Geo Widengren and the Non-Confessional Academic Study of Religions in Sweden

Abstract Geo Widengren (1907–1996), Professor of the History of Religion and Psychology of Religion at Uppsala University from 1940 till 1973, was, like all individuals, a complex and often contradictory person. My focus in this short text is on Widengren’s scientific credo, which stresses that “religion” should be studied like any historical subject and the scholar should therefore not use personal or normative judgements when analyzing the religions of either the past or the present. In other words, the academic and scientific study of religions should be non-confessional. Inspired by biographical studies and microhistory, I have used Widengren as a case for studying the microlevel or individual level. However, to grasp the microhistory, one also needs to zoom out and focus on the larger picture, i.e., social changes and prevailing discourses. By doing so, it becomes clear that Widengren’s academic credo for the study of religions also found resonance in the public discourse when, during the 1950s and 1960s, Sweden adopted a law on the freedom of religion and changed the content of “religion” as a school subject from the study of Christianity to the study of religions in general.