Poikkikristillinen identifioituminen vapauden ja yhteisyyden vuorovaikutuksena

The doctoral thesis deals with such Christian sense of community in which a believer participates in the services or other activities of several Christian communities, conceives the community of Christians as something larger than the institutionalized church or religious community, or argues matters within the domain of religion with statemenst that belong to non-religious discourse. I will use the term Inter-Christianity of these activities. The primary survey area is Finland. However, I will contextualize the observations concerning Finland against changes in Christianity especially in Germany, the United States of America and also by a few examples, elsewhere in the world. In this manner, I will put the observations concerning Finland in proportion with the supranational nature of Christianity. I will review the change in the sense of community and identification of Christianity with the help of theories involving postmodernism, narrative research and symbolic anthropology. Twenty-three informants took part in the research. The research materials consists of 24 interviews, 14 discussions, 51 feedback discussions, 47 field work events and 49 written descriptions, Internet discussions and television programs involved with the topic. As the study is a mix of reflexive, interpretative and empirical methods, it is postmodern religious anthropology. Due to influence of ecumenical discussion, joint Christian gatherings and ecumenical services have increased in all countries reviewed. The increase of joint activities of different churches and the spread of awakening evangelical Christianity together with the postmodern culture that empahizes individuality have confirmed the perception of people involved in the Inter-Christianity on the justification of participation in multiple communities and the home gathering activities that oppose the institutionalized power of churches. Postevangelical movements and reform groups are common in Germany and the United States of America. Instead, home gathering activities ...