"Let us build an ark!" : Jonas De Geer and the negotiation of religion within radical nationalism

• Main Author: Lundström, Tomas
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen 2016
• Subjects: radical nationalism; far right; right-wing extremism; radical right; antisemitism; islamophobia; catholicism; traditionalism; Jonas De Geer
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-295456

This thesis illuminates meaning(s) of religion in a Swedish radical nationalist context. The empirical study is based on a critical text analysis of author Jonas De Geer, key ideology producer of Swedish radical nationalism. The research questions concern how the publications of Jonas De Geer, during the period 1996-2016, address issues related to religion and Christian imagery. The primary aim of the thesis – to study how the concept of religion is understood, negotiated and used in a Swedish radical nationalist context – is enunciated through an examination of how identity and antagonists are construed through the notions of religion in the material, and how these concepts change over time. An applied text analysis, informed by critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, constitutes the methodological framework of the study. The empirical analysis suggests that Christianity and national identity are construed as intertwined and natural, while Judaism is portrayed as the primary antagonist. Additionally, Islam and modernist ideals are depicted as weapons used by Jewish influence to dominate the West. Drawing on these empirical implications, the study concludes that religion functions as a racist configuration in De Geer's symbolic universe.