culture24

Editorial background

Harry Nyberg was born 1936 in the northeast part of Sweden, a farmhand and lumberer until 16. Then a "fundamentalist" Christian folk high-school paved his way into teaching, research, and administration – elementary-school teacher, associate professor of church history in Uppsala, cathedral dean in the episcopate of Selma Lagerlöf, Nobel laureate in literature 1909. As a retirement pensioner, he is now back in business in ecclesiastical history in Uppsala. His present analysis is a contribution in the series on education, professional training, political power, and human rights.

Sweden has passed from the stage of developing country in about a century (1). Now the country is a postindustrial society, a net payer of the European Union (2). Every citizen has access to education, professional training, and health care, at least in theory. In practice, the access is mainly a matter of communication and individual insight and preferences (3). There are also cultural clashes, political tensions, economical gaps between groups, and religious contrasts.

The main religions of Sweden are Jewry, Christianity, and Islam, the Abrahamistic religions based on Bible and Koran. However, it should be emphasized that each main religion is divided into several confessions. For one Christian, the pope is a holy father, for another at best a sinner reprieved. Jewry and Islam appear to have corresponding contrasts. The Old Testament of the Bible is acknowledged by all. It is suggested that all believers and non-believers agree on incorporating the basic traditions into the literature, language and culture studies of the basic education in the age groups 12-18 in the school system of future Sweden.

My working hypothesis is that ignorance is the basis of intolerance. A corollary is that knowledge of our basic traditions – whether accepted or rejected in own philosophy of life – would promote understanding and respect. Now time is ripe for a new reformation within Jewry, Christianity, and Islam.

About 500 years ago, the process of printing spread the eternal Word (Wisdom, Koran) by translations and interpretations over the world. The present electronic revolution turns the same Word (Wisdom, Koran) into spoken language again. Thus, every citizen can be allowed to hear and interpret the Word in her/his own language.

The folk high-schools have been a basis of Swedish education during the last century. Every non-governmental organization with self-respect had one or several folk high-schools. For long periods between 1950 and 1999, the Swedish parliament had an absolute majority of exstudents from different folk high-schools. The folk high-school (Solvik), which gave me a new career, could be regarded as an educational tool of fundamentalist Christianity. Yet, many different believers and non-believers attended its courses. The reason was simple – Solvik provided the knowledge necessary for a professional career at a higher social level.

Many teachers and students at Solvik belonged to the reader movement (4). The readers believed that laypersons could read and understand the Bible translations as correctly as scholars, priests, and theologians. It should, however, be noticed that different readers sometimes interpreted the same Bible text in different ways. The problem is not unique to the lay. Professional linguists differ on the qualities of the eyes of Leah – weak, tender, or delicate (Gen 29:17).

My point is that education – and retraining of social dropouts – would create mutual understanding and respect in future Sweden with different believers and many non-believers. My experience with readers from Solvik and forth is mainly positive. The hard discipline of our rearing did not turn us into fanatic copies. Instead, we matured along different tracks within the society by own essential contributions to a democratic welfare state. Thus, I suggest that modern postindustrial societies should deliberately convert potential bombers into readers.