Näkyvä ja näkymätön : nainen Suomen helluntailiikkeen kentällä

Abstract

Eija Kurki tutki, mitä Suomen helluntailiikkeessä opetetaan naisen asemasta seurakunnassa ja miten naisen paikka määritellään sekä minkälaisia mahdollisuuksia naisella on toimia liikkeessä. Miten ja kenellä on helluntailiikkeessä valta määritellä naisen oikeudet ja velvollisuudet?Kurki perehtyi naisen asemasta vuosina 1993-2004 käytyyn keskusteluun liikkeen äänenkannattajassa Ristin Voitossa ilmestyneissä mielipide- ja opetuskirjoituksissa. Keskustelussa nousi esille neljä erillistä puhetapaa, joissa korostetaan raamatullisuutta, traditiota, sukupuolijärjestelmää ja kutsumusta.

This study deals with the position of women inside the Pentecostal movement of Finland and also with the thinking patterns and power structures in the background. 1. What is the doctrine within the Pentecostal movement concerning the position of the woman in the church, and what is the doxa on women in Pentecostalism? 2. What subject positions do women have in the discourse practices? 3. How are the symbolic capital and the authority connected with it structured in the Pentecostal movement?The discussion on the position on women is examined through studying the teaching articles and letters to the editor published in 1993-2004 in the weekly newspaper of the Finnish Pentecostal Movement. The subject has been approached within the framework of critical discourse analysis. The structures of symbolic authority manifested in the Pentecostal movement are highlighted with help of Bourdieu’s way of approach. The discourses within the movement has been searched as texts, discursive practices and social practices.From the text material emerged four distinct discourses which the writers used to describe the social reality in which the women in the Pentecostal movement live and work. The discourses are called biblical, traditional, gender system and devotional discourse. The biblical discourse invokes what biblical texts say about women and what is interpreted as God’s will. The traditional discourse defines the woman, the woman’s positions and life as a woman from within the traditions of the Pentecostal movement. The gender system discourse deals with the position of the woman in relation to man. The devotional discourse is based on the central theme of devotional thinking in the Pentecostal movement. Discussion on the position of the woman within the Pentecostal movement turned out to be elaborate and connected with several processes of change and development in the movement. Consequently, the discourses on the position of the woman within the movement, and redefining the internal and external boundaries in the discourse systems, provide an excellent standpoint for examining the entire field of the Pentecostal movement, its present state and whether there is room for the woman to define her position as a subject within the movement.