Religious Literacy in Non-Confessional Religious Education and Religious Studies in Sweden

The guidelines for religious literacy of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) argue for a generic understanding of religion as internally diverse, historically dynamic, and embedded in cultures. However, analysis reveals that religious education curriculums in Sweden tend to emphasise religious literacy as a means to diminish prejudice and conflict. Religious education (RE) is seen as giving students the ability to live in an increasingly multi-religious and multi-cultural world. In this paper I argue that fostering religious literacy at all levels of education requires curriculums that include the central elements of the AAR guidelines and adopt a more critical stance towards the concepts ‘world religion’ and ‘religion’. I question the place of ‘ethics’ in RE and religious studies, especially as ethical models, since this blurs the boundaries between religious and moral education. Ethical models are better suited to the upper secondary school courses in philosophy. The idea of progression from the concrete to the abstract elements of religion must also be challenged. To be able to achieve the goals stipulated in the curriculums, and to avoid reproducing wrong understandings of religiosity, the school subject RE should be more closely embedded in contemporary research

Religious Literacy in Non-Confessional Religious Education and Religious Studies in Sweden

The guidelines for religious literacy of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) argue for a generic understanding of religion as internally diverse, historically dynamic, and embedded in cultures. However, analysis reveals that religious education curriculums in Sweden tend to emphasise religious literacy as a means to diminish prejudice and conflict. Religious education (RE) is seen as giving students the ability to live in an increasingly multi-religious and multi-cultural world. In this paper I argue that fostering religious literacy at all levels of education requires curriculums that include the central elements of the AAR guidelines and adopt a more critical stance towards the concepts ‘world religion’ and ‘religion’. I question the place of ‘ethics’ in RE and religious studies, especially as ethical models, since this blurs the boundaries between religious and moral education. Ethical models are better suited to the upper secondary school courses in philosophy. The idea of progression from the concrete to the abstract elements of religion must also be challenged. To be able to achieve the goals stipulated in the curriculums, and to avoid reproducing wrong understandings of religiosity, the school subject RE should be more closely embedded in contemporary research

Personal Utopia: The "Good Life" in Popular Religion and Literature in Contemporary Sweden

This article examines the discourse of the 'good life' in popular religion and literature in contemporary Sweden. The results indicate thnew spiritual movements (e.g. mindfulness and the Enneagram) situate traditional transcendental goals within the individual, immanent self and the utopian ideals (e.g. individual wellbeing and happiness) expressed in popular literature are to be achieved through changing individuals' attitudes rather than their material and structural circumstances. Furthermore, this understanding of the individual relies on a culturally based discourse in which medicalized, therapeutic language, what Michel Foucault called 'bio-power', defines humanity and the human condition. This cultural discourse centers on the individual's potential and responsibility to change dysfunctional habits, situations, and relationships, whereas structural, contextual, and situational solutions are ignored. The Swedish popular literature and religion examined here both express this discourse and constitute an important new form of authority when it comes to articulating new utopian ideals to relate to in everyday life, at work, and in family life

Religionens varp och trasor

En festskrift till Åke Sande