Helsinki Ecumenical Studies Website
The left picture depicts the logo of the Lutheran World Federation's 1963 Helsinki assembly, with crosses extending not only to east and west, but also to north. You may compare this motif with the logo of Porvoo Communion. All Helsinki 1963 documentation is preserved in our ecumenical archive. The right photo ist a detail from LWF's 1997 Hongkong assembly. Last update of this site: October 2008.
A. An Overview
B. Finnish Ecumenical Scene
This website provides basic information about the ecumenical research undertaken at Helsinki University. But we also hope to cover - at least through updated links - the Finnish ecumenical scene in a more comprehensive way.
Ecumenical theology has been taught in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki throughout the 20th century. The first full-time professor appointed to cover this field was, however, Seppo A. Teinonen who conducted the ecumenical studies in Helsinki through 1960s and 1970s. Kalevi Toiviainen was the first ordinarius professor of ecumenics from 1976 to 1979. After him, Tuomo Mannermaa shaped the profile of the chair between 1980 and 2000. Risto Saarinen began his period as ordinarius in 2001.
Ecumenical Theology is one of the four main subjects taught at the Department of Systematic Theology, the other two being "dogmatics", "philosophy of religion" and "theological ethics and social ethics ". For this reason the duties of ecumenical theologians have included diverse topics in the field of systematic theology, e.g., theology of religions, theology of spirituality, patristica and medieval studies and Luther research. During Mannermaa's professorship Luther studies played a prominent role in our research activities.
A great part of the professor's activities consists in guiding undergraduate students in preparing their master's thesis, and in supervising the doctoral theses of postgraduate students. Since the Helsinki faculty traditionally educates the vast majority of the pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and the teachers of Lutheran religion in the schools, the interests of the students are often connected with Reformation and Lutheran theology. On the other hand, the Faculty is non-confessional and thus open for all kinds of students. It is also a special challenge of ecumenics to face the multiculturalism and pluralism of a (post)modern Western society.
The professor is supported by a lecturer, Dr Antti Raunio. We also have many full-time doctoral students who work and teach at our Department. A complete list of ongoing dissertation projects is given below. We have a large ecumenical archive which in addition to periodicals contains monographs and collections of unpublished sources.
A very important resource is the institution of docents. They are doctors of theology to whom the faculty has granted a right to teach regularly on a given subject. Docents have their full-time employment elsewhere, e.g. in the church or in a foreign university. They often provide fruitful connections with churches or with international ecumenism. Docents are also frequently needed for supervising postgraduate work and to act as opponents in the public defense of dissertations. The following persons are currently docents of ecumenical theology in Helsinki: Risto Cantell, Juhani Forsberg, Juha Junttila, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Eeva Martikainen, Simo Peura, Antti Raunio, Gert Rüppell, Jaakko Rusama, Sammeli Juntunen, Olli-Pekka Vainio.
Finnish society is permeated by high technology and most Finnish religious groups can thus provide a representative self-description in English on their websites. They are also linked to neighbouring groups and institutions. You may start your virtual trip to Finland e.g. from the website of the Lutheran church www.evl.fi (click then "English" or "linkit"), or from www.churches.fi, or from the European Christian Internet Conference's Finland website.
About 83 % of Finnish citizens, i.e. over 4 million people, belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The Finnish Orthodox Church is historically important and enjoys the same privileges as the Lutheran church, but it only comprises about 60 000 members. Pentecostal congregations amount to roughly the same size. Roman Catholic Church and the small Protestant denominations have less than 10 000 members each. Most of these are active in the Finnish Ecumenical Council.
For these statistical reasons, most ecumenical activities in Finland are undertaken by the Lutherans. Lutheran and Orthodox churches are active members of international organizations such as World Council of Churches or Conference of European Churches.
Academic ecumenical studies are pursued not only in Helsinki, but also in the Swedish-speaking Theology Faculty of Åbo Akademi in Turku and in the new Finnish-speaking faculty in Joensuu. The Joensuu faculty has only recently started its full curriculum for Western (Lutheran) theology, but it has already for a longer time provided academic education for the Orthodox theologians. Pentecostal congregations have an independent theological college Iso Kirja.
