Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Religious Origins of Democratic Pluralism: Paul Peter Waldenström and the Politics of the Swedish Awakening 1868-1917

Religious Origins of Democratic Pluralism: Paul Peter Waldenström and the Politics of the Swedish Awakening 1868-1917

Safstrom, Mark

Paperback

Religion General Scandinavian History

ISBN10: 0227176197
ISBN13: 9780227176191
Publisher: James Clarke Company
Published: Jan 26 2017
Pages: 300
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.70 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
A study of how the Swedish Church influenced the emergence of Swedish social democracy, focussing on the work of preacher and politician Paul Peter Waldenström.

The Religious Origins of Democratic Pluralism focuses on explaining one of the riddles that fascinated historians and political scientists for much of the twentieth century, namely, the origin and development of Swedish social democracy. While other countries in Europe experienced dramatic swings between radical and conservative political parties, which resulted in tragic experiments with totalitarian regimes, Sweden, by contrast, miraculously seemed to avoid these extremes, and instead maintained space for democratic discussion and even dissent. This peaceful transformation was facilitated by political actors who crafted the discourse of their debates in such a way that pluralism came to be valued as an ethical good and then vigorously defended. This study examines the decades leading up to the emergence of social democracy in Sweden, and in particular, the career of one prominent politician, Paul Peter Waldenström (1838-1917). Waldenström was a clergyman, revival preacher, educator, author, and newspaper editor, whose political career began in 1868 with his participation in the Church Assembly of the Church of Sweden. His role expanded during his years of service in the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, from 1884-1905. This study places Waldenström in dialogue with his contemporaries and opponents as a means of identifying how the theological values and priorities of the religious awakening were articulated in the public sphere and contributed to the development of a new political order.

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Scandinavian History

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