Tro och helgelse. En analys av Johan Olof Wallins moraluppfattning

Sammanfattning: This study focusses on the question of the moral status of actions, a question subdivided into two further questions: 'What is held to characterize morally right action?' and 'What is a morally good life?' Texts by Johan Olof Wallin (1779-1839)-pastor, Archbishop in the Church of Sweden, hymn writer and poet-are analyzed in detail. The scope of the study is theological/ethical and its method is descriptive and analytical. It deals primarily with the history of ideas from a theological perspective, and does not offer suggestions as to how a present-day ethic might be constructed. Three main questions are examined when analyzing the texts: (a) what presuppositions are assumed in the texts as the basis for a person's ethical action? (b) what guidelines are given for ethical action? (c) how is morality realized-by what means can it be achieved? The study analyzes sermons, hymns, some poems, Wallin's translation of the Johannine Gospel and Letters, his revision of Catechisms, and some notes made in the so-called "Konceptboken", the Book of Drafts. In addition, the text that Wallin defended when obtaining his MA in 1803-a text that discusses the relation of Natural Rights (Jure Naturæ) and ethics-is analyzed and a translation of the Latin original presented (probably for the first time in a major study of Wallin's writings). The study claims that Wallin's "Concept of Morality" is based on an ethics of disposition, where what is morally right action is seen as not deriving from the act itself but from the disposition of the person acting, and where norms of behaviour are derived both from Biblically grounded general rules and from what promotes the greater good of one's neighbour and the welfare of society.