Biskopsämbetet och demokratin : Biskopsrollens förändring i Svenska kyrkan under senare delen av 1900-talet

Sammanfattning: The aim of this dissertation has been to investigate whether the democratization process in the Church of Sweden in the latter part of the 20th century has led to changes in the office and the role of bishops. The main issue in our investigation has been to elucidate whether a change in the bishops´ real influence on various levels of the church´s organization has taken place and if so, to examine and explain the underlaying motives and driving forces. An attendant question is wheather the episcopal structure of the Church of Sweden has as a result been changed. One of the most important driving forces in the period 1953-2000 that has influenced organizational changes and in turn gradually changed the bishops´ role in the Church of Sweden was the introduction of the principle of the sovereignty of the people, one of the fundamental principles of democracy, into the church. The reform of the Church Assembly was the clearest example of the way in which this principle affected the organization of the Church of Sweden during the period in question. We can see that, even though the duties of bishops have been specified and clarified during the period of our investigation, a picture emerges of the bishops role in a process of gradual change, which has been weakened in important respects, principally concerning the formal possibilities to uphold its special doctrinal responsibility at the national level. At the parish level visitation has been given a new direction and encouragement in relation to the parishes. The possibilities to take action of a more controlling character are small and there are extremly limited means för the bishops of the Church of Sweden to impose real sanctions. The greater clarification of the bishops duties has not been accompanied by a corresponding extension of their possiblities to exert real influnce and power on their own organization by virtue of their office.