No abstract

This article reflects on the motive of child adoption as a counterpart to postmodern individualization. In western culture, where ideals like freedom of choice and self‐expression are almost self‐evident, a theological interpretation of child adoption is presented that questions the very foundation of individualization. It is argued that adoption as spiritual praxis reminds us of our dependence on the wider community and on God. The perception of children, parents, family, and human acting are further modified by the use of the adoption motive.

This article explores the situated learning found among 18 young volunteers taking part in an education programme about leadership and Christian spirituality in the Church of Sweden. Focus group interviews and observations are analysed in the framework of situated learning, using legitimate peripheral participation as a lens. The study shows how the young people, through the education programme, formed a safe community where new identities were shaped through participating in new ways of worship, making pilgrimages, engaging in peer dialogue, and in reflection. They also gained new perspectives and models for volunteering. The young people´s experience of living in a secular culture presents challenges to their identity formation and to their ongoing spiritual practice and development. The use of situated learning provides a deeper understanding of the process of learning in spirituality and of the problems associated with conflicting communities of practice.

This article takes as its starting point the changing cultural, social and academic landscape in Sweden which has created a need for new ways of teaching and doing research in theology and religious studies. Against this backdrop, the article explores concrete work with a research circle, at Uppsala University, with upper secondary religious education teachers, as a way of working closer to practice and thereby including non-academic actors in knowledge production. The research circle, as a form of action research, where a group of teachers formulate a problem or research questions built on actual research and challenges they have met in their practice, is described and preliminary results are elaborated. Furthermore, the article expands on the possibility of transferring the method of research circles into other areas within theology and religious studies. Finally, the feasibility of the method for transforming an academic discipline and renegotiating the understanding and role of theory and practice is explored. The article concludes that research circles offer an interesting and fruitful method, among others, that blurs the borders, not only between theory and practice, but also between research and education, and calls for a suitable practice theory.

No abstract