Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion
December 16, 2025
Katarina Plank, Helene Egnell, Linnea Lundgren
Over the last fifty years, Nordic Lutheran churches have integrated holistic practices such as meditation, yoga, and sacred dance into daily church life, drawing on Eastern traditions, folk religiosity, New Age influences, and secular wellbeing approaches. These practices are not peripheral but serve as vehicles for spiritual progress, holistic care, and community building. The article argues that these innovations are part of an 'immanent turn' in Protestant spirituality ongoing since the 1970s. Adopting a bottom-up, lived religion perspective, it challenges conventional top-down theological frameworks, revealing Lutheran Christian practice as more flexible, inclusive, and connected with embodied experiential spirituality. This approach rethinks Lutheran Protestantism, highlighting personal bodily centred experiences in engagement with the world and the evolution of church practice.
Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift
April 26, 2024
Linnea Lundgren, Katarina Plank, Helene Egnell
A survey of parish websites in the diocese of Stockholm found that, alongside traditional services and concerts, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Sweden now offers a wide range of new activities that have emerged over the past fifty years. Many focus on community building, and 15 percent are holistic practices such as meditation groups, yoga classes, and dance, present in eight out of ten parishes. The church appears to serve quadruple functions: theological, life cycle related, ordinary community building, and holistic everyday spiritual practices. These holistic practices, initially offered in exclusive retreat settings, have moved into ordinary parish life and, though some like zen meditation and yoga were once contested, are now broadly accepted.
Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift
January 9, 2024
Katarina Plank
In Sweden, mindfulness appears in three distinct settings: therapeutic, commercial, and religious. Its greatest expansion is within the healthcare system, where mindfulness-based therapies are used, and among private operators selling courses. In these secular contexts, mindfulness is decontextualized and presented as a universal life-skill without religious ties. The therapeutic use encourages metacognition and decentering, while the commercial use emphasizes sensory experiences. In religious contexts, sati (the Pali term for mindfulness) remains part of a Buddhist soteriological system aimed at freeing individuals from worldly bonds. This shift reflects a general Western trend where spirituality replaces religion.