Network for the Historical Study of National Christianities

In research, an image of the public school is often presented as an enlightened and secular project, where welfare, optimism about the future, cleanliness and the construction of substantial housing meant a new Sweden in contrast to the old one, which was characterized by poverty, overcrowding, oppression and religion. The present network wants to nuance this simplified story. Modern Sweden never distanced itself from Christianity. It was rather that new political forces and social strata wanted a Christianity that conveyed ethics, solidarity and idealism, instead of the old "catechism plug". For a long time, priests and teachers had together represented the so-called teaching staff. During the 1920s, however, elementary school teachers emerged as the victorious part of this teaching staff, with a liberal and civic-minded understanding of Christianity based on Jesus as an ethical and moral role model. During the 1930s, a broad counter-reaction would form within the clergy of the Church of Sweden against this liberal Christianity, in favor of an appreciation of office, church hierarchy and sacraments. However, the public school would function as a church for a different Christianity until the 1960s. This folk home Christianity is surprisingly unexplored and will be analyzed in this project as an expression of an attempt to create a Swedish value system, and compared internationally with similar projects.

Network for the Historical Study of National Christianities is a network consisting of senior and junior researchers in the history of education, history and church history. The network's activities are currently funded and organized with support from CIRCUS

For information about the network and activities, contact the coordinator Urban Claesson, urban.claesson@teol.uu.se.