The religious message in action - a case study

Authors

• René Gothóni University of Helsinki
• Kirsti Suolinna

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67091

Keywords:

Laestadianism, Revivals, Finland, Communication, Church renewal -- Lutheran churches, Revivalism, Sermons, Language and religion, Symbolism

Abstract

We understand a religious message to be the product of a religious movement. In studying such a message, it is very much to the purpose to place it in the context in which it operates. The cultural and social context of a religious message is some religious movement. Hence, the message should be examined against that framework. Each message has a certain structure, and its detection is of prime importance. Messages are not only part of the tradition, but themselves unique in their respective communicative situations. Thus, in our view, structural analysis does not have analytical use-value unless the message's symbols are set into their communicative context. The aim of this paper is dual: On the one hand, we intend to analyze and clarify the structure of a religious message of the Laestadian movement, how the message operates, also how the members of that movement respond to the codes of the message, and what kind of functions it fulfills; on the other, to develop and test an analytical model which would combine structural and interactional analysis.