Towards a Religion of Popular Sovereignty, Democracy and Equality : The Lutheran Sermon as a Nexus of Traditional and Modern Discourses on Political Values and a Collective Identity

Abstract

The external forms of contemporary occasions of Finnish and Swedish national worship organized to celebrate political events differ little from those of early-modern Sweden. However, the expressions of the political values of the national community in them have been totally revolutionized. After discussing social theory on the relationship between religion, nationalism, modernization and secularization and introducing a long-term historical context, this chapter proceeds to analyze two sermons given in 2009 and 2010 to demonstrate the adaptability of the Lutheran religion to modernity: the national churches have turned from advocates of theocratic monarchy and uniformity to preachers of popular sovereignty, democracy and equality in multicultural societies. A gradually redefined religion has reconciled itself with radical societal changes. This development challenges simplifying secularization theses.