Finnish women missionaries have made a major contribution to the training of women teachers in Ovamboland, the northern part of present Namibia. In this paper I examine how African women teachers perceive the impact of Finnish teachers on their career development and their role in society. Data was gathered in Namibia in 1999. Results reveal that missionary women have played a significant role in the process of creating a new social category, that of a career women in the Ovambo society. The example of missionary women has contributed to adopting the idea of building the nation as an essential part of being a teacher. In this process religious legitimization of new ideas and practices has played an important role.

The effect of legislative changes on same-sex unions on people's attitudes toward homosexuality is a fairly well-researched topic. There is less research on how state legislation on same-sex unions has affected churches' attitudes and policies on registered partnership and same-sex marriage. In this paper we focus on attitudinal polarisation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) in the matter of same-sex marriage and why there is a gap in the attitudinal development of the church and the society. The analysis is based upon six sets of representative surveys among the Finnish population, the employees of the ELCF and the elected officials of the ELCF between the years 2012-2017. Whereas the majorities (55%) among the Finnish population and among the ELCF members (54%) are already favourable to the idea that same-sex couples should have the right to marry in the church, the ELCF has not approved of it. This situation has polarised the ELCF from within. Empirical analysis shows that the reason for the discrepancy between popular opinion and the ELCF stance stems from the fact that ELCF decision makers are older and more religious than the general membership. However, the data also shows that even among the most religious, younger age groups are already more favourable towards the same-sex marriage. Therefore, it is likely that the polarisation will lessen over time as more and more religious people accept same-sex marriage.

The article examines the advocacy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF), how it positioned itself in relation to the 2014 EU Parliament elections, the aims for which it strove and the strategies it employed to achieve these aims. The article's theoretical framework relies on exchange and resource dependency theories. The empirical approach is qualitative analysis of written documents, observations and interviews. The results reveal that the EU signifies a new dimension for religion in the public domain at both the EU and national levels. A change towards a more proactive public role for the national church in Finland can be detected. In this process transnational ecumenical contacts play an important role. Beneficial exchanges for both the church and politicians are behind the resurgence of religion in the public domain. The results indicate that the public role of religion depends on the balance of power, real or imagined, between political and religious agents.

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This article examines the writings of Finnish missionaries: what the missionaries wrote about local people and cultures and how the content of their writings changed during the latter part of the 20th century, which was a period of major political and cultural change in the countries where the missionaries worked. The data consists of 526 writings published in the major Finnish mission journal Suomen Lähetyssanomat during the years 1946-1989. The primary methodological approach is quantitative, and the data is mainly analysed in a descriptive manner. Statistical tests are utilized to show the association between independent and dependent variables. The results are interpreted with the help of the concept of otherness. Missionaries’ writings reveal a more positive attitude towards local people than local cultures, but during the study period a change towards a more positive attitude to culture can be detected. The longer the history of Finnish missions in a particular region, the more positive the missionaries’ attitudes towards local people are. During the study period, the problem-oriented descriptions of cultures shift to solution-oriented descriptions. These changes indicate efforts towards a positive interpretation of otherness. The study reveals the possibilities that quantitative analysis may open up for mission studies.