Temenos - Nordic journal for the Study of Religion

“Only Russia Can Save the World”: Reactive Orthodoxies, Political Technology, and Religious Worldbuilding Drawing on previous research dedicated to the examination of far right media worlds that link Christian conservatives in the United States and Russia, this talk offers a broad overview of how technolo...

grappling with social transformations through digital communitas in the global context.
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Focusing the conversation on the relationship between digital media and religio-political conversion offers a window onto the shifting technological dynamics of both global politics and foreign affairs, while illustrating how particular US communities are

and through it Putin’s New Russia. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and digital content analysis, Riccardi-Swartz’s research highlights an intentional community of converts who exemplify much broader analogue and digital networks of Russian Orthodox converts in the United States.

In addition to these four peer-reviewed articles the issue includes two book reviews and Sarah Riccardi-Swartz’s 2023 Temenos lecture. This lecture also explores online and offline religion, with its focus on a group of American citizens in Appalachia who have embraced the Russian Orthodox Church

Being Finnish, Being Muslim: National Identity, Citizenship and Belonging Among Muslim Women in Finland This article explores Muslim women’s views of their religious and national identities, citizenship, and belonging in Finland. The primary material consists of 20 semi-structured interviews collected i...

In situating the study within the broader context of religious diversity in Finland, the article contributes to ongoing discussions of multiculturalism, integration, and the lived experiences of members of minority religions.
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and how they navigate their religious and civic identities and environments. Three main ways of perceiving the relationship are identified: the perception of oneself as a Finnish Muslim; as a non-Finnish Muslim; and as a multicultural citizen.

The fourth article by Saara Aitokari, explores the intersections between religious identity and national belonging. Based on twenty semi-structed interviews, the author discusses how Muslim women in Finland view the relationship between Islam and Finnishness,

Spiritual Festivals as Embodied Sites of Becoming ‘Porous Selves’ Contemporary spiritual festivals attract heterogeneous crowds of adherents of emergent religions, practitioners and aficionados of fringe knowledge, self-seekers, and many others. Focusing on the ethn...

It highlights the importance of the body and embodied experiences in shaping spiritual identities in today’s religious and spiritual contexts.
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ritualized activities at these festivals encourage participants to engage in practices that foster openness of the body and self to the surrounding world.

adherents of emergent religions, seekers of self-knowledge, and aficionados of fringe knowledge, serves as a holistically transformative space for participants. By employing Charles Taylor’s concept of the ‘buffered’ versus ‘porous’ self, the article discusses how

The third article by Toomas Gross, is based on participant observation within the ethnographic context of contemporary spiritual festivals in Estonia. It explores how the ‘High on Life’ (Ühenduses) festival, which attracts a heterogeneous crowd that includes

Swedish Local Free Churches’ Use of Instagram: A Negotiated Approach to Social Media Engagement This study examines how local Swedish Free Churches use the social media platform Instagram. It builds on data from nine local churches’ Instagram accounts gathered between February and April 2024, en...

negotiated approach, prioritizing coherence between online and offline practices above maximizing digital engagement. The article contributes to our understanding of how religious institutions navigate digital spaces in contemporary secular societies.
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the study challenges traditional notions of social media use among religious institutions, arguing for a more nuanced understanding of how these platforms can be adapted to serve specific goals. The findings reveal that rather than conforming to dominant platform norms, these churches adopt a

The second article by Julia Kuhlin, discusses how local Swedish Free Churches employ the social media platform Instagram to communicate their values and engage with congregants. Based on a substantial dataset of posts from nine local churches and the theory of affordances,

Yoga in Norwegian Nature: The Creation of a New Pilgrimage Practice As modern yoga continues to be practised and spread all over the world, it is also changing and adapting to local beliefs, practices, and values. Yoga retreats in nature are now a phenomenon in Norway...

The article raises important questions about the commodification of spirituality, and how local contexts shape global practices.

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of Norwegian yoga.

According to the author the process of making yoga more Norwegian reflects a broader cultural shift in which yoga is not taken merely as a global practice but as a new form of pilgrimage that connects individuals to both their local spiritual and natural environments.

The first article by Marie Glasø Glein, examines how nature is presented in relation to yoga, and how such representations relate to what she calls the Norwegianization of yoga. Drawing on Sámi spirituality, nature is depicted in the promotional materials as something sacred and an inseparable part

Vol. 61 No. 1 (2025): Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion

The articles provide a rich view of how religious and spiritual service providers employ the internet and social media to attract participants, and of how individuals experience and live out their worldview amidst the global currents and pressures from the dominant society
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Let's take a deeper dive into the articles we published last week in our 1st issue of 2025!

Vol. 61 No. 1 (2025): Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion

You can read and download all the articles and pieces from here. Open access.
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Cover image of Temenos Volume 61 No. 1. It has the Temenos golden bough logo and the publisher association's name ln it (The Finnish Society for the Study of Religion).

We are proud to present the 1st issue of Temenos for 2025! This issue of Temenos brings together a collection of articles on the contemporary landscape of interplay between tradition and innovation in spirituality and religious practice within the Nordic countries and the Baltic area. Link below.

Majoritarian Religion, Cultural Justification and Nonreligion: Finland in the International Context This article considers the turn to culture and heritage as a strategy for the preservation of majoritarian religious practices, including the implications of such a strategy for nonreligious people. T...

Feel free to download and read the article by Teemu Taira (University of Helsinki) and Lori G. Beaman (University of Ottawa) here: journal.fi/temenos/arti...

While waiting for the issue to drop, we looked into the journal archives for some spring time reading, and found an article to share. It is on cultural justification of symbols in the public discussion about singing the Summer Hymn in the Finnish schools at the end of spring term (link below).

In just a couple of weeks the 1st issue of Temenos 2025 will be out. There are articles on social media, yoga, Islam in Finland, and a lecture transcription with the provocative title "Only Russia Can Save The World". We can hardly wait to share this exciting issue with you in the beginning of June!

Thank you 🙌

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Vol. 60 No. 2 (2024): Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion

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Hello BlueSky! We will be sharing our latest issues, picks from the journal archives, and other relevant news and publications from the Nordic Study of Religion milieu. Feel free to check out our latest issue from 2024 on our website (link in comments). Next issue is will be out in June!