RT Article
T1 Is It a Sin?: The Therapeutic Turn and Changing Views on Homosexuality in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1952-1984
JF Pastoral psychology
VO 66
IS 5
SP 641
OP 656
A1 Ratinen, Teemu
LA English
PB Springer Science Business Media B. V.
YR 2017
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1565835913
AB Views on marriage, sexuality, and gender changed remarkably in Western culture during the twentieth century. It has been argued that this change is, in part, the result of a therapeutic turn, which means that, after the Second World War, different psychological and therapeutic ideas, ideals, and techniques have increased in prevalence within culture as a whole, religion included. This article examines how the rise of different psychotherapeutic discourses changed the view on homosexuality in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and how this cultural shift constructed religious and sexual subjectivity. The material for the analysis consists of memoranda, handbooks, articles, official statements, and reports of the Church and of the Family Affairs Committee of the Church. A close reading of the material shows that the therapeutic turn of the Finnish Church resulted from a turn to a psychoanalytical understanding of the human psyche. Within the new paradigm, homosexuality is seen as an identity and a trait of personality rather than a sin or a sickness, as it had been understood earlier. Instead of protecting society from homosexuality, the Church aims at accepting and supporting homosexual individuals.
K1 Evangelical Lutheran Church
K1 Family counseling
K1 Finland
K1 Homosexuality
K1 Homosexuality : Religious aspects : Evangelical churches
K1 Same-sex marriage
K1 Therapeutic turn
DO 10.1007/s11089-017-0778-9