Uppsala 1968 – The Swedish Context

The 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1968 was an event of global significance, drawing participants from around the world under the theme “Behold, I make all things new.” At the same time, it was an event taking place in Sweden – a country that by the 1960s had become a model of “responsible society,” with strong economic growth, an all‐encompassing welfare state, and an ambitious policy for international development that was channelling material aid to Southern Africa. For the Church of Sweden, the assembly marked a continuity with the 1925 World Conference on Life and Work convened in Stockholm by Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom. In turn, the Swedish churches themselves were influenced by the Uppsala assembly, especially in the renewal of liturgy and worship. This article explores the Swedish dimension of the Uppsala assembly through examining the legacy of the Stockholm conference of 1925, the societal and political context in Sweden of the 1960s, the participation of youth, and the impact of the assembly on Swedish church life.     

EAST AND WEST IN THE FACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

Abstract. Technological changes affect Western culture in three ways: the ratio between the lifetimes of technologies and the human lifetime is inverted; the three principal realms of human life (the home, the workplace, and leisure activity), as well as political systems, are affected; and the cohesion of the social body is threatened. The impact on Eastern culture is softened by a clearer role assigned to school, the resulting level of education, and the influence of Confucian ethics. However, acculturation will vary among countries, depending on the communication ability in the respective societies and the degree of development of social cellular structures, which are the most able to manage complexity.     

Preventive behaviour and health status among the elderly

Abstract

The research describes the range of preventive health behaviours undertaken by the elderly, investigates the dimensionality of preventive health behaviour, and explores the relationship between preventive health behaviour, self-assessed and medically assessed health status. Previous research has relied mainly on self-reports of health status. Data from medical examinations and interviews with 115 elderly individuals (aged 65–75) indicated that most elderly persons performed some intentional preventive health practices, as well as a broad range of normative preventive health practices. Particular clusters of preventive health behaviour emerged when the data were subjected to cluster analysis. A short index consisting of five personal preventive health behaviours found in other studies to have a protective effect on long-term health was found to have a low to moderate correlation with the medical and self-assessments of health status employed in the study. These findings indicate particular types of preventive health behaviour of importance for health promotion programmes with the elderly.