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The Saami shaman drums: some reflexions from an archaelogical perspective
No full textThe Saami shaman drums from northern Scandinavia can be discussed from many different points of view. For an archaeologist there are other questions of interest than those which generally occupy the historian of religions. One important question is how old the known Saami drums are. The known drums are as a rule assumed to be from the seventeenth or the eighteenth centuries, when most of them were collected. It has also been thought that, because of the materials they are made of, drums could not have been preserved any longer. Another perhaps more interesting question is how old the known types of Saami drums might be. When did they acquire their 'classical' form? What did the Viking Age Saami drums look like
Literary symbols and religious belief
No full textCharacteristic of the modern situation is the lack of any distinction between the languages of belief and non-belief. Thus, over a wide area, a believer on the one hand may use symbols which are in no way recognisable as specifically Christian, and may do so even when he wishes to portray experiences of a profoundly religious character; as reader, he can also recognise such experiences in the symbolism of the non-believer. A non-believer, on the other hand, may use Christian symbols without enabling us to attribute to him any conversion to faith. How then is one to describe the difference between believing and expressing a belief one does not share? The essential difference should be seen as resting in the attitude towards the truth of the symbol or statement of belief. In addition, at least as far as the Christian faith is concerned, there is also a moral obligation which is a consequence of faith. Furthermore, there is the sense of communion with those who embrace the same faith
Post-secular religion and the therapeutic turn: three Norwegian examples
No full textThe focus of this article is three contemporary Norwegians, who claim that they communicate with superhuman beings and/or promote therapeutic practices based on superhuman intervention. They come from different walks of life: Margit Sandemo is a best-selling author and housewife; Joralf Gjerstad is now retired, but was a dairy assistant and a bell-ringer in the local church; Märtha Louise is a princess and trained as a physiotherapist and Rosen therapist.What sorts of religion do they promote? How do they relate to the Church? How do they reflect the situation of post-secular religion in Norway? They personify in different ways the therapeutic turn of contemporary culture and religion, which challenges traditional religion as well as the field of medicine/science. Sandemo, Gjerstad and Märtha Louise and Samnøy try to solve everyday problems—illness, difficulties in mastering life and personal relations, the need for safety, feelings of unease in one’s house—problems that are basic in human life, but in some cases neglected by the expert fields or not able to be solved within them
Ascetism: an endangered value? Mutations of ascetism in contemporary monasticism
No full textThis article seeks to understand the shifts which are affecting monastic asceticism in modern society. Is monastic asceticism really changing and in which terms? Why has the place of the body in religious virtuosity changed? As religious virtuosity is based on ascetic practices, we cannot consider that monastic life nowadays has totally eschewed asceticism. So we have to understand the new sense given to this traditional religious practice. It seems that both asceticism and the place of the body in monastic life are changing. Rather than a decline of asceticism, it is more accurate to say that its meaning is being redefined and it becomes more intellectual than physical. At the same time, the body acquires a new position: from mortification to self-fulfilment, it becomes a new ally—and no longer an enemy—of monastic life. So, is asceticism an endangered value? Yes, in the sense that it is no longer a religious value, as was proved by monks who said they are not ascetics, or the nun who said that her community lives a ‘non-ascetic asceticism’. However this does not mean that it has disappeared. The practice of asceticism is necessary to religious virtuosity, but the way to practise it and to define it has been changing, and this is contingent on other evolutions of the religious system and of society. The new kind of asceticism which monks are living nowadays is mainly intellectual asceticism.
The Interethnic and Interreligious Values in Turkish and Crimean Legends
No full textThe present paper examines interethnic and interreligious values in Turkish and Crimean folk legends. The folklore of both Crimea and Turkey has a multicultural background, which makes both corpuses of texts suitable for research. In the course of the study, a wide range of published Turkish and Crimean legends were reviewed and analysed. There are two deeply-rooted tendencies in the studied legends. First of all, the interethnic and interreligious relationships can be described as ghastly and cursed. Thus, antagonists in the legends are often from ethnic minorities or strangers in relation to domestic ethnic groups. However, if the texts are analysed thoroughly, we can see that there are important sacred cultural values at the core of the legends, including values of life, health, and divinity
Secular and Religious Environmentalism in Contemporary Turkey
No full textTurkish environmentalism is gaining ground but has not yet become a serious source of influence in society. The environmental movements have long been held as left wing politics and less religious, but today environmental awreness is also reaching the religious establishment. This article presents some of the secular and religious environmental currents in contemporary Turkey based on fieldwork mainly conducted in 2011. The main research questions are: who are the central environmental actors in Turkey, are there differences ragarding ideology and way of working between the secular and reigious field, and why there is no strong environmental scene in Turkey
The Saint Barbara Altarpiece of Master Francke and its Birgittine Context
Get PDFThis article discusses the iconography of the Virgin Mary cycle on the corpus and the inner wings of the St Barbara altarpiece in the National Museum of Finland in Helsinki. The retable is most famous for the paintings by the North German master called Francke depicting the legend of St Barbara. In the historiography of this altarpiece, the study of the paintings dominates over that of the reliefs. The aim of the article is to explain how and why its sculptural programme is influenced by Birgittine spirituality, and how it was connected to the bishop of Åbo/Turku, Magnus II Tavast, who, it is argued, is the most probable commissioner of the altarpiece
The view of the Ecumenical Synods on the state
No full textWhen one wants to learn to know the basic principles of the Ancient, undivided Church concerning the State, as authoritatively and validly as possible, one has to turn to the teachings of the so-called Ecumenical Synods, which is the term used of those great synods of the bishops which were recognised as representing the mind of the Church and whose declarations and rulings thus were—and are, from the Orthodox point of view—binding on the whole Church. The period, during which the said synods of the ancient Church took place, falls between the 4th and the 8th centuries, the latest of them being held in 787
Freemasonry and its social position in Finland
No full textFreemasonry, with its roots in the seventeenth century, has had to suffer insults and sometimes even attacks from society. In this article the author looks more closely at Freemasonry in Finland, where it first appeared in the mid-eighteenth century, in the light of the suspicion and negative treatment it had to suffer. The deprecatory attitude of individuals and various social organisations towards Freemasonry varied over time, but there was often an underlying suspicion among the general public. This was expressed in the form of legends and folk tales of a more or less dramatic nature