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The Awakening (Finnish : herännäisyys or körttiläisyys) is a Lutheran religious movement in Finland which has found followers in the provinces of Savo and Ostrobothnia. The origins of the movement are in the 18th century. It has functioned inside the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland throughout its existence. Formerly very pietist, the movement is currently considered within mainstream Finnish Lutheranism.
Theologically, the Awakening emphasized the greatness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the insignificance of human efforts towards salvation (see monergism).
Today, the Awakening movement is widely known in Finland through an annual religious summer festival called Herättäjäjuhlat. The festival, held in July, attracts around 30,000 visitors and remains the second largest annual religious event in Finland.
The Awakening brought with it a form of the conventicle known as the seurat which consists of singing of hymns as prayer interrupted with short speeches as commentary to the prevailing mood.
It is nowadays widely assumed that the roots of Herännäisyys lay in several 18th-century popular religious revival movements e.g. in Savo province. There were occasions when groups of people had trance-like religious experiences, for instance in the fields when collecting hay. The most famous of these occurred on Telppäsniitty in 1796. The original leader of the movement was Juhana Lustig. Gradually, in the 1820s, Paavo Ruotsalainen rose as the leader figure in the movement. Simultaneously a religious revival started in Kalajoki. The movement was encouraged by pastors Jonas Lagus and Nils Gustav Malmberg. In the 1830s the two revivals got in touch and united. The movement has always been strongest in Savo, Ostrobothnia and in Kainuu. Through Lutheran clergy, its influence has expanded beyond the region of origin.
In the mid-19th century, the unity of the movement was challenged. Eventually the Evangelical revival led by Fredrik Gabriel Hedberg split from the movement and was organized separately. Simultaneously the movement entered a time of crisis when originally sympathetic clergymen distanced themselves from the movement in protest against Paavo Ruotsalainen, but especially N. G. Malmberg, whom they accused of sinful living. The movement lingered on as a popular movement supported and organized independently by adherents among the peasant population.
In 1880s the son of Nils Gustav Malmberg, Wilhelmi Malmivaara, rose to a leading position. He embraced modern means of communication by founding the periodical Hengellinen Kuukauslehti in 1888 and establishing the publishing company Herättäjä 1892. The movement was institutionalized through the founding of the Herättäjä Society (Sisälähetysseura Herättäjä) in 1912.
According to a poll taken by Church Labor Unions in 2010, 48% of the Finnish Lutheran clergy recognized the influence of awakening in their thinking and 28% were associated with the movement (N=660). [1] Thus, those reflecting the heritage of the Awakening form the largest group in clergy.
The movement strictly holds on to the Lutheran theological basis of the church of Finland. However, its mission is to point of the significance of faith in the life of the individual and empower people to follow Christ. The movement strongly emphasized that faith and salvation are acts of God. Humans cannot contribute towards their salvation. Salvation is the act of God and the Holy Spirit alone according to Luther's principle sola gratia . God is great, human beings are small. The Gospel is preached on a low level amongst the people where the movement is also lived.
Religious views have been formulated primarily by the early leaders of the movement. Among them, especially Paavo Ruotsalainen's views still continue to influence thinking. Today, it is a moderate movement accepting the ordination of women as pastors and having a liberal attitude toward sexual minorities. A study published in 2010 by the Finnish Church Research Centre revealed that supporters of the Awakening differ significantly from the supporters of other Finnish Lutheran revival movements in their liberal views toward e.g. sexual ethics. [2]
It has been typical to the movement to emphasize a quiet and simple life and taking responsibility in society. In modern times the movement expressed concerns about social justice in Finnish society.
Conventicles or seurat are the typical religious gathering of the movement. Traditionally they were organized in homes, but can nowadays also take place in congregation halls and other places. Typically, seurat lasts about one hour. Hymns are sung in a meditative rhythm without accompaniment. The text of hymns is mostly prayer. Singing is interrupted by short speeches. The original form of seurat is democratically organized: only few speakers are invited and opportunity is given for anyone present to speak. Speech is usually held in a sitting position from the place of the speaker — not from a pulpit. Hymn selection is also free: anyone can select and start a hymn. If a speech is considered inappropriate, it is, according to custom, acceptable to interrupt the speaker by starting a hymn. Often the hymns and speeches are spontaneously thematically related, thus forming a chain of thoughts. It is the custom to start the gathering with coffee and end it with free discussion. This also provides opportunity for participants to withdraw into private discussion with pastors or lay speakers if necessary.
