Dissertationes Theologicae Holmienses – serie

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the theopolitical character of the Church of Sweden as it is expressed in its practices, and to contribute with empirically grounded and conceptual resources for ecclesiological reflections on the church's political role and identity. The overarching research question guiding this thesis is: How is the theopolitical character of the Church of Sweden enacted and negotiated in diaconal and liturgical practices in two congregations in deprived areas, and what insights does a theological analysis of these practices offer for a constructive understanding of the church's political identity and role? The thesis understands politics not primarily in terms of statecraft, but as the practices through which a common life is forged, shaped, and sustained. Methodologically, the study is a theological-ethnographic single-case study based on participant observation, shadowing, and semi-structured qualitative interviews. Practice theory is employed within an overarching ecclesiological framework, and the analysis proceeds through three movements: articulation, disturbance, and expansion. The study shows that the church's theopolitical character is enacted through roles and relationships constituted in diaconal and liturgical practices. Through these practices, the church appears as a provider of care and support, facilitator of trust, collaborative partner in the wider society, and a liturgical community in which social relationships are renegotiated. At the same time, these practices are marked by tensions of asymmetry, individualisation, segregation, and the reduction of difference to sameness. To deepen this analysis, the thesis develops the concept of iconic relationships, understood as relationships in which the meaning of the other is not fixed in advance but remains open and inexhaustible in the light of God's presence. The thesis concludes that the church's betrayal of politics occurs not primarily when it fails to enter public debate, but when it loses this iconic frame of reference.

Det planetära nödläget aktualiserar de frågor om skuld, hopp och frälsning som står i centrum för rättfärdiggörelseläran. Avhandlingen undersöker därför denna lära i relation till nödlägets utmaningar. I dialog med den evangelisk-lutherska teologen Eberhard Jüngel utforskas hur nåden kan förstås som en räddande kraft som avslöjar lögnen om att vi människor skulle vara avskilda från den skapelse vi tillhör och är beroende av, och återinsätter oss i dess relationella sammanhang. Avhandlingens grundläggande antagande är att föreställningen om mänskligheten som åtskild från det mer-än-mänskliga är både ekologiskt och teologiskt problematisk. Frälsningsförståelsen behöver därför omtolkas så att frälsning inte framstår som ett avskiljande från världen, utan som ett hopp för hela skapelsen. Analysen identifierar som fruktbar Jüngels förståelse av syndens väsen som ett angrepp på den relationsväv som skapelse och skapare tillsammans utgör, hans tolkning av rättfärdiggörelsen som ett transcendent frälsande tilltal som sker i och genom relation, och den nyskapande potential detta tilltal bär. Begränsningarna rör främst hans teologis ensidiga språkcentrering, dess begränsade soteriologiska räckvidd och dess otillräckliga integration av skapelsens och offrens perspektiv. Genom denna analys utvecklas ett ekosoteriologiskt bidrag där rättfärdiggörelsen tolkas som en skapelseförvandlande nådeshändelse som talar sanning, frigör och återupprättar trasiga relationer. Därigenom bidrar studien med en vidareutveckling av luthersk rättfärdiggörelseteologi där mänskligheten försonas in i skapelsens helhet och fyller en lucka i tidigare forskning genom att uttolka den evangelisk-lutherska rättfärdiggörelseläran i ljuset av det planetära nödlägets existentiella och etiska frågor.

The original forests of the central and northern highlands of Ethiopia are almost entirely confined to the "sacred groves" surrounding the churches and monasteries of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. In Ethiopian tradition sanctity starts from the Tabot on the altar of the church and extends to the outer periphery of the compound. Church forests serve as shade and shelter for the sacred, and are seen as integral parts of the churchyard. The Act of Gebre Menfes Qiddus (GGMQ) is an original Ethiopic hagiographic text. It depicts the life and struggle of the saint in the wilderness of forests and mountains. Hagiographic texts like GGMQ are in Ethiopia not mere historical records, but texts linked to the daily liturgical services that shape and mould the perceptions and actions of their readers and listeners. The aim of the thesis is to analyse how GGMQ presents the relation between the saint and the natural environment in order to see if there is a correlation with how the Ethiopian tradition has preserved the church forests and has considered these to be sacred spaces representing the wilderness. The aim is achieved through a close reading of the text and its intertexts using four selected themes as analytical instruments: ascetic estrangement, coexistence with non-human creation, identification with the angels and reconciliation of opposites. The analysis, and the fact that the GGMQ is one of the most venerated texts, read and heard with great liturgical solemnity, show that there are good reasons to believe that the constant reading of GGMQ has made and makes a significant impact upon the readers' views on the mutual co-habitation of human and non-human creation and the development of an awareness of the need to preserve the wilderness and non-human creation.

Centered around a reflective narrative recounting the experiences of a participatory action research project into leading online small groups for adults in the Church of Sweden Diocese of Stockholm during 2021 and 2022, the dissertation argues for the need to reconceptualize and reemphasize teaching as an important aspect in Christian religious education. Employing creative non-fiction methods, the dissertation aims to broaden the scope of the initial Online Small Groups project, by inviting readers to join into a "learning journey." The narrative account is complemented with more traditional forms of analysis that connect experiences from online small groups in the Church of Sweden to similar research from Anglo-Saxon countries, noting especially how notions of community diverge due to different ecclesiological understandings. Insights are then synthesized into eight teaching strategies aimed at communicating actionable knowledge to small group leaders, before noting how the study complements research on Christian religious education and, particularly, the current debate about learning and teaching in the Church of Sweden.

The thesis attends to ecclesial matters of aid by analysing the ecclesiological problem of identity and meaning of ACT Alliance. African churches are participating in aid, and Ethiopia is a good case with its intensity of church-based aid work. ACT Alliance was an ecumenical initiative to act in solidarity with people in need through coordination and collaboration. ACT, i.e. Action by Churches Together, expresses the churches growing together in koinonia. In theory, this ecclesiologically informed idea was conceptualised as ecumenical diakonia. Christian aid agencies may suffer a mission drift and loss of identity causing inner secularisation in the churches thus endangering Christian commitment to the poor. Tensions in the study signify an ambiguity that this thesis investigates through the case of the ETH141 ACT Appeal to support South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia in 2014 with two churches in Ethiopia shedding light on the issue. The ACT forum failed to attract church funding and mobilised state funding by a consortium with a principled humanitarian approach appropriate for refugee assistance. The Maedot of 1983 from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and the ECMY letter of 1972 from the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus supported integral human development while criticising a donor-based approach, based on a sense of Ethiopian ownership, Christian anthropology, and the gospel. The ETH141 resembles an international crisis model, i.e. relief assistance by ecumenical specialised agencies coordinating with other stakeholders without being: integrated with the churches, intended as intra-church aid, or set up for Christian mission. Tensions indicate superficial conflict but deep concord between aid and church, and deep conflict between exclusive humanism and the churches' mission to reach every person with the gospel and life of the church.