"Et lys i denne verdens mørke"

Læstadianske kodeks og det moderne samfunn

Abstract

Læstadianism is an evangelical and fundamentalist movement within the Lutheran Church, located primarily in northern Fenno-Scandinavia. In a historic perspective, the movement's stronghold is to be found in Saami- and Finnish-language communities. Thus in several studies the movement has been analyzed in light of theories of millenarian movements with the onus on the ethno-political aspects of the movement. The present article provides an example of how local political demands from the Saami are rejected by the Læstadian movement. Against that backdrop the author argues that the Læstadian movement, with the development of Saami political organizations, has lost its previous function as an oppositional ideology and nowadays functions simply as a religious sect.