| Summary: | Between 1810 and 1819, the Church of Sweden adopted three new books: the new handbook from 1811, archbishop Lindblom’s new explication of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism and Wallins new hymn book from 1819. A few years earlier, a Lutheran revival movement had arisen in upper Norrland. The members of the revival movement, generally named “new readers”, reacted strongly to the influence of Enlightenment inspired theology (neology) in the new books. In 1848, the opposition of the most radical new readers led them to separate from the Church. This master thesis examines the opposition to the new Swedish hymn book from 1819 in the area which since 1904 has been the diocese of Luleå. The study is limited to the period between 1819 and 1903. It is based on a qualitative problem-oriented source study through a close reading of the visitation documents for the parishes in the area. Opposition can be expressed in many ways and there can be many different indicators of it. The study’s inductive approach means that these indicators are not determined in advance, but rather are discovered through the close reading of the visitation documents. The main questions discussed in the thesis are: • How long did it take before the parishes in upper Norrland introduced the hymn book of 1819? • What signs of opposition to the new hymn book are found in the visitation documents, and for how long? • How did the opponents motivate their resistance to the hymn book of 1819? • How was the new Sami hymn book from 1849 which was partly a translation from parts of the Wallinian hymn book received? The study shows that it took a while before the new hymnal was introduced in most upper Norrland's Swedish-speaking parishes. More than half of those parishes had not introduced the new hymnal in 1829. This changed in many parishes during Bishop Franzén's visits in 1835. Opposition to the hymn book was largely expressed in parishes where the radical reading- movement had an influence. People expressed opposition to the hymn book in different ways during different phases. The opposition was usually explained in the visitation documents based on doctrinal reasons. The Sami hymnal, which was published in 1849 and which was partly based on the Wallinan hymnal, met with criticism from both the clergy in northern Lapland and the Sami. The priests criticized the translation, that it was difficult to understand for those who spoke the northern dialects. What the Sami were critical of is unknown. The study shows that the new hymn book seemed to have been used in all Swedish-speaking parishes before 1903, but in parallel with the hymn book from 1695 in at least two parishes. This parallel use lasted for a very long time, perhaps during the entire investigation period. The old hymn book continued to be important to many people in upper Norrland.
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