Abstract
Finland has an Orthodox Christian minority that constitutes approximately 1 percent of the population.1 Since World War II, a great majority of the Orthodox Finns have married outside their denomination and into the Lutheran one. Furthermore, especially during the first decades after the war, most children born to Orthodox-Lutheran families were baptized into the dominant Lutheran faith. As a result, Orthodox women in these so-called mixed marriages commonly became the sole Orthodox members of their adult families.2
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Rosemary Breger and Rosanna Hill, “Introducing Mixed Marriages,” in Cross-Cultural Marriage: Identity and Choice, ed. Rosemary Breger and Rosanna Hill (Oxford: Berg, 1998), 7; Johanna Järvinen-Tassopoulos, “Kreikkalais- suomalainen avioliitto: Neuvottelua kahden kulttuurin leikkauspisteissä,” in Monikulttuuriset avioliitot sillanrakentajina, ed. Elli Heikkilä et al. (Turku: Siirtolaisinstituutti, 2004), 28–29. It is, nevertheless, applied here for the reason that it is generally used when referring to Orthodox-Lutheran marriages in Finland and in the Finnish Orthodox community. Moreover, it was also used by the women who were interviewed for this study.
Linda Woodhead, “Gender Differences in Religious Practice and Significance,” in The Sage Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, ed. James A. Beckford and N. J. Demerath III (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2007), 568–69, 581.
Randi R. Warne, “Gender,” in Guide to the Study of Religion, ed. Willi Braun and Russell T. McCutcheon (London: Cassell, 2000), 149–50.
Jan Löfström, “Changing Conceptions of Gender Polarity in Finland: From Rural to Urban Culture,” in Gender and Folklore: Perspectives on Finnish and Karelian Culture, ed. Satu Apo, Aili Nenola, and Laura Stark-Arola (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1998), 249–50; Anu Pylkkänen, “Suomalainen tasa-arvo,” in Suomalainen nainen, by Satu Apo et al. (Helsinki: Otava, 1999), 26, 31–33; Liisa Rantalaiho, “Sukupuolisopimus ja Suomen malli,” in Naisten hyvinvointivaltio, ed. Anneli Anttonen, Lea Henriksson, and Ritva Nätkin (Tampere: Vastapaino, 1994), 16–17, 20–21, 24–27.
Marja-Liisa Keinänen, “Introduction,” in Perspectives on Women’s Everyday Religion, ed. Marja-Liisa Keinänen (Stockholm: Stockholm University, 2010); Susan S. Sered, Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister: Religions Dominated by Women (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences (London: SAGE, 2002), 55.
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Heikki Waris et al., Siirtoväen sopeutuminen: Tutkimus Suomen karjalaisen siirtoväen sosiaalisesta sopeutumisesta (Helsinki: Otava, 1952), 17.
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Voitto Huotari, Ortodoksin ja luterilaisen avioliitto: Tutkimus uskonto- ja perhetekijöiden vuorovaikutuksesta seka-avioliitoissa Ilomantsissa, Pohjois-Savossa ja Helsingissä (Helsinki: Suomalainen Teologinen Kirjallisuusseura, 1975), 10–11.
See also Eeva Jokinen, Aikuisten arki (Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2005), 50–51; Matti Kortteinen, Kunnian kenttä: Suomalainen palkkatyö kulttuurisena muotona (Helsinki: Hanki ja jää, 1992), 47–48, 63–72; Harriet Strandell, “Kolmen naissukupolven kokemuksia työstä ja perheestä,” in Perhe, työ ja tunteet: Ristiriitoja ja ratkaisuja, ed. Elina Haavio-Mannila, Riitta Jallinoja, and Harriet Strandell (Porvoo: WSOY, 1984), 212–17, 258–64, 276–77.
Marjatta Jaanu-Schröder, “Perinteiden siirtäminen perheessä,” in Ekumeeninen perhekirja, ed. Marjatta Jaanu-Schröder, Tarja Lehmuskoski, and Pirjo Työrinoja (Helsinki: Suomen ekumeeninen neuvosto, 1995), 20.
Pentti Laasonen, Yhteisellä tiellä: Luterilainen kirkko jakamattoman perinteen kantajana (Helsinki: Kirjapaja, 2011), 39–43; Laitila, “Epaluuloja,” 344.
Helena Kupari, “‘Remembering God’ through Religious Habits: The Daily Religious Practices of Evacuee Karelian Orthodox Women,” Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion 47 (2011): 197–222.
Orit Avishai, “‘Doing Religion’ in a Secular World: Women in Conservative Religions and the Question of Agency,” Gender & Society 22 (2008): 424–25; Sointu and Woodhead, “Spirituality,” 260, 271–72.
Susan S. Sered, Women as Ritual Experts: The Religious Lives of Elderly Jewish Women in Jerusalem (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 138.
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© 2014 Terhi Utriainen and Päivi Salmesvuori
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Kupari, H. (2014). “I Was Both Lutheran and Orthodox”. In: Utriainen, T., Salmesvuori, P. (eds) Finnish Women Making Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137383471_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137383471_8
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