The politics of power and persecution: evangelical nationalism in Sweden

In this article, I aim to contribute to the expanding field of research on Christian nationalism by exploring the intersection of political thought and evangelicalism in Sweden. The study is based on a quantitative and qualitative textual analysis of 18,614 articles published between 2016 and 2022 in the newspaper Världen idag (The World Today), an important voice within the Swedish evangelical revival movement. The results show that Världen idag’s evangelicalism places considerable emphasis on the idea of the nation. However, its ideological core also includes concepts related to 1) ideas about how the church should gain political influence and control, 2) perspectives of evangelical Christian faith impacting geopolitical conditions, 3) a view that children outside the confines of Christian heterosexual families face numerous risks, and 4) warnings of persecution of evangelical Christian faith. I conclude that the Swedish variant of evangelical nationalism shares key conceptual themes with its North American counterpart while also invoking memories of nationalism within Sweden’s revivalist history – with power and persecution emerging as central motifs.