Changing values and religiosity: the case of the emerging Community movement in the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland

ABSTRACT

Contrary to earlier assumptions, not (only) is religion declining in modern societies, it is taking new roles in the complex development of (late) modern societies. In empirical studies on values, religiosity has been connected primarily to traditionalist value patterns that highlight stability, traditionality and security. This article, focusing on data collected from members of a renewal movement in the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Finland (N = 529), addresses how the 10 universal values in Schwartz’s Value Theory relate to their religiosity and theological orientations. The results of the study imply that there are several religious value patterns, and not just one. Differences in theological orientation as well as other aspects of religious belief and participation proved to have an effect on the patterns. These findings open up new directions for the study of religion, spirituality and values.

KEYWORDS:

• Values
• religiosity
• Finland
• Schwartz

Acknowledgments

The research of which this report is part was funded through grants from The Finnish Cultural Fund and The Church Research Centre of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Finland. I wish to thank the University of Helsinki for providing me with a workspace, my supervisors, professors Antti Räsänen and Kati Niemelä for their professional supervision, and all those who have contributed to the research and made it possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Suomen Kulttuurirahasto (FI);Kirkon tutkimuskeskus - Church Research Institute, Finland .

Notes on contributors

Pietari Hannikainen

Pietari Hannikainen Born into an atheist family in Finland and having embarked upon an intensive existential and spiritual search in his youth that led him to travel in Europe and Asia, Pietari Hannikainen finally found a place to settle in Christianity. A trained scholar of Religious Education at the University of Helsinki, he combines his personal experience and passion for religious and spiritual phenomena with his scholarly interest in scientific investigation in his work as a researcher and a lecturer. Currently he is working on his doctoral thesis on the new Lutheran faith communities in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.