The hymnal of the movement is Siionin Virret (Hymns of Zion), which originally was a translation of a Swedish Herrnhut movement hymnal from 1740, Sions Sånger. The hymnal has been reorganized and complemented several times. The newest reformation was published in 2017. Many of the hymns have been included in the official hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Most characteristic of the movement has been the meditative singing of its hymns.
Traditionally, typical for the movement has been a strict code of conduct for the adherents. Dancing, colorful clothes, theater and music have been frowned upon. The second Finnish name of the movement, körttiläisyys, is said to derive from the adherents' typical black clothing with a characteristic körtti (Swedish : skört) i.e. a pleat in the back. Adherents wanted to emphasize their freedom from fashion and simple life by dressing in simple black clothes and simple hairstyle. The use of characteristic clothing has declined and become a curiosity.
Despite being traditionally even hostile to culture, the movement has inspired prominent Finnish artists and experienced a revival in the 1970s and 1980s by being featured in plays and in the hugely popular Finnish opera. The Finnish author Juhani Aho grew up within the movement and it was the subject of many of his novels and short stories. The Finnish composer Joonas Kokkonen produced the opera The Last Temptations , which portrayed the life of Paavo Ruotsalainen. The opera was composed for the famous Finnish bass Martti Talvela, whose friend was Awakening movement lay preacher Aku Räty.
The umbrella organization of the movement is Herättäjä-Yhdistys (the Awakening Society), which is based in Lapua. The former chair person (2010) of the society was a laywoman, Kaisa Rönkä, the first woman in Finland to act as the head of Finnish revival movements. Rönkä was succeeded by Jukka Hautala as the chairperson in 2011. [3] The executive director of the society is Simo Juntunen. The society employs 20 persons — mostly pastors or lay preachers. Herättäjä-Yhdistys publishes books and music, organizes confirmation classes in the homestead of Paavo Ruotsalainen — Aholansaari in Nilsiä, and continues publication of Henki Magazine and other periodicals.
By far the most significant activity is the organization of the summer festival, herättäjäjuhlat. The festival is also an important source of income for the movement. The festival is organized on a moving basis in different towns in the original area of the movement and occasionally in larger cities.
Student ministry was originated when families wanted to provide a safe home in Helsinki for students of theology. Youth ministry was started in the 1970s. Christian folk high schools have been very important for the movement. They were established by the movement when the educational level in the countryside was still relatively low. Currently nine folk schools are loosely affiliated with the movement. They are located in Eurajoki, Jyväskylä, Kajaani, Lapua, Lieksa, Lapinlahti, Ylivieska, Turku and Valkeala.
The supporters of the movement were actively involved in the establishment of the Finnish Missionary Society. Missionary support is channelled through the FMS. Independently the movement has operations among Finns and Finno-Ugric people in Russia and Estonia.
Laestadianism, also known as Laestadian Lutheranism and Apostolic Lutheranism, is a pietistic Lutheran revival movement started in Sápmi in the middle of the 19th century. Named after Swedish Lutheran state church administrator and temperance movement leader Lars Levi Laestadius, it is the biggest pietistic revivalist movement in the Nordic countries. It has members mainly in Finland, Northern America, Norway, Russia and Sweden. There are also smaller congregations in Africa, South America and Central Europe. In addition Laestadian Lutherans have missionaries in 23 countries. The number of Laestadians worldwide is estimated to be between 144,000 and 219,000.
Pietism, also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life, including a social concern for the needy and disadvantaged.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is a national church of Finland. It is part of the Lutheran branch of Christianity. The church has a legal position as a national church in the country, along with the Orthodox Church of Finland.
A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook. Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts ; written melodies are extra, and more recently harmony parts have also been provided.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, also called the National Church, is the officially established Christian church in Iceland. The church professes the Lutheran faith and is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, the Porvoo Communion, the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe and the World Council of Churches.
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in England and Scotland as an evangelical event in association with the communion season. It was held for worship, preaching and communion on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. Revivals and camp meetings continued to be held by various denominations, and in some areas of the mid-Atlantic, led to the development of seasonal cottages for meetings.
