 'School of the Nation' : Revivalism, conscription, and the military mission field, 1900-1920

This thesis is set within a framework of the revivalist Christians’ Inner Mission, and presents as a case-study their mission to conscripts stationed in military exercise areas and garrison towns across Sweden. The revivalists’ evangelical zeal is given special attention. This is in contrast to much of the earlier research, which worked with the secularization paradigm formulated by the founders of sociology. Conscription in the early 20th century was regarded in various civilian and military circles as a platform for social and national integration, although these attitudes remain largely unstudied in Sweden’s case. Those engaged in missionizing the army were also drawn to this ‘School of the Nation’. The thesis shows that the motives of those involved in this home mission to soldiers were grounded in religion. However, the expansive missionary work was strengthened by the positions held by its male protagonists in the power structures of society. The mission was maintained by social contacts between an informal alliance of upper-class officers from among the mission’s military members, and by civilian missionaries from lower social classes. A decisive contextual factor for the army-mission as an educational project was that Sweden remained at peace. The civilian contribution to the mission grew as it spread more widely through the country. It is argued in this thesis that the soldiers’ homes were dominated by a discourse of domesticity. This discourse designated a place, a relationship, and a state of mind for the conscript during his free time at the military base. The missionaries were convinced that contact with the domestic and family values of civilian society should be preserved by the soldiers’ homes. The discourse of domesticity also looked ahead to the conscript’s subsequent life in civilian society: the missionaries wished to train up conscripts to be sober, moral family breadwinners

Christian Manliness For Women? Contradictions of Christian youth organization in early 20th-century Sweden

Evangelical revivalism attracted large numbers of young adherents in early 20th-century Sweden. In this article we discuss what happened when Christian youth societies for men and women merged into mixed societies. The decline of the ideal of the single-sex youth society meant that a decidedly female form of religious organization disappeared. We argue, however, that the change also entailed cautious challenges to established notions of gender. First, a discourse was created in which notions of manliness were placed in the centre, and women, to some extent, were seen as embodying masculinity. Secondly, even though central actors had objections towards a direct female leadership of men, female board members were accepted from the start in local societies. The patriarchal gender order remained, but in some ways the mixed Christian youth organization gave way to an exercise in partnership

Kristen manlighet. Ideal och verklighet 1840-1940

I denna antologi diskuteras med fokus på nordiska förhållanden sambandet mellan kristen religion och konstruktionen av manlighet under perioden 1840 till 1940. En central fråga är hur kristna ideal som exempelvis ödmjukhet, mildhet och självförsakelse, vilka i den borgerliga genusdiskursen kommit att knytas till kvinnokönet, inverkade på konstruktionen av kristen manlighet och vilka uttryck detta tog sig i enskilda mäns liv. Vidare analyseras de teologiska och ideologiska perspektiven och deras betydelse för konstruktionen av manlighet och hur det manliga kontrasterats mot det kvinnliga. Teoretiskt utgår undersökningarna dels från de till synes motsägelsefulla teserna om religionens feminisering och om samhällets rekonfessionalisering, dels från nyare manshistorisk forskning. Artiklarna speglar det komplexa samspelet mellan konfession, nation, religiös kultur, genusrelationer och manlighetsideal under en period präglad av religiös mobilisering. Konkret handlar antologin dels om män som agerade inom ramen för en etablerad kyrklig struktur på hemmaplan, dels om män i kyrkliga motkulturer och/eller kristna missionsrörelser. Så undersöks till exempel den kristna manliga filantropin, väckelserörelsers och frikyrkors mansideal, manliga missionärer i Kina, kristen manlighet inom skönlitteratu-ren samt prästerlig manlighet inom katolicism och protestantism