Ihanteena vapaaehtoisuus : Diakoniatyö Porvoon hiippakunnan seurakunnissa, erityisesti Iitin ja Tampereen rovastikunnissa vuosina 1897-1923

The Ideal of Volunteerism. An institutional approach to social welfare work in the parishes of the Diocese of Porvoo especially in the deaneries of Iitti and Tampere, Finland, in the years 1897-1923 Social welfare work (also known as diakonia) has achieved a high status in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Since 1944, provisions of the Finnish Church Act have obliged each parish to employ at least one deacon or deaconess. This study sets out to examine the background and development of social welfare work in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland from the 1890s to the 1920s, by which time social welfare work had become an established practice in the Church. The study investigates the development of social welfare work on the level of parishes. The main source material was collected from sixteen parishes in the Diocese of Porvoo especially in the deaneries of Iitti and Tampere. In the 1890s, two approaches were used in church social work in Finland. The dioceses of Kuopio, Savonlinna and Turku pursued a congregational approach to social work, while the Diocese of Porvoo employed an institutional approach, mainly because of the influence of Bishop Herman Råbergh. This study charts the formation of church social work in Finnish parishes, which took place during a period of tension between the two approaches. The institutional approach to church social work adopted by the Diocese of Porvoo was based on the German system of Asisters= houses@, in which deaconess institutes sent parish sisters to serve congregations. The parish or, in many cases, a separate association dedicated to church social work paid an annual fee to the deaconess institute, which took care of the parish sisters in old age. In the institutional approach, volunteers were recruited to carry out church social work. It was considered as inappropriate to use tax revenue or other public funding for church social work, which was supposed to be based on Christian love for one=s fellow humans and the needy, and for which only voluntary financial contributions were supposed to be used. In the congregational approach, church social work was directly based on the efforts of the parish. The approach relied on the administrative bodies of parishes and the Church, and tax revenue collected by the parishes, as well as other forms of public funding, could be used to carry out the social welfare work. The parishes employed deacons and deaconesses and paid their salaries. The approaches described above were not pursued in their ideal forms; instead, many variations existed. However, in principle, the social welfare work undertaken by the parishes of the Diocese of Porvoo was based on the institutional approach, while the congregational approach was largely employed elsewhere in Finland. Both of the approaches were viable. Parishes began to employ deacons and deaconesses as of the 1890s. The number of parishes which had hired a deacon or deaconess increased particularly in the 1910s, by which time 60% of parishes had employed one. This level was maintained until 1944 when each parish in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland was obliged to employ a deacon or deaconess. Deaconesses usually worked as travelling nurses. The autonomous status of Finland as part of the Russian Empire did not give Finns the right to develop legislation on social affairs and health care. Consequently, the legislation process did not begin until Finland gained its independence in 1917. The social welfare work carried out by parishes and a number of voluntary organisations satisfied the emerging need for medical treatment in Finnish society. Neither the government nor the municipalities had sufficient resources to provide this treatment. Based on the ideal of volunteerism, the institutional social work practiced in the Diocese of Porvoo ran into serious difficulties at the end of the First World War. Because of severe inflation, prices began to rise as of 1915 and tripled in 1917-1918. During the same period, Finnish society went through a deep crisis which escalated into Civil War in spring 1918. This period of economic and social turmoil marked a turning-point which led to a weakening of the status of institutional social work in parishes. Voluntary efforts were no longer sufficient to maintain the practice. In contrast, congregational social work, which was based on public funding, was able to cope with the changes and survived the crisis. The approach to social work adopted by the Diocese of Porvoo turned out to be no more than a brief detour in the history of social work in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. At the start of the 1920s, the two approaches were integrated into a common vision for establishing church social work as a statutory practice in parishes.

One Word, One Body, One Voice : Studies in Apophatic Theology and Christocentric Anthropology in Gregory of Nyssa

