Chapter 27 God’s Kingdom on Earth: Liberal Theology and Christian Liberalism in Sweden

Abstract

The social movements and political ideas that shaped the Scandinavian welfare states were manifold, yet in the narrative of the secular, democratic, Nordic countries of the twentieth century, the notion of the Kingdom of God is often neglected. This chapter aims to highlight the Jerusalem code in the genealogy of the welfare state by focusing on one case: Sweden. The Kingdom of God on earth was a concept promoted in public debate primarily by the Christian Liberals from the 1840s and onwards, and this idea was also discussed and elaborated in theology by liberal theologians. The views of Viktor Rydberg (1828 – 1895), a writer and liberal Member of Parliament, merit special attention. Rydberg influenced the Social Democrats, whom were the architects that devised what was to become close ties between folkhemmet (the people ’ s home) and folkkyrkan (the national church). These close ties provide an example of the simultaneous secularization and fragmentation of the Jerusalem code.