Paavo Heikki Ruotsalainen was a Finnish farmer and lay preacher who became the leader of the revivalist Awakening religious movement in Finland.
The First Great Awakening or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. The Great Awakening marked the emergence of Anglo-American evangelicalism as a trans-denominational movement within the Protestant churches. In the United States, the term Great Awakening is most often used, while in the United Kingdom the movement is referred to as the Evangelical Revival.
Lay preacher is a preacher or a religious proclaimer who is not a formally ordained cleric and who does not hold a formal university degree in theology. Lay preaching varies in importance between religions and their sects. Although lay preachers in many Christian denominations may be accorded titles such as Reverend or Pastor as a courtesy by people – including those in their congregation – it is only once a priest, cleric, minister or reverend has been ordained that he/she can correctly adopt that title.
Conservative Laestadianism is the largest branch of the Lutheran revival movement Laestadianism. It has spread to 16 countries. As of 2012 there were about 115,000 Conservative Laestadians, most of them in Finland, the United States, Norway, and Sweden. The movement and this denomination attribute their teachings to the Bible and the Lutheran Book of Concord.
Siionin virret is a hymnbook of the Finnish Awakening religious revival movement (Herännäisyys). The hymnal is used in the traditional conventicle 'seurat' which is an informal religious gathering taking often place in homes. Hymns of Zion are also sung in the religious summer festival 'Herättäjäjuhlat' of the Awakening movement.
Lutheranism as a religious movement originated in the early 16th century Holy Roman Empire as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. The movement originated with the call for a public debate regarding several issues within the Catholic Church by Martin Luther, then a professor of Bible at the young University of Wittenberg. Lutheranism soon became a wider religious and political movement within the Holy Roman Empire owing to support from key electors and the widespread adoption of the printing press. This movement soon spread throughout northern Europe and became the driving force behind the wider Protestant Reformation. Today, Lutheranism has spread from Europe to all six populated continents.
Firstborn Laestadians are a subgroup within the Laestadian Lutheran revival movement. The Firstborn are known for their traditionalism and their conservative pietistic ideals, and they seek to avoid "worldly pleasures". The name "Firstborn" derives from the Bible's Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb. 12:23, which mentions "the church of the firstborn".
Fredrik Gabriel Hedberg was a Finnish Lutheran priest and vicar. He was a Neo-Lutheran theologian, a prominent figure in the Finnish evangelical revival movement and a leader of confessional Lutheranism in Finland.
The Last Temptations is an opera in two acts by Joonas Kokkonen to a libretto by Lauri Kokkonen. Along with Leevi Madetoja's Pohjalaisia and Aarre Merikanto's Juha, it is considered one of the most important Finnish operas. The opera deals with the life of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century folk preacher Paavo Ruotsalainen. Kokkonen worked on the opera for 16 years before finishing the work. It was premiered in Helsinki by the Finnish National Opera in 1975.
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation. The reaction of the government and church authorities to the international spread of his writings, beginning with the Ninety-five Theses, divided Western Christianity. During the Reformation, Lutheranism became the state religion of numerous states of northern Europe, especially in northern Germany, Scandinavia and the then-Livonian Order. Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran churches became part of the state.
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to be errors, abuses, and discrepancies within it.
Martti (Martin) Rautanen was the pioneer of the Finnish Mission in Ovamboland, South West Africa.
Wilhelm "Wilhelmi" Malmivaara was one of the leaders of Finnish Awakening in the beginning of the 20th century. He was a member of the synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in 1898, 1908, 1913 and 1918 and was also a representative of the clergy in the pre-independence Diet of Finland in 1897, 1899, 1900 and 1904–05 and a member of the Parliament of Finland, representing the Finnish Party from 1907 to 1918 and the National Coalition Party from 1918 to 1920.
The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church of America (OALC) is a Firstborn Laestadian church in North America. Firstborn Laestadians are a subgroup within Laestadianism. The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church originated in the 1890s. In the Nordic Firstborn Laestadian revival, the movement works within the official Church of Sweden, which is also called the "Lutheran Folk Church". The Church of Sweden has for a long time recognized the Laestadian movement and has allowed them to hold their own services in the state churches, both before and after the separation of church and state. Even in America it still has a relationship with the Church of Sweden.
Media related to Awakening (religious movement) at Wikimedia Commons