Moderniserad kristendom i läroböcker för högstadiet

Abstract

In the Swedish curriculum for the compulsory school Christianity's influence on Swedish society and its values ​​is a prominent theme.  The research question in this paper is: how does the depiction of Christianity relate to the present Swedish society? Teaching books aimed for the compulsory national school system (year 7-9) has been analysed out from the assumption that the national context comprises a stronger link to its representation, rather than the context of religious communities. Ten teaching books were chosen from prominent publishers from 2011, the year of the present curriculum, until 2014. The books were read several times searching for preliminary and successively final patterns. One recurrent theme was identified: a preference for liberal, modernized Christianity. Language patterns regarding overall composition, intertextual links and choice of words were discerned in the excerpts favouring modern Christianity. This theme is contextualised in relation to the Swedish majority culture as post-Church, i.e. secular Lutheranism likewise recognisable in the Swedish curriculum. We suggest that the links between the teaching books and Swedish majority culture contributes to the reproduction of Swedish majority culture as a post-Church society.