För samhällets bestånd och Guds rikes förkovran : Prästerskapets undervisning kring hushåll, barn och äktenskap i svenska postillor 1686–1770

Abstract

In this dissertation, I examine the conceptions of household, children, and marriage that were conveyed through printed postils in the Swedish Empire 1686-1770. How and why were these conceptions expressed, and how may continuity or change be observed in the postils' teaching regarding these subjects? The source-material scrutinized in the study consists of all postils upon the gospels and epistles that were printed in Swedish (17) and Finnish (1) during the examined period, and that were written by priests in the Swedish Empire. The tripartite theme; household, children, and marriage, is related to the table of duties and to its concept of oeconomia, around which the thesis is disposed. The thesis is based on qualitative analyses of the source material, which is contextualized by perspectives of both homiletics, intellectual history and social history. Furthermore, to expose possible tendencies of change or continuity, the postils are analyzed diachronically. Even though the genre of postils is characterized by a high degree of both continuity and homogeneity, the large source material that is taken into account in the study facilitates the identification of both differences and developments. In the thesis, I have treated the postils as entireties, and accordingly, not merely analyzed a selection of pre-selected sermons. Such a point of departure entails that a holistic picture of the postils' teaching of the investigated subjects is demonstrated. Furthermore, it has also exposed overall structures in the postils that previous research has not been able to reveal. Inter alia, I argue that the frequent use of the scheme of the three estates as a type of homiletical application shows that the conception of household – derived from this schema and from the table of duties – permeated the sermons of the postils. This is so, despite the fact that the household as such was rarely dealt with extensively within the framework of the postils. Furthermore, the study makes visible how the homiletic rhetoric regarding the studied subjects overall developed in a more anthropocentric way. In particular, the more intensive teaching on the education of children, which occurs more frequently in the postils printed after the middle of the 18th century, can be considered as an evidence of this. Finally, a parallel line of development is how, towards the end of the examined period, themes related to man's earthly vocation, which were common to all the themes investigated in the study – seem to have gradually been given less prominent roles in the postils. This can be explained by the changed aim of homiletics during the 18th century, which was increasingly concentrated on soteriological issues.