Religion in Sweden

Ulf Jonsson, SJ

Issue 382, vol.96, Summer 2007

But one could say that the rot set in from the 1850s when Sunday religious observance ceased to be a civic obligation : by the 1920s, Sunday observance had dropped below 15%. Then at mid-century came an anti-church broadside in book form – both rhetorical and witty – from analytic philosopher Ingemar Hedenius. Media and politicians took up the attack on the church, and “Christianity” was removed from the school curriculum as being “incompatible with the scientific world view”. By the 1970s religion had been banished from political discourse.. And a 1999 survey discovered that only 6.2% of the population attended any kind of religious service on a Sunday.

Only in the last four years or so can we discern straws in the wind which just might indicate a changed climate of public receptivity favouring religion…

 - The Catholic bishop of Stockholm joined with the Pastor of a Pentecostal congregation to pen a full-page article in the major Swedish newspaper on : Jesus and his importance for today. This precipitated the paper’s biggest-ever correspondence. The “Jesus debate” lasted for an astounding two months, and spread to the other media.

 - 2003 was the seventh centenary of the birth of St. Birgitta. Not only was 2003 declared an official year of commemoration, but the solemn Mass was attended by the King, by members of the Government, and by 15,000 Catholics. Celebrating the significance of Birgitta, 40 books were published and hundreds of cultural activities took place. The main evidence of a sea-change in sensibility was the full coverage given by the media.

 - In 2004, when hundreds of Swedes died in the tsunami, crowds of people took to religious rituals – visiting churches and lighting candles…Young people have taken to wearing religious symbols; significantly, this does not now attract contempt or scorn.

It is too early to judge if the tide is turning – if postmodernism is yielding to post-secularism. But at least secularisation is beginning to be seen in a new light. Whereas, in not too distant decades, secularisation had been viewed as offering liberation from religious restrictions, today secularisation is experienced (conversely) as undermining the entire meaning and value of human existence. According to Swedish theologian, Ola Sigurdson, “The world has become a foreign place to us…Secularisation makes the world smaller”. The reductionist and technological view of life is seen to have collapsed upon itself; it has taken the mystery out of life.

And pluralism, with its dearth of lasting social ties and obligations, is now experienced by some as bewildering – resulting in a need to feel rooted somewhere. Religion, by contrast, offers a firm anchor for one’s own values and life commitment in a long historical tradition that is shared with many other persons in a greater community of believers. Too many young persons suffer from a feeling of belonging nowhere; and to wear a religious symbol can bear witness to a sense of rootedness : religion has the capacity to create and sustain personal identity.

The new openness to religion may also be surfacing people’s need for rituals capable of supporting them during experiences of contingency and helplessness.

Ulf Jonsson, S.J. is Doctor of Philosophy of Religion at Uppsala University and Editor-in-Chief of the Swedish Jesuit journal, Signum.

The article was first published in February 2006 in a German version in the German Jesuit journal, Stimmen der Zeit (2/2006). This translation of the article from German into English was made by Ardis Grosjean Dreisbach.