Kristen i det senmoderna : Unga frikyrkligas identitet i senmoderniteten

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to examine how young members of Free Churches relate to issues connected with lifestyle and identity, based on the changed conditions for the self in late modernity. More specifically, I want to examine how they deal with the increased degree of detraditionalisation and institutional individualization in late modernity. My research-question is: How do young members of Free Churches relate to issues connected with lifestyle and identity, with the increased degree of personal freedom and institutional individualization in late modernity as a starting point? The empiric part of the essay is carried out by qualitative in-depth interviews with five young members of Free Churches. These semi-structured interviews are focused on a number of different areas of the changed conditions for the self in late modernity. My theoretical perspective has been constructed from the theories of Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. From these theories a focus on certain relevant areas of the condition of the self in late modernity, has developed. These are work, consumption, marriage, love, sexuality, body and health. The general way of relating to issues of lifestyle and identity that I could interpret from my interview-respondents’ answers was that they exercised a form of opposition against the dominant way of life in late modernity, in issues that can be connected to detraditionalisation. Examples of such issues are those related to marriage and sexuality. But they relate more according to the dominant late modern way of life, in issues that can be connected to the institutional individualization, such as issues of work, consumption and body