Temenos - Nordic Journal for Study of Religion

Imagine There is no Death…

Anna Sokolova — 2023-06-20

The idea of human mortality and the funerary practices that derive from it seems to be one of the most enduring aspects of culture. What if we stated that death means nothing but pure organic decomposing, leaving nothing behind but the chemical constituents? What if such an approach became the basis of an active reformatory policy of a state? Soviet practices of death and attitudes toward dead bodies can be mentioned among the most significant changes that have taken place in Russian society over the past 150 years. While Soviet leaders have been given lavish state funerals, the death of an ‘average’ person has become less and less visible. Although the state made considerable efforts to reform the funeral sphere, this did not lead to the development and enhancement of brand-new funeral rituals. Rather this policy gradually diminished the social value of funerals and facilitated a transition to DIY funerals. Following Robert Hertz and Arnold van Gennep, I consider funerary practices as a social phenomenon and a social mechanism that allows society and its members to adapt to mortality, experience loss, and restore their integrity. In my talk, I will show how a new understanding of human nature and human mortality transformed the social fabric of Soviet society. Will the lecture be based on my recently published book ‘A New Death for a New Man? Funeral Culture of Early USSR’.

Teemu Pauha and Johanna Konttori (eds): Suomalaiset muslimit

Linda Hyökki — 2023-06-20

Book review of Teemu Pauha and Johanna Konttori (eds): Suomalaiset muslimit. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2022, 263 pp.

Editorial Note

Sofia Sjö — 2023-06-20

Banal and Nostalgic

Evelina Lundmark — 2023-06-20

This article explores how Christian heritage is engaged with, strengthened, and contested in and through Swedish newspapers and in the annual Swedish Christmas calendar. Although Sweden is perceived as highly secular and characterized by an increased distance between the former state church and the Swedish population, ideas about Swedish cultural heritage are still tied to notions of a Christian past. Previous research has highlighted Christmas as particularly salient for Swedes’ understanding of their cultural heritage and national identity, which includes perceptions of Christmas as ‘merely’ a tradition. Using theories of nostalgia and banal religion, this article addresses how Swedishness is constructed in the Christmas calendar, as well as through its framing in Swedish newspapers. While the narrative of the Calendar does not normally include overt references to Christian parables, it frequently uses Christian and folkloric symbolism to effect a backdrop of nostalgia. I argue that the Calendar and its framing in newspapers play on conceptions of Swedishness that are inextricably linked to ideas of ‘secularized’ Christianity, and by extension to constructions of what counts as national belonging in contemporary Sweden.

Ecclesial Online Identities during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Elisabeth Tveito Johnsen — 2023-06-20

The majority churches in Europe are paradoxically considered to be both powerful and weak religious institutions. Their complex position in secular society makes it important for them to communicate who they are to the public. The Covid-19 pandemic was a situation in which churches and other religious institutions were ‘forced’ to use digital media as a primary arena of outreach. This article investigates how three Scandinavian majority churches negotiated their ecclesial identities on Facebook during 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The following question is explored: did ‘online’ enactments represent their religious identities and core values in new ways to the public? The data material consists of material from the official Facebook pages of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (the ELCD), the Church of Norway, and the Church of Sweden, as well as interviews with Facebook editors from each church. The study demonstrates how the Church of Norway and the Church of Sweden enact church practices on Facebook, while the ELCD tries not to be too ‘churchy’. Facebook emerges as a hybridized third space where Scandinavian majority churches pursue new logics and forms of meaning making to retain their position in secular societies. Overall, the churches’ online identities on Facebook are not new representations but intensified versions of their distinct offline identities as ‘folk churches’ for the whole population.

Global Indigeneity on the Move

Siv Ellen Kraft — 2023-06-20

In October 2006 a drum embarked on what is possibly the most extensive journey of any drum at any time. The journey’s ambitions were similarly grand: to serve as a wakeup call to the needs of Mother Earth by linking people, things, and places. What follows is my take on this project in the context of the reclaiming of drums in Sápmi and globalizing discourses on Indigenous religion(s), as well as a focus on object agency and the modes and codes of Indigeneity on the move. I propose ‘drift matter’ (borrowed from the archaeological perspectives of Þóra Pétursdóttir and Bjørnar Olsen) as a concept to consider this case and for the unruliness of afterlives.

Healing and Mental Illness in Ghana

Francis Ethelbert Kwabena Benyah — 2023-06-20

Prayer camps serve as an environment for healing rituals and continue to play an important role in the lives of many Ghanaians spiritually, economically, and socially. In this article, I present the reasons for prayer camps’ continuing reliance as institutions of healthcare for individuals suffering from mental illnesses in Ghana. The article argues that prayer camps will continue to exert public influence and play a dominant role in the treatment of mental health sicknesses due to underlying religio-cultural beliefs and notions associated with illness, especially from the traditional Ghanaian Akan perspective and the inadequate resources at the disposal of state-owned psychiatric hospitals.

Discursive Study of Religion

Jere Kyyrö — 2023-06-20

This article reviews the state of the art of the discursive study of religion (DSR) in Finland through two recent monographs and an edited volume. These are approached from the point of view of a potential user of the conceptual tools of DSR, as well as a teacher of qualitative methods. The article summarizes the definitions of, variations within, as well as typologies and levels of DSR as they are portrayed in the three books. Finally, attention is paid to some practicalities of doing DSR.