The starting point of this study is understanding religion as a mediatized and contested social phenomenon. The study aims to analyze how the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church or the Mormons) is perceived by the Finnish people in the documentary film The Mission – Lähetyssaarnaajat (2022). Furthermore, the study intends to explain how and why certain types of religion can come to be seen and framed as problematic, respectively acceptable, in contemporary Finnish society. The methods that are employed to answer the research questions are qualitative content analysis and frame analysis. While the mediatization of religion is used as a theoretical backdrop in the study, the results are analyzed further with Hjelm’s (2014) idea of religion as a problem or utility, the concept of culturalized religion (Astor & Mayrl, 2020) and prior research. The final results of the study indicate that the LDS Church continues to be framed and perceived as an alien and potentially problematic denomination in Finland. That is due to the considered heretic and anti-scientific character of Mormon thought and the perception of the LDS Church as a restrictive denomination. The acceptable Finnish religion in the material is based, instead, on a cultural form of Lutheranism that prioritizes scientific reasoning and emphasizes individual well-being.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-531572 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Käräjäoja, Vellu |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Empirisk-praktiska studier av religion och teologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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