This thesis examines the transformation of religious education in Swedish upper secondary school by comparing the subject plans of Gy11 and the forthcoming Gy25. It analyzes changes in objectives, core content, and knowledge requirements, and how these reflect shifting conceptions of knowledge, educational aims, and societal expectations. Gert Biesta’s theory of educational functions and Basil Bernstein’s concepts of vertical and horizontal discourse serve as the theoretical framework. Through qualitative document analysis, key continuities and discontinuities between the curricula are identified. The results indicate that Gy25 introduces a more long-term and coherent knowledge structure, with an increased emphasis on democratic values and critical engagement with religious and existential issues. Biesta’s educational functions: qualification, socialization, and subjectification are more explicitly embedded in Gy25, highlighting the subject’s role in fostering reflective and active citizenship. Bernstein’s framework reveals a movement toward a stronger vertical discourse, suggesting cleare r subject progression. The study concludes that these curricular shifts represent an ideological reorientation: from a Christian-normative foundation toward a more secular and liberal educational approach. Religious education thus emerges not as confessional or neutral, but as normatively grounded in democratic and pluralistic values.