My name is Stefan Arvidsson. I’m professor in the history of religions at Linnæus University, Sweden. My main scholarly interest concerns modern mythology, i.e. how imaginative stories shape modern collective identities. I have previously done research on myth and scholarship (the discourse on Aryan/Indo-European religion and culture) and on myth and art (Wagner, Tolkien). I’m currently studying myth and politics, more specifically socialist mythology. A monograph, covering the cultural style and mythology of socialism from 1871 to 1914, was published in Swedish in 2016 and then in English in 2017 under the title The Style and Mythology of Socialism. Socialist Idealism, 1871-1914 (Routledge). Together with Jakub Beneš and Anja Kirsch, I have edited the volume Socialist Imaginations: Utopias, Myths, and the Masses (Routledge, 2018). A 718 pages long volumes on the relationship between modern socialism and religion and secular faith is published in Swedish, both in printed and in free digital form, under the titel Röd tro: socialistiska kultur och livsåskådning (Arkiv, 2023). I have moreover written a  book on religion and politics, Religion and Politics under Capitalism: A Humanistic Approach to the  Terminology, (Routledge, 2019). Links to the books if you press the covers to the right.

You find more information on my scholarly background, my publications, contact info and so forth, on my page at Linnæus University.