Approaching Religion

 

Approaching Religion is an academic open access journal published by the Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History in Åbo, Finland. Its purpose is to publish current research on religion and to offer a platform for scholarly co-operation and debate within the field. The journal appears twice a year and consists of articles, book reviews and discussions. It addresses an international readership and, as the title suggests, approaches the field of religion from a broad perspective, engaging contributors from different theoretical and methodological traditions.

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Uusimmat viitteet

  • The Innovation of a Master Wonder-worker in the Character of Simon Peter 

    Berglund, Carl Johan (The Donner Institute, 28.02.2024)
    Simon Peter undergoes a considerable development from his first introduction in the Gospel of Mark to later narratives, where he gains remarkable miraculous abilities. In Mark, he witnesses Jesus performing numerous miracles ...
  • Suppressed, Adopted and Invented Memories. The Death of Jesus in the Gospel of John 

    Syreeni, Kari (The Donner Institute, 28.02.2024)
    The Gospel of John reflects several layers of social memory and theological creativity concerning Jesus’s death. In the early material, there seems to be a suppressed awareness of Jesus’s fate and an unwillingness to unfold ...
  • The Retrieved Altar Cross of the Luther Church Helsinki. Sacred Waste Transformed into a Heritagization Frame 

    Dahlbacka, Jakob (The Donner Institute, 28.02.2024)
    The topic of this article is religious materiality in a Finnish, Lutheran setting. Reflecting on the altar cross of the Luther Church Helsinki – and more specifically the elevated role the cross played in the re-opening ...
  • Contexts of Altar Flowers. A Contribution to a Theology in Construction. 

    Jokinen, Heidi (28.02.2024)
    Flowers are placed on the altar in many Christian churches. However, while many other items on the altar have given rise to a vast body of theological research, this is not the case with altar flowers. In this article the ...
  • “My soul must live with the colour”. The Transformative Potential of Colours Described by Rudolf Steiner 

    Kuuva, Sari (The Donner Institute, 28.02.2024)
    The article focuses on the transformative potential of colours described by Rudolf Steiner. Steiner’s colour definitions are approached through the aesthetics of religion, investigating religion as a sensory and mediated ...
  • Mapping the Memories of “Living on Light”. Processuality with Actor-network Theory 

    Raunola, Ilona (The Donner Institute, 28.02.2024)
    In this article a case study of the phenomenon of “living on light” is presented. The interlocutor “Eva” shares her memories from the period when she did not eat material food. Actor-network theory (ANT) is adopted to ...
  • The Kalevala and Finland's Atlantean Past. Willie Angervo's Esoteric History 

    Korpi, Ossi (The Donner Institute, 28.02.2024)
    Nationalistic interpretations of history were prevalent in Finland until the Second World War. A unifying past for Finns was sought in antiquity, often influenced by interpretations of the Kalevala, regarded as the Finnish ...
  • Religion - Memory and Innovation 

    Hovi, Tuija; Illman, Ruth; Vähäkangas, Mika (The Donner Institute, 28.02.2024)
    The current issue of Approaching Religion is based on a summer school and conference arranged in Åbo/Turku, Finland, in June 2023, on the theme of “Religion: Memory and Innovation”. The event was organized jointly by the ...
  • Is appropriation a useful category for scholarship on religion? 

    Bucar, Liz (The Donner Institute, 18.12.2023)
    Concluding remarks for the special issue of Approaching Religion, ‘Appropriation as a Perspective and Topic in the Study of Religion and Spirituality’.
  • The appropriation of mindfulness in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland 

    Moberg, Marcus; Ramstedt, Tommy (The Donner Institute, 18.12.2023)
    Mindfulness has gained increasing popularity across Western societies over the past couple of decades, although mainly in forms that have been stripped of all religious content. During this period, the practice has also ...
  • Inter- and intra-religious appropriation 

    Lensink, Jip (The Donner Institute, 18.12.2023)
    Moluccan people arrived in the Netherlands in 1951, as a result of the complicated process of the decolonization of Indonesia. A situation of permanent waiting and political disappointment resulted in this growing Moluccan ...
  • ‘When somebody tells you who you are’ 

    Parland, Milena (The Donner Institute, 18.12.2023)
    This article investigates the notion of spiritual appropriation in Finnish schools, with a particular focus on the experiences of religious minorities. It draws on narratives from these communities, shedding light on their ...
  • Shades of whiteness 

    Butters, Albion M (The Donner Institute, 18.01.2023)
    This study examines the appropriation of religious symbols by the Nordic Alt-Right over the last decade, focusing on their use for völkisch identity construction around whiteness. It locates this signification historically, ...
  • Tradition and ownership 

    Kallio, Kati; Silvonen, Viliina (The Donner Institute, 18.12.2023)
    A new dispute about the ownership of Karelian laments emerged in Finland in 2021. The severely endangered Karelian language is the closest relative of Finnish. Karelian laments were brought into new Finnish contexts during ...
  • Accusing witches in the twenty-first century 

    Cornish, Helen (The Donner Institute, 18.12.2023)
    There is little about globalized modern magical-religious Witchcraft that isn’t borrowed. It is well established that it is a creative response to modernity rather than an ancient continuous practice. Its inventiveness ...
  • Facilitating pura medicina 

    Heinonen, Tero (The Donner Institute, 18.12.2023)
    In this article, based on my doctoral research, I discuss the appropriation of religious elements from South America by Finnish ‘mystical tourists’. The plant medicine ceremonies are approached as spiritual commodities. ...
  • Appropriation as a perspective and topic in the study of religion and spirituality 

    Annunen, Linda; Utriainen, Terhi (The Donner Institute, 18.12.2023)
    Cultural appropriation is a timely topic that has been taking up a lot of space in public discussions. The concept is often applied in heated debates aimed at calling out’ different actors and actions as appropriation, or ...
  • Wind of change. Exploring the value creation of diaconia 

    Hellöre, Lise-Lotte (The Donner Institute, 01.09.2023)
    The value of diaconia is difficult to measure, its immaterial assets not easily grasped. In this article, I contribute to the area in analysing the perspective of 22 deacons on what is most important in their job and what ...
  • From church to museum and back again. The de-sacralization and re-sacralization of Kinnarumma's old wooden church 

    Andersson, Erik J. (The Donner Institute, 01.09.2023)
    In the small village of Kinnarumma in western Sweden an old wooden church was replaced by a new church buildning in the early twentieth century. The old church was de-sacralized by being moved to an open-air museum in Borås ...
  • When Magnus Johanson turned fifty. Materiality, place-making and early-twentieth-century Swedish Baptist birthday parties 

    Holmes, Janice (The Donner Institute, 01.09.2023)
    This article examines birthday party decorations as a way of understanding the materiality and religious place-making of an expanding Baptist congregation in central Sweden in the early twentieth century. The fiftieth ...

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