Baserat på intervjuer och enkätstudier i Hortlax (Norrbotten) och Nykarleby (Österbotten) visas att likheter snarare än skillnader kännetecknar de båda befolkningsgruppernas inställning till religiösa frågor och till majoritetskyrkan. Å ena sidan är detta förvånande, i och med att de båda landskapen har tillhört olika stater i mer än 200 år, å andra sidan är det förväntat, eftersom trafiken över Bottniska viken varit intensiv under dessa 200 år.

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.

For half a century, the Church of Sweden has experienced decline of participation in church activities. The level of participation in church activities decreases. Church statistics show that.

At the same time, religious education has been dismantled in the public schools. The church’s education following infant baptism has disappeared, and the education offer before adolescent confirmation competes in a tough market with other teenager interests.

A recent survey carried out in local setting shows that the level of knowledge and interest in religious matters and life values is low. The parishioners lack a language for talking about religion, and their knowledge about basic religious concepts are next to nil.

These facts are related. Church management has led the church towards its grave. It has turned the blind eye to receding school responsibility for teaching the basics of Christianity. It has not established a faith school directed by the church itself and aimed at its young members. Instead church management has reformed its basic books and diversified its services, i. e. reforms which are meaningful only to a shrinking minority of the population, the faithful members.

In a number of religious traditions God is virtual. She/he is not expected to be present in one and the same place, but everywhere when individuals gather in her/his name. How far does this traditional and organizational acceptance of virtuality extend?

One of the examples of limits being set up is the Vatican’s decision not to accept virtual performances of Holy Communion. Thereby physical presence of an ordained clergyman as well as the receivers of the elements becomes a prerequisite for the fulfillment of the Roman Catholics Church’s theological promise, that Christ himself will be present in the bread and the wine. This contrasts with other confessions and denominations, which – due to their type of theological teachings about the Eucharist – more or less accept participation in communion without physical presence. The stance of the Vatican also contrasts with religious groups whose existence and activity is totally based on Internet gatherings.

In the paper I will trace outlines of acceptance of virtuality in churches, denominations and religious groups, from a point of departure of early the sociology of religion theoretical positions of Otto, Mensching, Durkheim and Weber.

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.

Once hanging from Gepetto’s threads, Pinocchio freed himself from the dependency of his former master. The avatars of virtual worlds such as Pinocchio, being dependent upon their masters’ mouse clicks. Like Pinocchio, the avatars are social beings, interacting, socializing, flirting with their fellow avatars, and going to church. Some even build their own church. In a community without geographical borders a prayer meeting may gather participants without concern for temporal and spatial limitations.

Helland (2005) distinguishes between religion online (the situation in which organized religions (churches, congregations etc) establish a presence on the web, whereas the term religious organizations’ attempts to be of service to their actual and potential members. Through church may do missionary and evangelizing work, by being present offering guidance when web users look for answers.

Woodhead och Heelas (2000, 2005) have suggested a subjective turn of religion in the West, from “life-as” to “subjective-life” forms of the sacred, i.e. religion giving way to spirituality. When studying religious practice among avatars in virtual worlds one observes that there is a significant turn towards community in that particular kingdom of subjectivity. Avatars seem to seek out religious community, and participate in prayer meetings and services, thereby showing a willingness to accept a certain, pre-defined form of spirituality.

In this paper it will be discussed whether avatar religiosity, seen as a culmination of the subjective turn, is an avant-garde turning back to its origins, life-as, and religion-as. If that is the case it will have obvious repercussions on organized religion, on church, mission, and missiology.

Once hanging from Gepetto’s threads, Pinocchio freed himself from the dependency of his former master. The avatars of virtual worlds such as Second Life are far behind the wooden fellow, still dependent upon their masters’ mouse clicks.

Avatars act as social beings, interact, socialize, flirt, and go to church. Some even build their own church. In a community without geographical borders a prayer meeting may gather participants without concern for temporal and spatial limitations.

