‘A Storm Might Be Brewing:’ The Lutheran Church and Secular Authority in Finland, 1944–1948

Abstract

Although Finland, a Nazi-ally, was among the defeated, the country was not invaded after the war, and the governmental system did not change from parliamentary democracy to people’s democracy. This does not, however, mean that the war-to-peace transition in Finland was lacking drama. The years from 1944 to 1948 were marked by a series of ‘crises of peace’ so turbulent that the term ‘the war-after-the-war’ is warranted. Also for the Lutheran church in Finland the period was in many ways traumatic. The rise to power of the left, backed by the Soviet Union, and the general change in the cultural atmosphere challenged the traditionally symbiotic relation between the church and the state. This chapter examines how Lutheran priests constructed publicly the church’s relationship to the state, evolving from mild optimism towards criticism and even martyrdom.