Ann af Burén

Living Simultaneity : on religion among semi-secular Swedes Ann af Burén

Semi-secular individuals, those who are neither religious nor unreligious, seldom get the attention of scholars of religion. Here, however, they stand at the center. Th e interviewees live in the same Stockholm neighborhood and it is their ways of talking about and relating to religion that is analyzed and described. Simultaneity is one particular feature in the material. This concept emphazises a ‘both and’ approach in: the way the respondents ascribe meaning to the term religion; how they talk about themselves in relation to diff erent religious designations and how they interpret experiences that they single out as ‘out-of-theordinary’. These simultaneities are explained and theorized through analyses focusing on intersubjective and discursive processes. This work adds to a critical discussion on the supposedly far-reaching secularity in Sweden on the one hand and on the incongruence and inconsistency of lived religion on the other. In relation to theorizing on religion and religious people, this study off ers empirical material that nuance a dichotomous understanding of ‘the religious’ and ‘the secular’. In relation to methodology it is argued that the salience of simultaneity in the material shows that when patterns of religiosity among semisecular Swedes are studied there is a need to be attentive to expressions of complexity, contradiction and incongruity.