In this article we explore how young women and men in a Baptist congregation in Sweden in the early twentieth century described their conversion experience. Our premise is that conversion narratives can be understood as part of a performative making of the self and have the potential to enable novel ways of constructing masculinity and femininity. The assumption is that religion played an ambivalent role in the transformation of gender roles around the turn of the twentieth century. The study is qualitative, using rhetorical and content analyses of 21 conversion narratives derived from the Strängnäs branch of the Baptist youth association Senapskornet around 1913–1919. Writing about one’s conversion was not only a way of voicing one’s own experiences, but also of establishing the credibility of one’s personal identity as a Baptist, which required the use of accepted rhetorical and theological frameworks specific to the movement. We examine how male and female Baptists engaged with the rhetorical and theological frameworks, indicating the tendencies towards gender differences in the material. These included descriptions of crying and tearful prayer – exclusively attributed to women – and a variety of opinions about sin as either sinful behaviour or a subjective experience of the believer’s own sinfulness. However, we conclude there were smaller gender differences in Baptist conversion narratives than in those of other Christian movements of a similar date. Thus we contribute to the understanding of how identity is constructed through conversion narratives, as well as how constructions of gender can shape descriptions of religious conversion.  

In this article we explore how young women and men in a Baptist congregation in Sweden in the early twentieth century described their conversion experience. Our premise is that conversion narratives can be understood as part of a performative making of the self and have the potential to enable novel ways of constructing masculinity and femininity. The assumption is that religion played an ambivalent role in the transformation of gender roles around the turn of the twentieth century. The study is qualitative, using rhetorical and content analyses of 21 conversion narratives derived from the Strangnas branch of the Baptist youth association Senapskornet around 1913-1919. Writing about one's conversion was not only a way of voicing one's own experiences, but also of establishing the credibility of one's personal identity as a Baptist, which required the use of accepted rhetorical and theological frameworks specific to the movement. We examine how male and female Baptists engaged with the rhetorical and theological frameworks, indicating the tendencies towards gender differences in the material. These included descriptions of crying and tearful prayer-exclusively attributed to women-and a variety of opinions about sin as either sinful behaviour or a subjective experience of the believer's own sinfulness. However, we conclude there were smaller gender differences in Baptist conversion narratives than in those of other Christian movements of a similar date. Thus we contribute to the understanding of how identity is constructed through conversion narratives, as well as how constructions of gender can shape descriptions of religious conversion.

I nutida ögon ter sig Frälsningsarmén som en ganska harmlös religiös organisation, men så har det inte alltid varit. När rörelsen etablerades under 1800-talets sista decennier sågs den som väldigt utmanande och radikal. Utmärkande för Frälsningsarmén var nämligen att kvinnor hade rätt att predika, något som i samtiden var förbehållet män i andra religiösa sammanhang. Organisationen byggde dessutom på en radikal tanke om jämlikhet, både män och kvinnor hade tillträde till de högre posterna i armén.

Frälsningsarmén skapade därmed nya handlingsutrymmen för kvinnor som bröt mot samtidens konventioner. Kvinnorna i armén bar militära uniformer, spelade musik i offentliga sammanhang och att rörde sig fritt bland samhällets utsatta, vilket väckte mycket förargelse.

I mitt kapitel undersöker jag motståndet mot Frälsningsarmén som normbrytare årtiondena runt sekelskiftet 1900. Här uppmärksammas dels olika stridsskrifter som vände sig mot kvinnliga frälsningssoldaters agerande, dels det våld tvingades möta i offentligheten.

Artikeln tar sin utgångspunkt i en händelse 1937 då en judisk man slår en ung nazist utanför synagogan i Lund.

Artikeln handlar om den svenska arbetarrörelsens relation till nazismen på 1930-talet.