TA 5/2010 (115. vuosikerta)

Church Employees in Revival Movements — Membership of revival movements among people studying for jobs in the Church has decreased since the 1960s. This article discusses membership of revival movements among Church employees today and changes in support for revival movements in the 2000s in general. The article also explores revival movement backgrounds that Church employees may have had at home. The conclusion is that the percentage of Church employees who are members of revival movements has clearly decreased in the 2000s: three out of five employees were members in 2009, in most cases members of the Revivalist or Evangelical movements. Typically, Church employees may feel that their thinking has been influenced by the movements even if they do not feel themselves to be members. Movements where the commitment of members is typically shallow have at times lost members very rapidly.

Finn Church Aid as a Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Actor in Church and Society — The roles of the international aid, diaconal work, and missionary work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, as well as the roles of other church-related actors in these fields, have been much discussed in recent years. The present article concentrates on the views of salaried Church employees concerning international aid, aid organisations, and the relationship between missionary organisations and Finn Church Aid. More generally, the article explores the attitudes of Finns to international aid, Finn Church Aid and other aid organisations. The data for the article come from questionnaire replies from salaried Church employees, collected in 1999, 2004 and 2008. The findings indicate that Finns in general and Church employees in particular have great confidence in Finn Church Aid. Finally, the article discusses the roles of Finn Church Aid in multiple contexts in the Church and in society at large.

Confession of the Trinitarian God: Walter Kasper’s Response to the Challenge of Modern Atheism — In his apologetic theology, Walter Kasper pursues a dialogue between Christianity and modern secular society. For the dialogue to succeed, the participants must know who they are. In order to ensure this, Kasper first gives the historical outlines of modern atheism. Secondly, he explicates the Christian position in the dialogue. Since the Biblical notion of God is Trinitarian, he develops a Christian answer to the challenges of modern atheism from this Trinitarian perspective. Kasper’s main point can be summarized as follows: in opposition to the modern and horizontal concept of freedom, Christianity calls on people to enjoy freedom that is vertical and absolute