"An interpretation of a wonder” : A Survey Study of Priests’ and Congregation Representatives’ Biblical Interpretations within the Church of Sweden and the Roman Catholic Church

This study examines how priests and congregation representatives within the Church of Sweden and the Roman Catholic Church interpret the Bible. The aim of this study is to make a contribution to the academic discussion of the differences between christian denominations by examining the way priests and congregation representatives interpret the Bible. This study has been broken down into three research questions where the first question examines how the respondents from the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Sweden interpret the Bible. The second question aims to categorize the christian denominations according to some given statements about the Bible. The third and final question examines how to interpret the source material based on theories on three main direction of interpretation called ”free”, ”functional” and ”formal” interpretations. This study is based on a survey of 21 questions about biblical interpretation. The survey was answered by 38 priests and congregation representatives working within the Church of Sweden and the Roman Catholic Church in Sweden. The results from the survey were interpreted by using both quantitive and qualitative interpretation methods. The findings of this study revealed that respondents from the Roman Catholic Church obtain a more formal view of the Bible than that of the respondents from the Church of Sweden. The results also showed that there were some differences amongst the respondents’ biblical interpretations within, as well as between, the christian denominations. In addition to these findings the results showed that the respondents from the Roman Catholic Church and the respondents from the Church of Sweden were both fit in the same category for biblical interpretation. Furthermore, this study has shown how to interpret the source material based on theories on ”free”, ”functional” and ”formal” interpretations