Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - III. Constitution and Administration - 4. Church and Religion. By G. Fr. Lundin, Ph. D., Uppsala
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church and religion.
267
natural born Swedes remained on the statute-book, and were occasionally enforced
by the authorities; thus they compelled contumacious parents to have their
children baptized, and had persons who apostatized from the Lutheran Doctrines and
visited conventicles prosecuted and punished. The repeal of the Conventicle
Proclamation, in 1858, forms the turning-point; since that time the restraints that the
parish exercised upon the inhabitants within it, — in so far as they, amongst other
duties, formerly always had to employ the clergy of their own respective parishes at
baptism, burial, marriage, and communion, etc., — have been relaxed; Swedish citizens
have obtained the right to leave the National Church and to form Christian bodies
of their own with public divine services and religious instruction according to their
own tenets; civil marriages have been introduced for certain cases; and more liberty
has been granted with regard to baptism, confirmation, holy communion &c.
Now there is really a very considerable religious freedom prevailing. The
most essential exceptions to this freedom are: that the King, the ministers of
the Crown, and the teachers of religion in government schools must profess, just
as the clergy in the Church, the Lutheran doctrine; that monasteries are not to
be established; that public religious service of pagan description is forbidden; that
it is not permitted for anyone to leave the Swedish Church withouth stating his
intention to become a member of some other Christian body; and that dissenters,
as well as others, must contribute to the support of the Swedish Church, as being
an institution of an educational character in the service of the state, its officers
having, too, purely secular duties in addition to their religious ones.
Creed and Cnltns. The pure evangelical doctrine, which the Swedish
Church professes, is determined, in the Constitution of Sweden, as being
that which was accepted and set forth in the unaltered Augsburg
Confession of 1530 and in the resolution arrived at by the Uppsala Synod of
the year 1593. The Ecclesiastical law, on the other hand, mentions further
the whole of the Book of Concord as an exposition of the accepted
doctrine, and Convocation in 1893 rejected, by 30 votes to 28, the
proposition of the Crown, which parliament had sanctioned, to alter the latter
statement in accordance with the former.
The Neological Handbook of the year 1811 was replaced in 1894 by a
new one, which more faithfully preserves the Lutheran tradition; therewith the
choral part of the service has become fuller and more varied. Two fresh series
of texts for sermons for the round of the year were issued in 1860, for use
with the old ones. The Hymnal (of 1819) prepared by J. 0. Wallin, the
great hymnwriter, is still in use.
The Church Bible is still that of Charles XII (of the year 1703), but ever
since 1773 a Bible Commission has been in existence and has brought forward
new suggestions from time to time. Not until 1883 was a new translation of the
New Testament adopted, and then not definitely so. Of the Old Testament the
translation was submitted to Convocation in 1898, and was almost universally
approved, though considered to need some slight alterations; at the same time a
revision of the New Testament was also decided upon. — The Exposition of
the Catechism now ordained dates from 1878; the catechism itself is the small
edition by Luther of 1529.
The revival of religious life among the people during the last few decades,
in conjunction with the interest for history and the fine arts, has resulted in great
activity in the restoration and rebuilding of churches, more especially of
cathedrals. Moreover, by procuring superior and more tasteful altarcloths and other
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