The thesis consists of five international congress papers and a summary with an introduction. The overarching aim of the studies and the summary is to examine the inner coherency of the theological and anthropological thinking of Gregory of Nyssa (331-395). To the issue is applied an "apophatic approach" with a "Christological focus". It is suggested that the coherency is to be found from the Christological concept of unity between "true God" and "true man" in the one person of Jesus Christ. Gregory is among the first to make a full recognition of two natures of Christ, and to use this recognition systematically in his writings. The aim of the studies is pursued by the method of "identification", a combination of the modern critical "problematic method" and Gregory's own aphairetic method of "following" (akolouthia). The preoccupation with issues relating to the so-called Hellenization of Christianity in the patristic era was strong in the twentieth-century Gregory scholarship. The most discussed questions have been the Greek influence in his thought and his philosophical sources. In the five articles of the thesis it is examined how Gregory's thinking stands in its own right. The manifestly apophatic character of his theological thinking is made a part of the method of examining his thought according to the principles of his own method of following. The basic issue concerning the relation of theology and anthropology is discussed in the contexts of his central Trinitarian, anhtropological, Christological and eschatological sources. In the summary the Christocentric integration of Gregory's thinking is discussed also in relation to the issue of the alledged Hellenization. The main conclusion of the thesis concerns the concept of theology in Gregory. It is not indebted to the classical concept of theology as metaphysics or human speculation of God. Instead, it is founded to the traditional Judeo-Christian idea of God who speaks with his people face to face. In Gregory, theologia connotes the oikonomia of God's self-revelation. It may be regarded as the state of constant expression of love between the Creator and his created image. In theology, the human person becomes an image of the Word by which the Father expresses his love to "man" whom he loves as his own Son. Eventually the whole humankind, as one, gives the divine Word a physical - audible and sensible - Body. Humankind then becomes what theology is. The whole humanity expresses divine love by manifesting Christ in words and deeds, singing in one voice to the glory of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Pyhä Teresa ja keskiajan mystiikan teoriat

In my dissertation I have studied St Teresa (1515-1582) in the light of medieval mystical theories. I have two main levels in my research: historical and theological. On the historical level I study St Teresa s personal history in the context of her family and the Spanish society. On the theological level I study both St Teresa s mysticism and her religious experience in the light of medieval mysticism. St Teresa wrote a book called Life , which is her narrative autobiography and story about her mystical spiritual formation. She reflected herself through biblical texts interpreting them in the course of the biblical hermeneutics like allegory, typology, tropology and anagogy. In addition to that she read others life stories from her period of time, but reflected herself only slightly through the sociological point of view. She used irony as a means to gain acceptance to her authority and motive to write. Her position has been described as a double bind because of writing at the request of educated men and to the non-educated women as she herself was uneducated. She used irony as a means to achieve valuation to women, to gain negative attributes connected to them and to gain authority to teach them mystical spirituality, the Bible and prayer. In this ironic tendency she was a feminist writer. In order to understand medieval mysticism I have written in the first chapter a review of the main trends in medieval mysticism in connection with the classical emotional theories. Two medieval mystical theories show an important role in St Teresa s mysticism. One is love mysticism and the other is the three partite way of mysticism (purification, illumination and union). The classic-philosophical emotional theories play a role in both patterns. The theory of love mysticism St Teresa interpreted in the traditional way stressing the spiritual meaning of love in connexion with God and neighbors. Love is an emotion, which is bound with other emotions, but all objects of love don t strengthen spiritual love. In the three partite way of mysticism purification means to find biblical values in life and to practice meditative self-knowledge theologically interpreted. In illumination human understanding has to be illuminated by God and united to mystical knowledge from God. St Teresa considered illumination a way to learn things. Illumination has also psychological aspects like recognition of many trials and pains, which come from life on earth. Theologically interpreted in illumination one should die to oneself, let oneself be transformed and renewed by God. I have also written a review of the modern philosophical discussion on personal identity where memory and mental experiences are important creators of personal identity. St Teresa bound medieval mystical teaching together with her personal religious experience. Her personal identity is by its character based on her narrative life story where mental experiences play important role. Previous researchers have labelled St Teresa as an ecstatic person whose experiences produced ecstatic phenomena to the mysticism. These phenomena combined with visions have in one respect made of her a person who has brought physical and visionary tendencies to theology. In spite of that she also represents a modern tendency trying to give words to experiences, which at first seem to be exceptional and extreme and which are easily interpreted as one-sided either physical or sexual or unsaid. In other respect I have stressed the personality of St Teresa that was represented as both strong and weak. The strong personality for her is demonstrated by religious faith and in its practice. The weak personality was for her a natural personal identity. St Teresa saw a unifying aspect in almost all. Firstly, her mysticism was aimed towards union with God and secondly, the unifying aspects and common rules in human relations in community life were central. Union with God is based on the fact that in a soul God is living in its centre, where God is present in the Trinitarian way. The picture of God in ourselves is a mirror but to get to know God better is to recognize his/her presence in us. When the soul recognizes itself as a dwelling place of God, it knows itself as God knows him/herself. There is equality between God and the soul. To be a Christian means to participate in God in his Trinitarian being. The participation to God is a process of divinization that puts a person into transformation, change and renewal. The unitive aspect concludes also knowledge of opposites between experience of community and solitude as well as community and separateness. As a founder of monasteries St Teresa practiced theology of poverty. She renewed the monastic life founding a rule called discalced that stressed ascetic tendencies. Supporters of her work were after the difficulties in the beginning both society and churchly leaders. She wrote about the monasteries including in her description at times seriousness at times humor and irony. Her stories are said to be picaresque histories that contain stories of ordinary laymen and many unexpected occasions. She exercised a kind of Bakhtinian dialogue in her letters. St Teresa stressed the virtues like sacrifice, determination and courage in the monastic life. Most of what she taught of virtues is based on biblical spirituality but there are also psychological tendencies in her writings. The theological pedagogical advice is mixed with psychology, but she herself made no distinction between different aspects in her teaching. To understand St Teresa and her mysticism is to recognize that she mixes her personal religious experience and mysticism, which widens mysticism to religious experience in a new way, although this corresponds also the very definition of mysticism. St Teresa concentrated on mental-spiritual experiences and the aim of her mystical teaching was to produce a human mind well cured like a garden that has God as its gardener.

