Cultural History Seminar Series: Charlotte Pissors, “The Swedish Church and Europe, 1932-1995”

The Swedish Church and Europe, 1932-1995: Between Demarcation and Convergence

Abstract: The social democratic identity policy during the 1930s caused a demarcation between Europe and the Swedish nation, which persists partly up until today. After a period of convergence Sweden became however part of the EU in 1995. Especially influential on the government position towards Europe was the Church minister Arthur Engberg. He used amongst other the Swedish church to demarcate the Swedish Nation from Europe. The governmental position towards Europe has been explored by several authors. Likewise has been done a lot on the relationship between the government and the church. In my paper I will investigate therefore how the church reacted to the social democratic demarcation from Europe. The paper will explore the imagination of Europe within the church. Since the Swedish state church got highly politicized during the 20th Century, it is assumed that the imagining of Europe within the church was highly influenced by political forces.