The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and its ecumenical relations

Juha Pihkala, PhD, in 1997–2008 bishop of Tampere (Tampere, Finland), juha.pihkala@jp ihkal.pp.fi

Pihkala J. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and its ecumenical relations, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 322–333.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2014-00022

Language: Russian

In this paper the author shares his observations about the specifics of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, in particular, in terms of its role in interconfessional dialogue and ecumenical relations. The author notes the major stages in the development of the Church, starting from first Christian preaching to the Reformation time and then reform of the State and Church in the 19–20th centuries. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland occupies a unique position, being a legal person and having legislative functions, while State has no right to change Church law. Brief amount of Church structure that reflect in organizational principles democratic ideas is also given, and as it is noted by the author the Church of Finland isn’t an ideological monolith, including a variety of ecclesial movements and groups of believers. Largely due to these features the Church of Finland occupies leading role in ecumenical dialogue in recent decades. Especially, the author notes the relationship with the Anglican Church, regular conversations with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic and other Lutheran churches in Scandinavian region. Of great interest are author’s observations on correlation in Church position and State international policy, that have different bases. However, Church being a universal phenomenon faces national and political background and reflects it in a variety of ways.
Creative Commons License

Key words: Lutherans, confession, ecumenism, Reformation, Finland, Ingria

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/pihkala-2014-en/

download PDF
HTML

Baptism, Lutheran Confession and Ecumenical Relations. Three Contexts

Jaakko Mäkelä, Doctor of Theology 2000 Abo Akademi University, Finland, Director of the Office for Global Mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland (Retired)


jaakko.makela@dnainternet.net

Mäkelä, J. Mäkelä J. Baptism, Lutheran Confession and Ecumenical Relations. Three Contexts, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 314–320.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2014-00015

Language: English

The article examines attitude of the Lutheran Church towards baptisms as reflextion of the ecumenical relations. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is a historical majority church with official theological dialogues with Roman Catholic, Orthodox, historical Protestant and Anglican churches and churches influenced by the Anabaptist tradition. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia is a growing historical minority church in a country where Orthodox churches have been dominant. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thailand is a growing minority church in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country. It is also a minority among Christians. In spite of the differences in their contextual settings, all of them share similar stands in questions concerning baptism and ecumenical relations.
In all three cases the Lutheran churches accept the baptism of other churches. This is stated in their Constitutions and Church Orders. This way they identify themselves as part of the Church Universal. Baptism is not usually a problem in their relation to Roman Catholic, Orthodox and historical Protestant churches.
Only the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has had official theological dialogues with churches drawing from Anabaptist tradition, but the others interact with churches with this tradition. These interactions are mainly not recorded. Re-baptisms have created tension between Lutherans and Pentecostals in Finland. In Thailand, re-baptisms were a controversy in the 1960s and 1970s prior to the beginning of Lutheran ministry.
Creative Commons License

Key words: Evangelical Lutheran Church, Finland, Thailand, Ingria, Anabaptism

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/makela-2014-en/

download PDF
HTML

Review on: Makarov I. V. Ocherki istorii reformatsii v Finlyandii (1520–1620 gg.): Formirovanie natsionalnoy tserkovnosti. Portretyi vyidayuschihsya deyateley finskoy Reformatsii [Notes on history of Reformation in Finland (1520s–1620s): Development of national churchism and portraits of leading churchmen], Saint-Petersburg, 2007

Krylov Pavel Valentinovich, PhD, leading scientist, Institute of History, Russian Academy of Science (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), pavel_kryloff@mail.ru

Krylov P. V. Review on: Makarov I. V. Ocherki istorii reformatsii v Finlyandii (1520–1620 gg.): Formirovanie natsionalnoy tserkovnosti. Portretyi vyidayuschihsya deyateley finskoy Reformatsii [Notes on history of Reformation in Finland (1520s–1620s): Development of national churchism and portraits of leading churchmen], Saint-Petersburg, 2007, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 337–340.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2014-00020

Language: Russian

The first Russian monograph dedicated to Reformation in Finland is reviewed in the text. The author appreciates the positives and negative sides of the book that gives to Russian public a detailed tableau of Church history of the neighbor country within contexts of Swedish and World politics, theological thought and religious controversy of the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern time. In spite of its remoteness from the centre, Finnish province of Sweden is depicted as a part of Western Christendom, influenced by its main political and intellectual trends. This thesis, according to the reviewer, could be argued. However, the biographical notices describing main figures of the Finnish Reformation (for example, Michael Agricola or King Gustav Vasa) with a short anthology of their texts translated in Russian is a unique and valuable feature of the book. The reviewer finds out some disadvantages of the text. Firstly, the researcher demonstrates little knowledge of both recent and classical Russian historiography on Swedish history. Secondly, the book lacks attention to the theme of Ingria and its Evangelical Lutheran Church. Thirdly, I. V. Makarov often explains religious or any other specific by “national character of Finns” that sounds quite a primordialist formula. In general, the book appears to be worth reading for everyone interested in the Finnish Church and intellectual history.
Creative Commons License

Key words: Reformation, Sweden, Ingria, Finland, confession

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/krylov-2014-en/

download PDF
HTML