Det moderna samhället liknar inget tidigare samhälle.För många religiösa ledare och troende framstår moderniteten – med sin sekularisering,vetenskap, kapitalism, individualism, hedonism och ideologiska konflikter – som ett hot. Samtidigt finns det de som inte ser utvecklingen som ett hinder utan en möjlighet: först i det moderna samhället har en sant personlig gudstro, fri från tvång och förlegade ideal, blivit möjlig. Den här boken handlar om dem och deras promoderna,progressiva religionsutövning.Efter att först ha rett ut vad vi menar med traditionelloch progressiv religion utforskar en rad svenska religionsvetare olika progressiva strömningar inom världens stora religioner. På vilket sätt skiljer de sig från de traditioner de är sprungna ur? Även de helt nya religioner som medvetet skapats för att möta den moderna människans behov behandlas. Vi avslutar boken med didaktiska reflektioner och praktiska råd till blivande lärare om hur man kan belysa progressiva religionsuttryck i sin undervisning. Detta är en bok för alla som vill förstå religionens försök att anpassa sig till vår föränderliga tid.

This article explores the depiction of extraordinary weapons in the Icelandic sagas, examining how they were imbued with lifelike qualities through their names, attributes, and implied personalities. These weapons represented a distinctive and hazardous anomaly, as they were perceived to possess both vitality and material substance simultaneously. One method of managing such anomalies involved forging agreements with the sword itself or with the individual presenting it as a gift. By doing so, the new owner committed to recognizing the weapon’s inherent qualities and character, treating it with a level of reverence akin to that afforded to sentient beings. The purpose of such contracts was to cultivate a sense of friendship between the weapon and its new owner. The supernatural powers believed to reside within these weapons could merge with the wielder if handled with care, requiring an ongoing awareness of the weapon’s desires and intentions. Consequently, the line between the warrior’s skill and the capabilities of the weapon often became blurred. However, there were no certainties; even the most skilled warrior could succumb to an angered or mistreated weapon. This phenomenon potentially contributed to the development of a belief that weapons endowed with unpredictable personalities could be responsible for accidents and unforeseen deaths without implying that the warrior lacked skill in battle or that he was struck by bad luck.

Named weapons of different origin and purpose occur in the Old Norse mythology, and some of them are better known than others: Thor's hammer Mjolnir and Odin's spear Gungnir, just to name a few. But named weapons are also present in the more mundane Icelandic sagas, and it suggests that the practice of giving individual names to objects was something that occurred among real people in the Viking society. The named swords, spears and axes, which we can read about in the Icelandic sagas, are not portrayed as especially supernatural. They are, however, sometimes talked about in a special way and considered to be extraordinary in one way or another.What kind of name did people give to weapons, and what might have been the purposes for doing so? It is possible that some weapons told a story through their names and that they because of that also brought fame and glory to their owners. It is also conceivable, considered how some of the swords and spears are described in the Icelandic sagas, that named weapons were seen as almost life-like. This paper discusses some thoughts regarding named weapons in the sagas, the purposes for giving names, and if this practise might tell us something about how people in the Viking age viewed these named, possibly presumed life-like, objects.

This article discusses the difference between identifying and classifying attributes and analyzes the problematic implications if we confuse the two. The empirical material consists of Gallic stone reliefs depicting goddesses with a wheel as attribute. Male deities depicted with wheels have mainly been identified as a Celtic Jupiter or a male sky god sometimes called Taranis. The Gallic goddesses show that the wheel attribute was not an identifying attribute exclusive to this god, but that it rather served as a marker for an activity shared by several deities, both male and female. The articles argument that we need to distinguish between identifying and classifying attributes in order to make a source critical and methodological correct iconographical interpretation, especially when we interpret iconographical representation without the aid of any written sources.

A challenge when interpreting prehistoric art is that we often lack written source material, a contemporary text written by people who lived in the cultural context that is studied. It is therefore not uncommon to use texts that are younger than the material that we want to interpret. This could lead to misinterpretations and circular arguments. Images are cultural products formed by their contemporaries and influenced by older idea traditions. This article presents four criteria that might be worth taking into consideration when interpreting prehistoric religious iconography. The article discusses how one might proceed to study prehistoric religious art and what could be helpful to keep in mind when analyzing religions by means of pictures and material culture.