[Liebes Fräulein Regina].

Bound courtship letters from Julius Fröhlich to his bride, Regina, April to July 1883

Ethics and Aesthetics : Intersections in Iris Murdoch's Philosophy

The study addresses the question concerning the relationship between ethics and aesthetics in the philosophy of Iris Murdoch. The main argument is that Murdoch s philosophy cannot be accurately understood without an understanding of the relationship she sees between the aesthetic experience and morality. Reading Murdoch s philosophy with this relationship in mind shows that it must be considered as a relevant alternative to the main forms of aesthetic-ethical theories. The study consists of seven previously published articles and a summary. It shows that Murdoch belongs to a tradition of philosophers who seek to broaden the scope of ethics by reference to aesthetic value and aesthetic experience. She sees an attitude responsible for aesthetic experiences as relevant for morality. However, she does not collapse morality into aesthetic experience. The two meet on the level of the subject s attitude towards its object, but there is a distinction between the experiences that accompany the attitudes. Aesthetic experiences can function as a clue to morals in that they present in a pleasing manner moral truths which otherwise might be psychologically too difficult to face. Murdoch equates the aesthetic attitude with virtuous love characterized by unselfish attention to its object. The primary object of such love is in Murdoch s account another human individual in her particularity. She compares the recognition of the other person as a particular existence to the experience of the Kantian sublime and offers her own version of the true sublime which is the experience of awe in the face of the infinity of the task of understanding others. One of the most central claims in Murdoch s philosophy is that human consciousness is evaluatively structured. This claim challenges the distinction between facts and values which has had an immense influence on modern moral philosophy. One argument with which Murdoch supports her claim is the nature of great literature. According to her, the standard of greatness in literature is the authors awareness of the independent existence of individuals in the particularity of their evaluative consciousnesses. The analysis of the standard of greatness in literature is also Murdoch s only argument for the claim that the primary object of the loving unselfish attention is the other particular individual. She is convinced that great literature reveals a deep truth about the human condition with its capacity to capture the particular. Abstract philo¬sophical discourse cannot compete with this capacity but it should take truths revealed by literature seriously in its theorising. Recognising this as Murdoch s stand on the question of the relation between philosophy and literature as forms of human discourse settles whether she is part of what has been called philosophy s turn to literature. The answer is yes.

"It's not the Jedi way!": Moral ambivalence and delivering the 'good' in Star Wars

This article examines the nature of good and evil through the prism of Star Wars, arguing that the ostensible dichotomy between the ‘good’ Jedi and the ‘evil’ Sith is false, and instead both the Jedi and the Sith engage in violence, which is evil. Anakin Skywalker then arrives as the Christ-figure who becomes evil and ‘dies’ to destroy the old rigid law of the letter adhered to by the Jedi, before resurrecting and sacrificing himself to defeat the Sith transgressors. As Milbank argues, the act of selfless love by Anakin as the Christ-figure therefore produces the good, the end of violent conflict which is ontological peace, and institutes the law of love which leads to life and peace.

Managing uncertainty to improve the cost performance of complex infrastructure projects

There has been a recent spate of high profile infrastructure cost overruns in Australia and internationally. This is just the tip of a longer-term and more deeply-seated problem with initial budget estimating practice, well recognised in both academic research and industry reviews: the problem of uncertainty. A case study of the Sydney Opera House is used to identify and illustrate the key causal factors and system dynamics of cost overruns. It is conventionally the role of risk management to deal with such uncertainty, but the type and extent of the uncertainty involved in complex projects is shown to render established risk management techniques ineffective. This paper considers a radical advance on current budget estimating practice which involves a particular approach to statistical modelling complemented by explicit training in estimating practice. The statistical modelling approach combines the probability management techniques of Savage, which operate on actual distributions of values rather than flawed representations of distributions, and the data pooling technique of Skitmore, where the size of the reference set is optimised. Estimating training employs particular calibration development methods pioneered by Hubbard, which reduce the bias of experts caused by over-confidence and improve the consistency of subjective decision-making. A new framework for initial budget estimating practice is developed based on the combined statistical and training methods, with each technique being explained and discussed.

