TA 1/2019 (124. vuosikerta)

Is “Mormon” Still Acceptable? Striking a Balance between Familiarity and Identity — Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are known more commonly as “Mormons,” their church as “the Mormon Church,” and their faith system as “Mormonism.” This article discusses the origins of and hitherto long-term symbiosis between the popular name and the church’s official name, the former having originated from a place of familiarity and the latter having been formed to communicate the believers’ identity. Following what the church president announced as divine revelation, however, the church has begun distancing itself from most uses of the popular term “Mormon” in favor of emphasizing its self-identity as a pure Christian tradition and hopes that outsiders will also adopt this referential change.

From Paternalism to Therapeutic Pastoral Care: Irja Kilpeläinen’s Understanding of Pastoral Care and Its Importance for Finnish Lutheranism — The pastoral care method of Irja Kilpeläinen (1911–1999) has profoundly influenced pastoral practice and theory within the Evangelical Church of Finland. The method is drawn from Clinical Pastoral Education, developed in the early 20th century in the USA, and is therapeutic in nature: the task of such pastoral care is to offer sincere help that is carried out through non-directive counseling. The turn of pastoral care towards therapeutic methods constituted a radical change away from the previous normative and paternalistic understanding of pastoral care. While Kilpeläinen offered a then-acceptable theological basis for therapeutic approach, current pastoral psychological interpretation is theologically problematic. This article will explore how the spiritual task of the church can be fulfilled in therapeutic pastoral care, a question which has yet to be fully explored.