Att skapa en motkultur : En religionspsykologisk undersökning av Livets Ord som religiös minoritet i en sekulär kulturell kontext

Sammanfattning: In this textual analysis I have examined the book Att följa Jesus by Ulf Ekman and information from Word of Life's official website. The aim of this study is to see how a religious leader is shaping the identity of the groups members after a certain pattern that differs from the surrounding, secular society. The research focus  of this essay includes several aspects:  how a culture is formed in a religious minority in contrast to the prevailing cultural context; how the material can be explained by Paul Pruyser’s theory on the psychological worlds; how what Ulf Ekman writes about distinguishing themselves from the environment differs from how other religious minority groups distinguish their identity;  and,  how the psychological world, expected behavior, and context of Word of Life can be structured by Valerie DeMarinis’ model of assessment. I have placed Word of Life in a realistic illusionistic world developed from Paul Pruyser’s theory of psychological worlds. I have also used Valerie DeMarinis’ orientation model for meaning making systems for placing Word of Life in its cultural context. The investigation revealed that the group is a religious minority in Sweden. After this, I compared Word of Life with other religious minority groups. I chose to focus on Jewish identity in the American South and in Copenhagen, which showed that the individuals who were interviewed who felt that their Jewish  identities were under attack became defensive. Ekman, however, ordered his members to be inclusive but theologically conservative and to seek a counterculture existence. I placed the steps of ‘belonging’  into DeMarinis’ assessment model, which showed how the psychological world is leading up to the achievement of the expected behavior, and how the surrounding cultural context affects the model.