The church in the centre of the village

This year marks 850 years since the arrival of Christianity in Finland - it has shaped the Finns' identity and their image of themselves

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By Jussi Niemeläinen
     
      This year marks the 850th anniversary of the landfall of Christianity in Finland.
      It is a long time. A relationship that has lasted this long has naturally affected the church itself, but in particular it has left its mark on Finland and the Finns.
      Finland is a Western Christian country.
      Even the foreigner visiting here notices this very quickly. Church towers and steeples in the landscape, the blue and white flag flying in the churchyard.
      "The church in the middle of the village is an integral part of the national landscape", says Eila Helander, Professor of Church and Social Studies at the Department of Practical Theology of the University of Helsinki.
     
The influence of the Church is also to be found in our language, and in the names and even the swear-words we use.
      "The Finnish literary language has come into being to serve the needs of the Church", says Taru Kolehmainen, from the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland.
      In the 1540s, Mikael Agricola translated specifically religious texts - including the New Testament - into Finnish. The Protestant reformer Agricola (c. 1510- 1557) is regarded as the founder of written Finnish. Even his famous ABC primer was intended as a means to further religion, and it contained a catechism within it.
     
The national landscape and the language are a part of our culture and history. They provide the seeds for an answer to the question of what it is to be Finnish, notes Helander.
      "Religion has shaped our ways of thinking, being, and living."
      In addition to shaping the behaviour-patterns of individuals, Lutheranism has had a profound impact on the national sense of self and identity.
      "The way in which Finns identify with things, the way they see their own place in the world and also their own character", says Irma Sulkunen, Professor of Finnish History at the University of Tampere.
     
Hence it follows that the Lutheran tradition has also determined the image of what it is to be a decent citizen and a good Finn.
      "The virtues that are associated with being a good Christian have naturally been remodelled for secular use. It goes without saying that humility and modesty have eagerly been applied as a means of exerting secular power and authority."
      There is nothing very new about the use of religion as an instrument of power. The Church did not come to Finland in the guise of any kind of revivalist movement, but with banners unfurled and swords drawn as a new system of governance.
      What bound Finland to Western culture was the simple fact that the Western (Roman Catholic) Church was the more powerful of those that sought to get a foothold here.
     
The most direct influence of religion in the society and in its legislative processes could be found from the 16th century through to the 1770s, argues Jukka Kekkonen, Professor of Legal History and Roman Law at the University of Helsinki.
      "In 1608, the Commandments of Moses became a secondary source for legal judgements. Swearing, for instance, became a crime punishable by the death penalty."
      In more recent times the influence of religion on the judicial process and on law-making has been seen largely through a common set of values in the society.
      Nowadays religion raises its head primarily in individual questions relating to procreation and to family values, says Kekkonen. Only a few decades ago the significance of the Church was still appreciably greater.
      "In the sixties, for instance, there was the celebrated court-case over blasphemy", he notes, referring to the incident in which author Hannu Salama was hauled through the courts in a famous trial for blasphemy (after which the blasphemy laws were repealed) for his novel Juhannustanssit (Juhannus Dances, 1964).
     
Since then the Church has moved from being a very conservative edifice to become the conscience of society, observes Kekkonen.
      "This is a consequence of the weakening of the Church's power base within the society. Someone or something with less power to its arm finds it easier to speak out."
      Many still recall how at the beginning of the 1990s the Church began to rail against xenophobia in society and to declare the aggression shown to refugees to be a sin. This even irritated the President of the time.
     
Even if its position of power within Finnish society may have been eroded and lost, the Church still has a significant weight, charges Helander. And this is true in spite of the fact that only a small fraction of the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland actually attend regular services.
      The changed, weakened Church nevertheless preserves religious practices and knowledge within the society.
      "And it is important for people that these are upheld."
      The practices are of use, for example, in the case of grief and mourning.
      The national religion also has influences that even the non-believer has trouble shrugging off.
      "Christian faith is an element in the mental and intellectual landscape of the Finns. We live as a part of this landscape, whether we like it or not. An individual can sign off on organised religion, but all the same it is working there all the time in the background", says Irma Sulkunen.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.3.2005

More on this subject:
 BACKGROUND: A jubilee year for the Western Church

Links:
  Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
  Mikael Agricola (Wikipedia)
  The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
  Churches and Religion (Virtual Finland)

JUSSI NIEMELÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jussi.niemelainen@hs.fi