Revival movements

 For more information: Church Institute for Research and Advanced Training, ktk@evl.fi

Revival movements

The term revival movement refers to those popular movements that have started as spiritual reform movements and are currently organised and functioning within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The revival movements typically emphasise a personal relationship with God and the spiritual task of the Church.

The old Finnish revival movements date back to the late 1700s and the 1800s,  and include the following four: the Prayer Movement, the Awakened Movement, the Lutheran Evangelical Movement, and the Laestadian Movement. The largest branch of Laestadianism is the Conservative Laestadians, which is represented by the Central Association of the Finnish Associations of Peace (SRK). The so-called Fifth Revival emerged in the late 1900s.

Other spiritual movements born and functioning within the Church include, for example, the charismatic revival movement known as ‘Hengen uudistus kirkossamme’ and the Thomas Mass community. There are theological differences between the movements, but generally speaking, both the older revival movements and the more recent spiritual movements are characterised by the pursuit towards a clear spirituality and values based thereon.

To the visualization Revival movementsThe link opens in a new tab (in Finnish).