”Av den som fått mycket skall det krävas mycket” : En studie av ämbete, ansvar, skuld och förlåtelse i en svenskkyrklig kontext

Sammanfattning: In February 2022, a Church of Sweden bishop was removed from office for the first time in almost seventy years following several reports by priest in the diocese detailing the bishop’s misconduct to Svenska kyrkans ansvarsnämnd för biskopar, the disciplinary board for bishops in the Church of Sweden. The present study is not interested in the question of guilt,but aims instead to analyse the decision’s theology with the tools of theological ethics and the perspectives of responsibility, debt and forgiveness. The primary sources for this study are the record of decision from Ansvarsnämnden för biskopar, a statement from Biskopsmötet (the conference of bishops) and an interview with the then-archbishop Antje Jackelen. With the hermeneutic method, this study reconstruct the theology underlying the primary sources and reveals one of the Church of Sweden’s theologies concerning responsibility, debt and forgiveness. Thereafter, the identified theology is placed in a wider Lutheran context with the help of three Swedish theological scholars’ work; Skuld och förlåtelse, by Ann Heberlein, Utanför paradiset by Eva-Lotta Grantén and Försoningens mellanrum by Sofia Camnerin. This essay shows that there is little theology present in the primary sources and therefore in the decision to remove the bishop from office. What theology is present regarding responsibility and debt is firmly drawn from Lutheran tradition, while the perspective of forgiveness is more complex. Forgiveness can be given interpersonally and by God; while God’s forgiveness is given by grace, interpersonal forgiveness can be seen as a process wherein an offender is called to take responsibility for their actions. This study is foremost concerned with the latter, as the primary material also purport to be. When the language of forgiveness is scrutinised, however, the primary sources seems less concerned with forgiveness and more concerned with trust. In addition, the materials are fundamentally interested in the question of whether the bishop’s behaviour has injured the trust in the episcopate and the church as a whole. Ultimately, this is not primarily a theological question but one of trust, an area where Church of Sweden has less experience. My essay suggests that Church of Sweden needs to reflect upon the implications of trust in relationship to ordination.