scholarly journals Evangelical Lutheran Baptism in the Tauragė District in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Lituanistica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Mardosa

The article deals with Evangelical Lutheran baptism in the Tauragė District in the second half of the twentieth century. The author gives an overview of a historical perspective of the Evangelical Lutherans in the district of Tauragė and introduces the features of the liturgical development of the Christian and Evangelical Lutheran sacrament of baptism and the basis of folk baptism. Ethnographic field research material and ethnological investigation are the primary material sources of this study. With the help of research material, the structure of the traditional Evangelical Lutheran Baptism in the Tauragė district is shown, with emphasis on the preparatory actions of baptism granting the Sacrament of the Baptism, and baptismal feasts. The author maintains that the essence of baptism of the Lithuanian Evangelical Lutherans is a common human ground, and because of that ground common features with the customs of the Catholic baptism are found. The customs of the ceremonies of Lutheran and Catholic baptism share many common points in the perspective of folk devotion.In the Tauragė district, traditional Evangelical Lutheran baptismal rituals of the first half of the twentieth century have the following specific features: a twoday baptismal feast, decoration of baptismal clothes in myrtles, a baby carrier participating without the presence of the godparents in the granting of the Sacrament of Baptism and specific customs of the welcoming of the baptized infant. Changes in baptism took place in the second half of the twentieth century. The atheist ideology of the Soviet period and changes in people’s lifestyle influenced the disappearance of some specific aspects of baptism, while others remained as a fact of ethno-cultural memory. The significance of entertainment in the ceremony has increased, the age of baptized infants has extended, the ritual position of the baby carrier and the tradition of decorating the baptism covering with myrtles have disappeared, and the parents of the infant, like guests, became only participants in the baptism ceremony in the church. After Lithuania regained its independence, the traditional structure of the baptism has remained, but the aspect of folk piety in baptism has shrunk due to the absence of magic practices.

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (S15) ◽  
pp. 189-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsti Salmi-Niklander

This article discusses irony, parody, and satire in the oral-literary tradition of Finnish working-class youth during the first decades of the twentieth century. The most important research material is Valistaja (The Enlightener, 1914–1925), a handwritten newspaper produced by young working-class people in the industrial town of Karkkila in southern Finland. This research material provides examples of different kinds of parody: ideological parody is directed against both political opponents and the texts representing their ideology; generic parody involves playing with linguistic norms and generic conventions. Parody and satire provided means for exposing the cruelty and cowardice of the anti-Bolshevik Whites, the hypocrisy of the Church, and the conservatism of the older generation of workers. The ironic expressions reflect the experiences and tensions among groups of young people in Karkkila.


2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-26
Author(s):  
Ringa Takanen

Before the mid-nineteenth century there were few subjects in the altarpiece tradition of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in which the central figures accompanying Christ were female. Seldom used or new motifs involving female characters now emerged behind the altar. Most of the altarpieces with central women figures were painted in Finland at the turn of the twentieth century by the artist Alexandra Frosterus-Såltin (1837–1916). In the nineteenth century Frosterus-Såltin was the only artist in Finland who realized the motif of ‘Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene’ in her altarpieces. In her final representation of the theme, the altarpiece in the church of the Finnish Jepua commune, she chose an unusual approach to the motif. My interest in the subject lies in the motif’s affective nature – the ways in which altarpieces in general have been actively used to evoke feelings. Moreover, I consider the influence that Alexandra Frosterus-Såltin, a significant agent in Finnish sacral art, had on consolidating the position of women’s agency in the Finnish altarpiece tradition. I examine the motif in relation to the cultural and political atmosphere of the era, especially the changing gender roles and the understanding of women’s social agency as the women’s movement emerged.


2020 ◽  
pp. 193-211
Author(s):  
Terese Bue Kessel

This chapter discusses how infertility is experienced as a social and cultural disability in the context of Cameroon, Africa. Extensive research material from sub-Saharan countries shows that infertile women are facing serious and painful social and psychological challenges. A qualitative research material on the movement Women for Christ in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon includes one particular story of infertility experiences. The discussion reveals that the movement’s pastoral care practices in the community include infertile women. This movement, in collaboration with the church, provides a space for women who have to cope with infertility to redefine their identity. In this caring community, they develop renewed dignity and status in a context where they are otherwise stigmatized. The church has the potential to further develop this space to also include husbands, so couples can withstand the stigmatization that usually follows the infertile family.


