Introduction: Magic in a Religious Borderland

Abstract

This book assesses the mutual dependence of lived religion, magic, and superstition in ‘Long Reformation’ Finland. I examine the fluid experiences of faith, magic, and superstition in an area where local communities were constantly influenced by the political and ideological needs of the emerging state, expansionist politics, and, at times, foreign military threats. As such an area, Finland was in no way unique in the early modern period, but I hope that the clarity of the different factors at play in this context will help make their interdependency clear in other areas too.