State and religion in Sweden before and after the year 2000

My paper State and religion in Sweden before and after the year 2000 focus primarily on Sweden as a welfare-regime (or simply a welfare model) at least partly historically shaped by the state-church relationships of the late 1800 Century and early 1900 Century. From this focus on a single case – Sweden – slight comparisons will be made between the nordic countries, which share much of the the same charachteristics. Focus is on religious change in society before and after the the year 2000, i.e. when state and church was separated in Sweden, but not in the other Nordic countries. Policy and state action (”output”) versus three kinds of societal religious expressions is studied: 1) The lutheran church and institutiontionalised (”old”) religion, 2) The religious expressions of ”new Swedes” (i.e. immigrants) and, finally 3) New Religious Movements, NRM. The paper aims to analyse whether these different instances of expressed religion, from the perspective of the state, are conceptualised primarily as some kind of societal good or as a potential threat to society or, perhaps, as something in between. The analysis also aims at deciding on which grounds such authoritative conceptions of the role of religion in society rest.