2007 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Constable

This article examines the Scottish missionary contribution to a Scottish sense of empire in India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initially, the article reviews general historiographical interpretations which have in recent years been developed to explain the Scottish relationship with British imperial development in India. Subsequently the article analyses in detail the religious contributions of Scottish Presbyterian missionaries of the Church of Scotland and the Free Church Missions to a Scottish sense of empire with a focus on their interaction with Hindu socioreligious thought in nineteenth-century western India. Previous missionary historiography has tended to focus substantially on the emergence of Scottish evangelical missionary activity in India in the early nineteenth century and most notably on Alexander Duff (1806–78). Relatively little has been written on Scottish Presbyterian missions in India in the later nineteenth century, and even less on the significance of their missionary thought to a Scottish sense of Indian empire. Through an analysis of Scottish Presbyterian missionary critiques in both vernacular Marathi and English, this article outlines the orientalist engagement of Scottish Presbyterian missionary thought with late nineteenth-century popular Hinduism. In conclusion this article demonstrates how this intellectual engagement contributed to and helped define a Scottish missionary sense of empire in India.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 235-246
Author(s):  
Alexey L. Beglov

The article examines the contribution of the representatives of the Samarin family to the development of the Parish issue in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The issue of expanding the rights of the laity in the sphere of parish self-government was one of the most debated problems of Church life in that period. The public discussion was initiated by D.F. Samarin (1827-1901). He formulated the “social concept” of the parish and parish reform, based on Slavophile views on society and the Church. In the beginning of the twentieth century his eldest son F.D. Samarin who was a member of the Special Council on the development the Orthodox parish project in 1907, and as such developed the Slavophile concept of the parish. In 1915, A.D. Samarin, who took up the position of the Chief Procurator of the Most Holy Synod, tried to make his contribution to the cause of the parish reforms, but he failed to do so due to his resignation.


1962 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 430-439
Author(s):  
José M. Sánchez

Few subjects in recent history have lent themselves to such heated polemical writing and debate as that concerning the Spanish Church and its relationship to the abortive Spanish revolution of 1931–1939. Throughout this tragic era and especially during the Civil War, it was commonplace to find the Church labelled as reactionary, completely and unalterably opposed to progress, and out of touch with the political realities of the twentieth century.1 In the minds of many whose views were colored by the highly partisan reports of events in Spain during the nineteen thirties, the Church has been pictured as an integral member of the Unholy Triumvirate— Bishops, Landlords, and enerals—which has always conspired to impede Spanish progress. Recent historical scholarship has begun to dispel some of the notions about the right-wing groups,2 but there has been little research on the role of the clergy. Even more important, there has been little understanding of the Church's response to the radical revolutionary movements in Spain.


1989 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-381
Author(s):  
Arthur R. Liebscher

To the dismay of today's social progressives, the Argentine Catholic church addresses the moral situation of its people but also shies away from specific political positions or other hint of secular involvement. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the church set out to secure its place in national leadership by strengthening religious institutions and withdrawing clergy from politics. The church struggled to overcome a heritage of organizational weakness in order to promote evangelization, that is, to extend its spiritual influence within Argentina. The bishop of the central city of Córdoba, Franciscan Friar Zenón Bustos y Ferreyra (1905-1925), reinforced pastoral care, catechesis, and education. After 1912, as politics became more heated, Bustos insisted that priests abstain from partisan activities and dedicate themselves to ministry. The church casts itself in the role of national guardian, not of the government, but of the faith and morals of the people.


2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-266
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Coe ◽  
Brad Petersen

For decades, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have experienced steady membership declines. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is no different, and our research team has been exploring this topic for years. Faith Communities Today (FACT) is an interfaith project consisting of a series of surveys conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, of which the ELCA is a long-standing member. In this article, we examine data collected from the three decennial FACT surveys to discern where, despite declining membership, God is, to quote the prophet Isaiah, “doing a new thing.” We find that over the past twenty years, the typical ELCA congregation has had a gradually increasing: sense of vitality, belief that it is financially healthy, desire to become more diverse, willingness to call women to serve as pastors, openness to change, and clarity of mission and purpose. Because there are multiple possible explanations for these positive trends, we recommend approaching such trend lines cautiously, viewing them through a critical-thinking lens. Even though there is an increased perception of congregational well-being, overall finances and the number of people involved in the church continue to decline. There is still much work to be done.


2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-69
Author(s):  
C. Ryan Fields

Broughton Knox and Donald Robinson, Sydney Anglicans serving and writing in the second half of the twentieth century, offered various theological proposals regarding the nature of the church that stressed the priority of the local over the translocal. The interdependence and resonance of their proposals led to an association of their work under the summary banner of the “Knox-Robinson Ecclesiology.” Their dovetailed contribution offers in many ways a compelling understanding of the nature of the ecclesia spoken of in Scripture. In this paper I introduce, summarize, and evaluate the Knox-Robinson ecclesiology with a particular eye to Knox's and Robinson's use of Scripture in authorizing their theological proposals. I argue that while they provide an important corrective to the inflation of the earthly translocal dimension of the church, they are not ultimately persuasive in their claim that the New Testament knows only the church as an earthly/heavenly gathering.


Author(s):  
Gabriel Flynn

This chapter describes the contribution of a group of (initially French) theologians known for promoting the work of ressourcement: renewal of the Church through recovery of biblical and Early Christian sources. The work of Henri de Lubac and Yves Congar receives particular attention (although the contributions of others, such as Marie-Dominique Chenu and Jean Cardinal Daniélou are also discussed), and the group as a whole is placed against the background of the social, political, and ecclesiastical context of France in the first half of the twentieth century. This chapter highlights the centrality of ressourcement theologians to the work of Vatican II. The final sections of the essay focus on one of the most important consequences of their work at the council, the development of accounts of the Church as ‘communion’.


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