Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses how the Finnish church-state relations are manifested, maintained, and constructed in MPs’ speeches in plenary debates in the Finnish parliament, and how ideals of institutionalized religion are or are not translated into judicial norms.

Paper long abstract:

The relation of church(es) and state is often approached from the perspective of legislative articulations, whereas the construction of that relation in political speech appears as a lacuna in academic research. This paper examines how the Finnish church-state relations are manifested, maintained, and constructed in MPs’ speeches in plenary debates in the Finnish parliament. The data contain party programmes, legislative initiatives, and plenary session debates, which are contrasted with results from Religious and Social Attitudes survey (RSA, N=1579).

According to previous research Finnish population widely supports the idea of further separation of church(es) and state; however, this way of thinking has not pervaded Finnish political parties or parliamentary processes. Our starting point is to scrutinize this incongruity in Finnish societal thinking and (mis)representation of the people in parliamentary politics, i.e., how ideas and ideals of institutionalized religion are or are not translated into judicial norms.

Our analysis suggests that historical conventions of parliamentary discourses on churches and their societal positions maintain the status quo. Political arguments of the Finnish MPs are on the whole church-state relations affirming, with very few exceptions. Churches’ vast intertwinement in the Finnish society as a provider of public services seems to further reinforce their legislative status and autonomy within the state. This paper is a part of University of Helsinki’s The Religious Legitimation of Politics and the Political Legitimation of Religion in Finland (LegitRel) project (2020–2024).