Vad är religion? : Religionsvetenskapliga och statliga perspektiv på ett begrepp i förändring

Sammanfattning: This is a literature- and document analysis of what new Swedish students in Religious studies learns about perspectives on religion, and perspectives on religion expressed by Swedish law. Course literature from Swedish universities together with Swedish law texts is the material for analysis. Mary Douglas classification theory is used to explain how we categorize our world as individuals and groups. The result of the study shows that the perspectives on religion expressed in the selected course literature differs very much from the perspectives expressed by Swedish law. Via legislation, the Swedish state conserves the Christian Church-perspective that the Swedish universities for Religious studies seem to have moved on from; a perspective that gets a lot of critique in large parts of selected literature. In the analyzed course literature, the cultural studies-approach is dominating, together with elements from phenomenology.