Spirit of the Place and the Place of the Spirit

Southwest Finnish folklore recorded in the early twentieth century contains a wealth of legends about local spirits, residing and acting both in the wilderness and on farm premises. They belong to belief systems that express social norms and regulations. Many of the legends contain enough information to allow us to locate exactly where local spirits are said to appear or interact with people. In this paper I study these locations and their place in the structure of village society, using historical village maps. The results shed new light on the nature of borders and boundaries in folklore and vernacular belief, as well as on the view of the social meaning of local spirits. Borders and border zones are common ground between several societies, lacking a clearly defined master. In places of uncertain mastery local spirits, endowed with taboos and the authority of the surrounding societies, play a social role in regulating the activities of people on such common ground.

Christus verus Luciferus, Demon est Deus Inversus

This article focuses on a Spiritism board, Yhteyslauta, designed in the mid-1970s by occultist neo-Nazi Pekka Siitoin. The board represents an unexplored occult subchapter of Finnish gaming culture and exhibits the Finnish esoteric tradition. In addition to analysing Yhteyslauta’s game-like elements, the article explores the board’s themes and imagery, and situates these components in the context of Siitoin’s vernacular esoteric doctrine and cosmogony.

Negotiating Christian Cultural Heritage

This article shows how Christmas in schools and public service media for children (PSM) involves negotiation and renewal of Christian cultural heritage. Across the studied cases from Norway and Denmark, we find that the institutions involved seek to realize community. However, community is approached differently in different settings. It is either understood restoratively as a process in which children, including immigrant children, become part of an existing societal community, or constructively as establishing an inclusive community across cultural and religious divides. A major finding is that activities associated with Christianity such as school services are framed in a language of ‘museumification’ and not as part of a living religious practice with the capacity to change and transform. Whereas Islam is positioned as a ‘religious other’, Christianity understood as culture facilitates creative heritage making, establishing community across religious divides. Contrary to political rhetoric, Christian cultural heritage in schools and PSM is by and large not dominated by a safeguarding nationalistic discourse. Rather, traditions and activities related to Christianity are negotiated and appropriated for the benefit of an inclusive community. A premise for making this succeed in schools and PSM is to negotiate Christian cultural heritage as culture, not as religion.

International Magic?

This paper explores international aspects of Finnish folk magic. Folk magic objects in two Finnish museum collections (the National Museum of Finland and Museum Centre Vapriikki) are compared to analogous objects in the Nordiska museet in Sweden and the Pitt Rivers Museum in the UK to reveal the collections’ resemblances and differences. The material in question dates to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many similar objects occur in these collections. Explanations for this are sought in historical networks between peoples. Yet a closer inspection also reveals variation in practices and beliefs. This reveals the dynamic nature of folk magic traditions, although collection and curation policies also play a role. Moreover, the complex connections between religion, medicine, and magic are uncovered.

Book Review: Eco-Theology

Book review of Hans-Günter Heimbrock and Jörg Persch (eds): Eco-Theology: Essays in Honor of Sigurd Bergmann. Paderborn: Brill – Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2021, 311 pp.

Response to Margit Warburg

Response to Margit Warburg's comment in Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion, 57 (1), 9–16.

Book Review: Psychopathology and Religion

Book review of Damian Janus: Psychopathology and Religion: Structural Convergences Between Mental Disorders and Religion. London: Lexington Books, 2019, 248 pp.

Book Review: Towards a Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace

Book review of Joseph Camilleri and Deborah Guess (eds): Towards a Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace: Navigating the Great Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, 363 pp.

Legitimizing Claims of Special Knowledge

A significant function of the category “religion” is demarcating and insulating particular claims of special knowledge — but too often, Religious Studies serves to mystify and defend this function, rather than critically analysing it. Drawing on categories in which claims of special knowledge are central, including Gnosticism, conspiracy theories and esotericism, this paper will look at the history of Religious Studies scholars operating within epistemes which it should be critiquing. Yet a focus on multiple and overlapping knowledges, and competition over epistemic capital, suggests a possible future for the social-scientific study of religion.