Påvar och protester i ett post-lutherskt samhälle : Framställningar av reformationen i nutida svenska läroböcker

Sammanfattning

The Swedish school system has undergone significant changes through the years, from being explicitly Lutheran confessional to non-confessional. The Swedish school system has been described as simultaneously influenced by both Lutheranism and secularism. The aim of this study is to investigate how the Reformation - which marks the birth of Lutheran-Protestantism - is portrayed in modern Swedish religious education and history textbooks. Nine textbooks directed towards lower secondary school pupils have been reviewed and the sections about the Reformation analyzed. A method for critically analyzing non-fictional texts with inspiration from ideological text criticism has been used, with focus on ideational structure as well as social implications. Findings include recurring themes in the reviewed material, such as negative portrayals of the Catholic Church and Catholic practice, sympathetic depictions of Martin Luther but more critical portrayals of the Swedish reformation and early state church. The textbooks differed in that some textbooks appeared to be influenced by a Lutheran-Protestant insider's perspective to a greater extent than others. Some textbooks included both sections written with a Lutheran Protestant insider's perspective and sections critical of either Protestantism in general or specific expressions of Protestantism, which makes them examples of heterogeneous texts. The findings can be related to Sweden as a post-Lutheran country, where the religious heritage is present yet related to and valued based on a secular ideal of modernity.