Akademiska synpunkter

Denna vecka är jag på en mycket spännande konferens som Association for Critical Heritage Studies arrangerar i Montreal. Själv håller jag en presentation om de värden som man i svensk politik har hänvisat till för att kulturarvsskydda kyrkobygnader och andra delar av det kyrkliga kulturarvet: "Sweden is often described as one of the most secular countries in the world, a country where only 45 percent of the population state that they believe in God (Bromander 2013). Yet, like several other Northern European nation-states, it has had an established national church for most of its modern history. As exemplified by the above quote from one of the gov ernment bills  preparing for the separation of church and state in year 2000, the religious heritage of that church now forms a significant part of the national cu ltural heritage protected by law and government  policies. These Northern European countries can thus appear as something of a paradox in terms of secularization; the...