Kristendomen tur och retur : En komparativ innehållsanalys om hur kristendomen förmedlats i läroböcker under perioden 1968–2018.

Sammanfattning: This study focuses on how the religion of Christianity has been covered in Swedish textbooks between the years 1968 and 2018. The study further aims to compare and highlight the similarities and differences that time has had on how Christianity is covered, with regards to number of pages dedicated to the religion, what is said about the religion et cetera. Further the analysis shows that there are traits in the books that survive through time, and others that does not. A critical element to understanding these traits that highlights the description of Christianity, is understanding the tendencies that each textbook displays. The tendency in question varies from example not including women in certain aspects, only focusing on the good that Christianity stands for but choosing not to account for the “dark spots” in the history of this religion such as the crusades or the Spanish inquisition. Finally, there are also an interest in this study to show how the chosen textbooks also treats the didactic questions to see in what way that some fundamental aspects are covered.   In short it can be said that the book that represents the “earlier” period in this study shows signs or tendency to promote Christianity a bit more than the others. The meaning of this is simply put, that the textbook from 1968 praises the religion more and gives it a lot of space in the book, compared to the other ones. The textbook from 1997 however shows signs of the complete opposite. In fact, the 1997 textbook tended to show less of Christianity as a whole and give more room to acknowledging the “dark history” that happened in the name of Christianity, for example the crusades. The textbook from 2018 shows signs of a more “balanced” approach to Christianity of the three. A sort of middle path where there are signs of a better proportioned number of pages is given to the religion, and a recognition to both the good that Christianity stands for as well as the bad that has happened in the name of said religion.