Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion https://journal.fi/temenos <p><em>Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion</em> (previously Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion) is published by <a href="http://uskontotiede.fi/en/">the Finnish Society for the Study of Religion</a>. The journal was founded in 1965 as a joint publication with the learned societies of Comparative Religion in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden to promote the research and communication of ideas between scholars. Temenos publishes scholarly articles, academic discussions, conference reports, book reviews and thematic issues within the field of the study of religion and culture.<br /><br />Temenos is peer reviewed open access journal. In the Finnish Publication rating system it has been rated on top level (3). We are currently in the process of digitizing back issues, and past articles will be published in the archives section of this website as the project progresses. 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This agreement will be governed by the laws of Finland.</li> </ul> sofia.sjo@abo.fi (Sofia Sjö) sofia.sjo@abo.fi (Sofia Sjö) Fri, 06 Jun 2025 09:02:37 +0300 OJS 3.2.1.4 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 Editorial Note https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/157313 Minna Opas, Sofia Sjö Copyright (c) 2025 Minna Opas, Sofia Sjö https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/157313 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Jørn Borup: Decolonising the Study of Religion https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/161039 <p>Book review of Jørn Borup: Decolonising the Study of Religion: Who Owns Buddhism? Routledge Studies in Asian Religion and Philosophy. London: Routledge, 2023, 211 pp.</p> Johannes Cairns Copyright (c) 2025 Johannes Cairns https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/161039 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Daniel Enstedt and Katarina Plank (eds): Eastern Practices and Nordic Bodies: Lived Religion, Spirituality and Healing in the Nordic Countries https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/161056 <p>Book review of Daniel Enstedt and Katarina Plank (eds): Eastern Practices and Nordic Bodies: Lived Religion, Spirituality and Healing in the Nordic Countries. Palgrave McMillan, 2023, 306 pp.</p> Ella Poutiainen Copyright (c) 2025 Ella Poutiainen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/161056 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Yoga in Norwegian Nature https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/152147 <p>As modern yoga continues to be practised and spread all over the world, it is also changing and adapting to local beliefs, practices, and values. Yoga retreats in nature are now a phenomenon in Norway. This article is based on a document study of websites advertising yoga retreats in Norway, exploring how nature is described and presented. The analysis shows that nature is presented as sacred, healing, and valuable. Elements from Sámi spirituality and other religious traditions are drawn on, and nature is marketed as a necessary part of a spiritual package. This can be seen in connection with climate concerns and Bron Taylor’s formulation of the concept of dark green religion. Nature’s utilization in marketing material suggests a Norwegianization of yoga, where yoga is made more Norwegian by connecting it with Norwegian nature, Sámi spirituality, and local traditions. The article argues that we are seeing the emergence of a new pilgrimage practice in Norway as part of the Norwegianization of yoga. Yoga and wellness are paired here with nature experiences and nature spirituality in a local retreat setting.</p> Marie Glasø Glein Copyright (c) 2025 Marie Glasø Glein https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/152147 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Swedish Local Free Churches’ Use of Instagram https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/148174 <p>This study examines how local Swedish Free Churches use the social media platform Instagram. It builds on data from nine local churches’ Instagram accounts gathered between February and April 2024, encompassing 952 individual posts (including stories) and accompanying captions. Drawing on Adrienne Shaw’s (2017) work, the study not only investigates the technical affordances these congregations employ but observes what these platforms afford religious institutions. It thus challenges the technological determinism often prevalent in previous research, which tends to equate successful social media use with two-way communication and views its absence as a failure. The findings show that, rather than conforming to dominant platform norms, these churches take a negotiated approach, adapting their use of Instagram to serve their values and goals. The analysis highlights how these religious institutions translate their core values onto the platform by emphasizing congregational commitment, personal piety, and biblical authority in their posts, thus bridging their offline and online identities. The local churches included in the study belong to the Uniting Church in Sweden, the Pentecostal Alliance of Independent Churches, and the Evangelical Free Church.</p> Julia Kuhlin Copyright (c) 2025 Julia Kuhlin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/148174 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Spiritual Festivals as Embodied Sites of Becoming ‘Porous Selves’ https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/145636 <p>Contemporary spiritual festivals attract heterogeneous crowds of adherents of emergent religions, practitioners and aficionados of fringe knowledge, self-seekers, and many others. Focusing on the ethnographic context of Estonia, this paper approaches such festivals as occasions of self-transformation, where festival participants collectively engage in various practices that encourage them to ‘open up’ – to themselves, to others, and to the world. The physical body often takes centre stage in these ritualized activities, which are typically performed in unison and involve interacting with other bodies through synchronized movement and sound, dance, touch, or at the very least deliberate eye contact with others. Charles Taylor’s (2007) distinction between the ‘buffered’ and the ‘porous’ self provides a suitable analytical framework for exploring and understanding these activities’ transformative potential and effect.</p> Toomas Gross Copyright (c) 2025 Toomas Gross https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/145636 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Being Finnish, Being Muslim https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/142345 <p>This article explores Muslim women’s views of their religious and national identities, citizenship, and belonging in Finland. The primary material consists of 20 semi-structured interviews collected in 2021 and 2022. The interviews convey three different understandings of the relationship between Finnish and Muslim identity: the perception of oneself as a Finnish Muslim; the perception of oneself as a non-Finnish Muslim; and the perception of oneself as a multicultural citizen. Additionally, two notions can be observed regarding Muslim identity: one sees Muslimness as a central and unchanging aspect of one’s core identity; the other views it as a highly fluid and context-dependent group identity. Islamic religiosity does not in itself seem to reduce attachment to Finnish identity. Instead, those distancing themselves from Finnishness often referred to experiences of not having their Finnishness acknowledged by society. Identification with the ummah, the worldwide community of believers, proved to be relatively low or completely rejected.</p> Saara Aitokari Copyright (c) 2025 Saara Aitokari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/142345 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0300 “Only Russia Can Save the World” https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/160164 <p>Drawing on previous research dedicated to the examination of far right media worlds that link Christian conservatives in the United States and Russia, this talk offers a broad overview of how technology and ideology transform American social ecologies. Contending that digital media are crucial to the social recalibrations of Russian Orthodoxy in the global context, this talk invites us to see better the philosophical connections across local religious beliefs and global politics in our mediated contemporary moment.</p> Sarah Riccardi-Swartz Copyright (c) 2025 Sarah Riccardi-Swartz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/160164 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0300