Karlfeldts diktverk rymmer många hänvisningar till religiösa företeelser. Hänvisningarna blir desto fler, ju senare diktsamlingarna ges ut. Här undersöks två slag av hänvisningar, till den kyrkliga kalendern och till kyrkan som samhällsinstitution. I båda fallen uppvisar sena diktsamlingar en större andel religiösa markörer än tidiga samlingar.

De religiösa markörerna lämnar inte vittnesbörd om personlig religiositet hos Karlfeldt.

Avslutningsvis testas ett relativt nytt sociologiskt koncept, resonans, som karakteristik av Karlfeldts relation till religiositet och religion.

En bok om aspekter av den aktuella situationen för Sveriges största religiösa sammanslutning: Svenska kyrkan blöder medlemmar. Gudstjänstbesök och kyrkliga handlingar minskar. Andelen som döps, konfirmeras, vigs och begravs (av respektive åldersgrupp eller kategori) minskar. Mitt i denna åderlåtning kvarstår teologin (och lagtexten) om folkkyrkan, en beteckning som signalerar samhörighet med svenska folket, snarare än med vanligt folk, och som på ett halvskumt sätt ger associationer till ett kyrkouppdrag begränsat av etnicitet.

This article presents some of the theoretical and methodological considerations in studying religious and cultural diversity in Finnish, Swedish and Estonian comprehensive schools. The perspective arises from our experiences of carrying out an international comparative research project looking at pupils´perspectives to diversity in the educational settings and their wider everyday environments.  The data were gathered in diverse comprehensive school contexts across Sweden, Estonia and Finland. The article illustrates several important issues that are often lacking in the studies in this area and need to be accounted for when examining cultural and religious diversity in the schools and the everyday lives of children and youth.

In primary schools around the Baltic Sea, various forms of diversity are visible. In Estonia, one might expect the Russian-speaking population to be a major source of diversity, but since Estonian and Russian speaking students seldom share classroom, the experience of diversity is found in arenas other than primary school. In Finland, the beginnings of ethnic diversity is perceptible due to increasing immigration. In Sweden, with its longer immigration history, ethnic diversity is tangible in almost every classroom in primary schools.

The new modes of variation among students, cultural and religious diversity, present a new task for teachers, administrators and headteachers alike, ensuring that the countries’ guidelines for addressing diversity are respected and implemented in the everyday life of schools and students. The differences between the countries around the Baltic Sea notwithstanding, the presence of cultural and religious diversity in a school built on aspirations to tackle social inequality and difference, but not dealing with national, cultural and religious differences, is a new challenge for the school systems.

To describe the variation between the three countries, as well as parts of the regional variation within the countries, decisions for a pilot study were taken.