Tel un navire sur la mer déchaînée, La communauté chrétienne dans l´oeuvre de Laurentius Petri, archevêque d'Uppsala (1531-1573)

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to present the ecclesiology of Laurentius Petri, a former student at Wittenberg who was archbishop of Uppsala from 1531 to his death 1573. He had a decisive role in the founding of the Church of Sweden, especially through his Swedish Church Ordinance(1571). Nevertheless most of his seventy-three writings are little known and have been rarely studied. Chapter one starts by a survey of the vocabulary used to designate the Church. The use of the words "congregation" and "Church" reflect the shift in the controversies with the "papists" and "sacramentarians" during the reigns of Gustav I, Erik XIV and the first years of Johan III. For the author the history of the Church starts after man's fall. Judaism belongs to the past, the Gospel gathers a new Church of faith. God constantly works for salvation, while mankind remains in sin. The devil persecutes the Church successfully by leading her in a false sense of security. The Church is for the first time depicted as a ship amidst a fierce storm. The Church's and the Christian's life are kept by God under the cross to preserve them against a hostile world. The congregation will remain a community of good and evil members until the day of judgement. God elects his people foreseeing their faith. The good aptitudes of the human beings can only become true through God's grace. The questions pertaining to the number of the marks of the Church and how they shape each other and the congregation are central for chapters two to five. Chapter three focuses on the most prominent mark of the Church, her treasure, the Word of God. The sacraments of baptism and eucharist and their position in the concrete life of the congregation are the aim of chapter four. Chapter five deals with a very peculiar aspect of the life of the Church as conceived by Laurentius Petri, namely with the preeminent role of penitence and church discipline. Chapter six focuses on the Church's ceremonies and ordinances which Laurentius Petri conceived in an original and positive way. The Church necessarily requires certain ordinances to carry out her duty according to About Church Rules and Ceremonies (1566). Chapter seven presents the archbishop's vision of the ministries of bishop and priest which were separated in the early Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The relations between the secular power and the Church are presented in chapter eight referring mainly to A Christian Sermon on Secular Authority (1561). Chapter nine deals with the groups who, according to notices in the sources, appear to live on or beyond the Church's borders, like the "tattare", a group of nomads. The appendices present a translation of three relevant texts of Laurentius Petri of the years 1549, 1555 and 1573. An analytical and chronological list of Laurentius Petri's 73 writings (of which only seventeen were printed while he lived) is given at the end of the thesis.