Helland (2005) distinguishes between religion online (the situation in which organized religions (churches, congregations etc) establish a presence on the web, whereas the term perhaps unexpectedly, choose traditional Christian church buildings and services as their form of Woodhead och Heelas (2000, 2005) have suggested a subjective turn of religion in the West, from “life-as” to “subjective-life” forms of the sacred, i.e. religion giving way to spirituality. When studying religious practice among avatars in virtual worlds one observes that there is a significant turn towards community in that particular kingdom of subjectivity. Avatars seem to seek out religious community, and participate in prayer meetings and services, thereby showing a willingness to accept a certain, pre-defined form of spirituality.

In this paper it will be discussed whether avatar religiosity, seen as a culmination of the subjective turn, is an avant-garde turning back to its origins, life-as, and religion-as. If so, it will have obvious consequences for organized religion, not least Christianity.

Religious communities tie together people and groups of people based on shared ideas, beliefs, traditions and/or values. The scope of such communities varies from local congregations to so called world religions. Parts of such communities are physical, with rules and regulations (tax arrangements, calendar, etc) and with notable consequences for the individual deviating from the group’s norm of ideas or conduct, such as penalties, ostracism, or worse. Other parts of religious communities are imagined, whether it is with never seen individuals sharing one’s particular religion on the other hemisphere, or transcending time borders with all one’s fellow believers/practitioners past and future. These aspects of physical and imagined communities have been analyzed at length in disciplines such as theology, history, sociology, ethnology, and anthropology.

During the last few decades a new intermediate form of religious community has come into existence, virtual worship, i. e. individuals connecting virtually on the Internet, shaping their religious community in accordance with the technical possibilities presented, and representing themselves in a three-dimensional virtual world as avatars. The format of the Internet allows for transgression of geographical distances, but not of time (except in the sense that the simultaneous Internet users have different time), thus allowing for a global religious community.

The paper analyzes four aspects of this new kind of global community from a sociology of religion perspective, (1) the impact of the technical format on the life of virtual religious communities, (2) the use by physical religious communities of virtual complementary additions to their physical activity, (3) effects on individuals’ physical religious activities by virtual participation, and (4) effects on organizations’ development by virtual worship.

Sedan tretton år är Svenska kyrkan inte längre en funktion i svenska staten, utan ett fritt trossamfund. Denna relationsförändring aktualiserar en rad nya gränssnitt i den svenska religionsmodellen. Upplösningen av sammanhanget med staten har diskuterats och förberetts under många år och förverkligats i samband med millennieskiftet. Behovet av definierad relation till statsmakten, ett gränssnitt, minskade emellertid inte, eftersom Svenska kyrkan även efter nyårsmorgon 2000 var landets största folkrörelse. Relationsförändringen ledde till ett intensifierat samarbete med andra kyrkor och samfund.

En av Svenska kyrkans församlingar i norra Sverige ber två religionsvetare i Umeå genomföra en undersökning om religiösa funderingar och seder. De två intervjuar och skickar frågeformulär efter konstens alla regler till invånare i Bottneå (så har församlingen kallats i boken). Den bild av Bottneå som framkommer jämförs sedan med en liknande bild av Luleå stift i vilket Bottneå ingår, och av Svenska kyrkan som helhet. Det är inte en bild som i alla avseenden är angenäm för Svenska kyrkan. Utan att stå på riktigt säker vetenskaplig grund påstår de två religionsvetarna att bilden av hela Sverige nog inte skiljer sig särskilt mycket från bilden av Bottneå. Ur kyrklig synvinkel är bilden av Bottneå möjligen mer positiv än av kyrkan som helhet. Inte nog med det! De två religionsvetarna påstår att det kyrkliga lågvattenmärket bör ses som ett resultat av kyrkliga försummelser. Svenska kyrkan har inte krävt kompensation av svenska staten för att den offentliga skolan avlägsnat sig från kristendomsundervisning, och kyrkan har inte byggt upp ett eget sätt att förmedla innehållet i kristendomen till nya generationer. Försumligheten har lett till okunskap inte bara om kristna trosföreställningar utan även om kyrkan som sådan. Därav kommer ointresset av att delta i kyrkans verksamhet, det vill säga det som resultaten i Bottneå visar.