The church of Sweden and church election 2017 : A theoretical secular perspective of newspapers presentation of the election 2017 in the church of Sweden.

This study’s purpose is to analyze Grace Davies theory, which points out that churches throughout the west is facing difficulties with declining memberships as a result of a separation process between the churches and the state. In contrast to Davies theory, Sweden saw an increase in number of voters in year 2017’s church election, which leads to question whether Davies theory is overemphasized or if the church of Sweden is in a unique position. This study aims to analyze the current landscape of churches in the west through media and to do this, the study delimitates to four Swedish daily newspapers: Dagens Nyheter, Sveriges Television, Kyrkans Tidning and Svenska Dagbladet, to provide content through different perspectives. To apply the information gathered, the study uses a qualitative content analysis, since it offers tools for categorizing, interpretation and understanding of the newspapers substance. This study approaches the church election through three theories, which argues that the church of Sweden has lost its dominating role in society and is now under the influence of media, the state and secular forces. The critical part of media’s relation to this year’s church election is found in the presentation of the church of Sweden as a political figure, rather than a faith community. The result shows through media’s presentation that the majority is indeed based on political influence and that Davies theory might indeed be true. Though it also shows a resistance to politics in the church domain, which argues that the churches ongoing negative trend might reverse in the future