Academic theology in Finland is very much differentiated according to diverse methodological approaches. This means that ecumenics within our Department of Systematic Theology investigates themes related methodologically to dogmatics, hermeneutics, philosophy, ethics and the history of ideas. If you are primarily interested in the concrete history, our Department of Church History is the right address. If your studies deal with sociology or pastoral care or liturgics, our Department of Practical Theology has the expertise of these fields. Of course we co-operate and can easily guide you
We are strongly committed to continue the tradition of Finnish Luther studies. We pay particular attention to various bilateral dialogue processes. Risto Saarinen is a member of International Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission; he also publishes actively on this field. We have a very good collection of materials related to the Lutheran - Roman Catholic "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" and will study these in the future, as well as many other bilateral developments. The recent Anglican - Lutheran Porvoo Communion gives us a impetus to study Anglicanism. We are also interested in the Lutheran - Reformed theological developments, especially in Europe and in the USA.
Risto Saarinen's Personalia and his List of Publications as well as the Finnish Luther Studies Website give some indication of our research interests. The list of doctoral dissertations under work (see below) should also be added.
This random list contains all topics already given to individual postgraduate theologians in the field of ecumenics. Some of these themes are currently being studied by full-time doctoral students, others are proceeding at a slower pace. This list is annually updated on the basis of the information available in the faculty. (updated 10.2008, includes only the so-called "present" students, not the "absent" ones)
- Discussion on Spiritual Ecumenism after Vatican II
- God and Music in Luther's Theology
- Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the WCC
- Spanish Ecumenism after Vatican II
- Cognitive and Ontological Aspects in Luther's Theology
- Therapeutic Hope in Luther's Theology
- Luthers Dreiständelehre
- Concupiscence in Augustine
- Theological Trends in Finnish Laestadianism
- Augustine and Luther on Sin
- Grundtvig's Theology
- Papal Office in Contemporary Catholicism
- Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: Its Genesis and Theology
- Peace Work in the WCC
- Theology of Marriage in British Anglicanism and Finnish Lutheranism
Where is Ecumenical Theology Done? Who is Doing It?
http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/cdemello/univ-full.html - Colleges and Universities of the World. This MIT list is rather comprehensive in regard to the secular academic world but ignores many church-related institutions.
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/links/educatio.html - World Council of Churches list of church-based education. A good list, but many theological institutions are lacking both from MIT and WCC lists. I know of no really comprehensive list of the world's theological institutions.
http://www.prounione.urbe.it/dir-dir/e_dir-list_ie.html - Centro pro unione list of ecumenical institutes. A pretty comprehensive list.
How to Find Churches and Ecumenical Organizations? And Documents?
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/links/church.html - WCC link to churches and church-related organizations.
http://www.ecumenism.net. Exemplary Canadian website.
http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/li/yhteydet.html#kirkot - Helsinki Theology Faculty link site for church contacts.
What are the Basic Websites from the Finnish Ecumenical Perspective?
http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/porvoo/
What Sites Do the Helsinki Ecumenists Particularly Follow?
http://theologie.uni-hd.de/oek - Ecumenical Institute of Heidelberg University
http://www.ekd.de/ki/ - Konfessionskundliches Institut Bensheim
http://www.ctinquiry.org - Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton
http://www.iecr.org - Ecumenical Institute St. John's, Collegeville
http://www.anglicancommunion.org
http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/stiftung-weltethos/. - Hans Küng's Global Ethic for optimists
http://theol.uibk.ac.at/cover/ - Colloquium on Violence and Religion. Rene Girard for pessimists.
http://www.selectsmart.com/religion - Here you can choose a religion to suit your personal opinions.
Where Do I Find Articles and Books? And Who Has Written What?
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/news/library/index-e.html - Many big theological libraries (which you can find e.g. from google, see above) have an accessible internet catalogue with excellent search possibilities. This WCC catalogue is just one of many possibilities available today. It is by no means complete, but moderately large and offers some articles also.
http://www.helsinki.fi/kirjastot/ - From here you access the Helsinki University and Faculties libraries.
http://www-db.helsinki.fi/julki/ - This is the online catalogue to everything (books, articles, even book reviews) the Helsinki University researchers have produced since 1994. So here you can see e.g. what the ecumenists mentioned in this website have produced. Since we are ourselves updating it annually, mistakes and gaps may occur.
http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/tu/2vaitos.html - All Helsinki universïty theology dissertations since 1990.
www.amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon.co.uk - We are not advertising Amazon through links, but you should know that very recent books can easiest be located in internet shops. And if you order something, don't choose the American address (e.g. amazon.com) if you happen to be within the European Union. Within the EU books move fast and tax-free.