‘Impartial Sources’ and the Registration of Religious Communities in Finland*
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.35224Keywords:
Religion, law, registering religious communities, Finland, Paganism, new religious movements, nonpartisan sourcesAbstract
The Freedom of Religion Act in Finland dates to 1922, but before 2003 only one community with no connections with the so-called world religions, 'scientific' Totuuden ystävät, was registered (in 1958). In 2003 an evaluative board was established to supervise registration. The number of rejected applications has been growing since the 1990s. Because these all concern minority movements, the Finnish case can shed light on the worldwide interest in state responses to minority religions. This article analyses the applications of three groups: La Sociedad del Amor de Dios (2015) and Suomen Äärimmäisen Vapaa Eristinen Liike (2016), both of which were unsuccessful, and Karhun kansa (2013), which was successful. Key questions include 'On what basis does the board of experts reject or approve the applications of new or "alternative" religious groups?' and 'What role do "impartial sources" play in the decision-making process of the board?'.
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Association Act. 1989. Finnish Government. Online: https://www.?nlex.?/?/laki/ajantasa/1989/19890503 (accessed 29 October 2018).
Chidester, David. 2005. Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London.
Chryssides, George D. (ed.). 2019. Minority Religions in Europe and the Middle East: Mapping and Monitoring. Routledge, London and New York, forthcoming.
Cusack, Carole M.. 2010. Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith. Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, VT.
Cusack, Carole M., and Pavol Kosná? (eds.). 2017. Fiction, Invention and Hyper-reality: From Popular Culture to Religion. Routledge, London and New York.
Davidsen, Markus Altena. 2014. The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu: A Study of Fiction-based Religion. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Leiden.
Durham, W. Cole, Jr. 2013. State Reactions to Minority Religions: A Legal Overview. In Kirkham 2013: 3-13.
Fairclough, Norman. 2010. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Routledge, Oxon and New York.
Fox, Jonathan. 2013. Introduction to Religion and Politics: Theory and Practice. Routledge, Oxon and New York. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203094419.
Friends of Truth. 2016. Totuuden Ystävät (Friends of Truth). Online: http://totyst.mbnet.? (accessed 27 November 2017).
Ghanea, Nazila. 2013. The UN Human Rights Committee and Religious Minorities. In Kirkham 2013: 15-27.
Greer, J. Christian. 2017. ‘Discordians Stick Apart’: The Institutional Turn within Contemporary Discordianism. In Cusack and Kosná? 2017.
Hjelm, Titus. 2005. Mitä wicca on? [What Is Wicca?]. Like, Helsinki.
Hjelm, Titus, Essi Mäkelä and Jussi Sohlberg. 2019. What Do We Talk About When We Talk Legitimate Religion? Failure and Success in the Registration of Two Pagan Communities in Finland. In Chryssides, forthcoming 2019.
Ketola, Kimmo. 2008. Uskonnot Suomessa [Religions in Finland]. Church Research Institute Publications 102, Tampere.
Kirby, Danielle L.. 2012. Occultural Bricolage and Popular Culture: Remix and Art in Discordianism, the Church of the ubGenius and the Temple of Psychick Youth. In Possamai 2012: 39-58.
Kirby, Danielle L., and Elisha H. McIntyre. 2017. Kopimism and Media Devotion: Piracy, Activism, Art and Critique as Religious Practice. In Cusack and Kosná? 2017.
Kirkham, David M. (ed.). 2013. State Responses to Minority Religions. Ashgate, Surrey and Burlington.
Kirsch, Thomas G.. 2004. Restaging the Will to Believe: Religious Pluralism, Anti-Syncretism, and the Problem of Belief. American Anthropologist 106(4): 699-709. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2004.106.4.699.
Mäkelä, Essi, and Johanna J.M. Petsche. 2013. Serious Parody: Discordianism as Liquid Religion. Culture and Religion 14(4): 411-23. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2013.841269.
Malaclypse the Younger (Gregory Hill). 1994 . [1979] Principia Discordia: How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her. Steve Jackson Games, Austin, TX.
Osborne, Samuel. 2016. Jediism Is Not A Real Religion, Charity Commission Says. The Independent 20 December. Online: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jediism-star-wars-not-religion-charity-commission-a7484856.html (accessed 27 November 2017).
Owen, Suzanne, and Teemu Taira. 2015. The Category of ‘Religion’ in Public Classi?cation: Charity Registration of the Druid Network in England and Wales. In Religion as a Category of Governance and Sovereignty, edited by Timothy Fitzgerald, Trevor Stack and Naomi Goldenberg, 90-114. Brill, Leiden and Boston.
Possamai, Adam (ed.). 2012. Handbook of Hyper-real Religions. Brill, Leiden and Boston. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004226944.
Primiano, Leonard Norman. 1995. Vernacular Religion and the Search for Method in Religious Folklife. Western Folklore 54.1: 37-65. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/1499910.
Shea, Robert, and Robert A. Wilson. 1975. The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Dell Publishing, New York.
Stark, Rodney, and William Sims Bainbridge. 1979. Of Churches, Sects and Cults: Preliminary Concepts for a Theory of Religious Movements. Journal for the Scienti?c Study of Religion 18(2): 117-31. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/1385935.
Taira, Teemu. 2006. Notkea uskonto [Liquid Religion]. Eetos, Turku.. 2013. The Category of ‘Invented Religion’: A New Opportunity for Studying Discourses on ‘Religion’. Culture and Religion 14(4): 477-93. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2013.838799.
Published
2018-11-21
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Mäkelä, E. E. (2018). ‘Impartial Sources’ and the Registration of Religious Communities in Finland*. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 31(1), 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.35224
