Nio teser om kritisk religionsvetenskap i dagens Sverige

Abstract

The article presents and discusses nine theses about critical studies of religion in today’s Sweden. The first two detect a stifling chasm between the notion of theology and the notion of religious studies. Competing scholarly ideals are said to obscure the critical quality of the field in its totality, with the result that today’s public discussions about various «returns of religion» mainly go on without theological participation. Theses three to five underscore the importance of rich methodological plurality in all theological subdisciplines. Today Islam, which is the main example, has to be approached from as many different perspectives as Christianity. At least in a situation in which Islam becomes a «Swedish» religion, islamology must not continue to be an exclusively descriptive and atheological discipline. This does not imply that different religious objects always should be treated in the same way, religious studies and theology must be a pluralistic field of studies, but there are no eternal objects either, which means that the construction of the field of studies is a normative issue in itself. Theses six to eight criticize the bulk of traditional Swedish critique of religion and Christianity. Important and indispensable traits are detected, but the face of the problems has shifted dramatically since the days of Ingemar Hedenius, whose spirit still hovers over the debate. New perspectives are needed to provide the basis for a thoroughly critical study of religion. The last thesis asks for a more profound theological participation in the public debates.