Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion

How the Nineteenth-century Evangelical Revival Strengthened Faith and Undermined Christendom

Stefan Gelfgren — 2023-12-19

This article deals with the paradoxical relationship between the nineteenth-century Evangelical Revival and secularization. It is argued here that the revival and its worldview played a role in increasing pluralism and choice in the nineteenth century – a process often related to secularization. The Evangelical movement both attempted to oppose modernity and rationalism and emphasized religious freedom, voluntarism, and individualism. It therefore induced and popularized self-reflection, doubt, and deconversion. It also favoured religious democracy in opposition to a state-imposed religious monopoly (at least in northern Europe). Furthermore, by dividing people into believers and nonbelievers, it emphasized religious polarization. This contributed to an undermining of established religious structures, fragmenting and pluralizing the religious landscape and giving people the option to abstain completely from religious commitment. The Swedish confessional (inner mission) revivalist denomination Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen (EFS – approx. the Swedish Evangelical Mission Society), founded in 1856, is used as a case. The popular literature they published and distributed manifested an evangelical worldview. In this article four themes, based on the popular literature, are used to study empirically the changing role of religion in relation to nineteenth-century revivalism: ‘the dualistic worldview’; ‘conversion’; ‘activism’; and ‘self-reflection’.

Relating to Tradition

Jere Kyyrö — 2023-12-19

By analysing a survey and elicited thematic writings, this article seeks to identify the main elements in the civil religion (CR) of Finnish Independence Day (FID) celebrations, how FID is related to CR, and the role the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) plays in FID. It further demonstrates the utility of an open definition of CR in which its relationship with church religion is understood as an open question and tests the various dimensions of CR presented in previous discussions. The CR of FID celebrations centres on its traditional mode in the memory of war and employs other national symbols. The negotiating mode is favoured by younger generations and distances itself from the rituals of the traditional mode, while the critical mode uses the rejection of FID celebrations as a platform for a general social critique. Membership of the ELCF, Finnish as a mother tongue, higher education levels, and an identification with higher social classes are the most important predictors for celebrating FID. In the writings the ELCF’s role is associated with the traditional mode in blending with the backdrop of other national symbols, especially those related to the war.

‘The Wisest Man in the East’

Tuomas Järvenpää — 2023-12-19

This article presents an ethnographic analysis of the performance of gospel rap music as part of Evangelical Christian youthwork in Finland. The article is based on my observations of six onsite and five online events that featured gospel rap music in their line-up, as well as interviews with nine musicians and three event organizers. I address the relationship between the aesthetics of gospel rap music and the emotional regimes of Finnish Evangelical Christianity. I define ‘emotional regimes’ here as cultural, social, and material practices that set normative rules for the expression of collective emotions. I conclude that light-hearted humour and irony are prevalent emotional moods in these Christian rap performances in Finland. The article shows how the emotional sequencing around gospel rap music at these Christian events conforms with the general individualistic and therapeutic emotional cultures of late modern societies. Yet I show how some gospel rappers are also self-critical of this individualism and the spectacular nature of these music events and use self-irony and parody as social commentary tools in their performances. Irony in gospel rap performances also opens opportunities for theological innovations and a reflection of social differences.

Åke Hultkrantz on Method

Göran Larsson — 2023-12-19

In this text I focus on what I see as a shift that took place in Study of Religions in Sweden in the early 1970s. There are, of course, many ways to illustrate this change, but in this short article I will place the focus on the Swedish scholar Åke Hultkrantz (1920–2006) and on how his interest in methodological questions illustrates this turn.

Ülo Valk and Marion Bowman (eds): Vernacular Knowledge: Contesting Authority, Expressing Beliefs

Karolina Kouvola — 2023-12-19

Book review of Ülo Valk and Marion Bowman (eds): Vernacular Knowledge: Contesting Authority, Expressing Beliefs. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 2022, 423 pp.

Mathew Guest: Neoliberal Religion: Faith and Power in the Twenty-first Century

Tuomas Martikainen — 2023-12-19

Book review of Mathew Guest: Neoliberal Religion: Faith and Power in the Twenty-first Century. London: Bloomsbury, 2022, 203 pp.

Mitra Härkönen: Power and Agency in the Lives of Contemporary Tibetan Nuns: An Intersectional Study

Maria Sharapan — 2023-12-19

Book review of Mitra Härkönen: Power and Agency in the Lives of Contemporary Tibetan Nuns: An Intersectional Study. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 2023, 252 pp.

Frederik Wallenstein: Muntlighet och minne. Sagatraditionen, kulturhistorien och det kulturella minnets blinda fläck

Daniel Sävborg — 2023-12-19

Book review of Frederik Wallenstein: Muntlighet och minne. Sagatraditionen, kulturhistorien och det kulturella minnets blinda fläck. Stockholm: Stockholms universitet, 2023, 367 pp.

Editorial note

Minna Opas — 2023-12-19