Liberty relighting, 20 years later

Recognized around the world as a powerful beacon for freedom, hope, and opportunity, the Statue of Liberty's light is not just metaphorical: her dramatic illumination is a perfect example of American ingenuity and engineering. Since the statue's installation in New York Harbor in 1886, lighting engineers and designers had struggled to illuminate the 150-foot copper-clad monument in a manner becoming an American icon. It took the thoughtful and creative approach of Howard Brandston-a legend in his own right-to solve this lighting challenge. In 1984, the designer was asked to give the statue a much-needed lighting makeover in preparation for its centennial. In order to avoid the shortcomings of previous attempts, he studied the monument from every angle and in all lighting conditions, discovering that it looked best in the light of dawn. Brandston determined that he would need 'one lamp to mimic the morning sun and one lamp to mimic the morning sky.' Learning that no existing lamps could simulate these conditions, Brandston partnered with General Electric to develop two new metal halide products. With only a short time for R&D, a team of engineers at GE's Nela Park laboratories assembled a 'top secret' testing room dedicated to the Statue of Liberty project. After nearly two years of work to perfect the new lamps, the 'dawn's early light' effect was finally achieved just days before the centennial celebrations were to take place in 1986. 'It was truly a labor of love,' he recalls.

Parisuhde ja ero : Sosiologinen analyysi terapeuttisesta ymmärryksestä

This study takes as its premise the prominent social and cultural role that the couple relationship has acquired in modern society. Marriage as a social institution and romantic love as a cultural script have not lost their significance but during the last few decades the concept of relationship has taken prominence in our understanding of the love relationship. This change has taken place in a society governed by the therapeutic ethos. This study uses material ranging from in-depth interviews to various mass media texts to investigate the therapeutic logic that determines our understanding of the couple relationship. The central concept in this study is therapeutic relationship which does not refer to any particular type of relationship. In contemporary usage the relationship is, by definition, therapeutic. The therapeutic relationship is seen as an endless source of conflict and a highly complex dynamic unit in constant need of attention and treatment. Notwithstanding this emphasis on therapy and relationship work the therapeutic relationship lacks any morally or socially defined direction. Here lies the cultural power and according to critics the dubious aspect of the therapeutic ethos. For the therapeutic logic any reason for divorce is possible and plausible. Prosaically speaking the question is not whether to divorce or not, but when to divorce. In the end divorce only attests to the complexity of the relationship. The therapeutic understanding of the relationship gives the illusion that relationships with their tensions and conflicting emotions can be fully transferred to the sphere of transparency and therapeutic processing. This illusion created by relationship talk that emphasizes individual control is called omnipotence of the individual. However, the study shows that the individual omnipotence is inevitably limited and hence cracks appear in it. The cracks in the omnipotence show that while the therapeutic relationship based on the ideal of communication gives an individual a mode of speaking that stresses autonomy, equality and emotional gratification, it offers little help in expressing our fundamental dependence on other people. The study shows how strong an attraction the therapeutic ethos has with its grasp on the complexities of the relationship in a society where divorce is so common and the risk of divorce is collectively experienced.

Interface stresses in a composite cylindrical shell under ring loading

The problem of a two-layer circular cylindrical shell subjected to radial ring loading has been solved theoretically. The solution is developed by uniting the elasticity solution through Love function approach for the inner thick shell with the Flügge shell theory for the thin outer shell. Numerical work has been done with a digital computer for different values of shell geometry parameters and material constants. The general behaviour of the composite shell has been studied in the light of these numerical results.

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN.

A symmetric solution for a cylindrical shell enclosed in an elastic casing

The problem of a long, thin circular cylindrical shell enclosed in an elastic casing and subjected to a ring of radial load on the inner rim is solved using the Love function for the casing in conjunction with Flügge shell theory. Numerical work has been done with a digital computer and the results for stress and displacement fields are given for various values of the shell geometry parameters and material constants.

Nainen, mies, rakkaus, seksi : Heterosuhteen kulku, kulttuurinen malli ja sitä selittävät diskurssit kahden omaelämäkerta-aineiston valossa

The subject matter of this study is the cultural knowledge concerning romantic male-female relationships in autobiographies written by so called ordinary Finnish men and women born between 1901 and 1965. The research data (98 autobiographies) is selected from two collections by the Finnish Literature Society s folklore archives in the early 1990 s. Autobiographies are cultural representations where negotiation of shared cultural models and personal meanings given to hetero-relationship is evident in an interesting manner. In this research I analyze autobiographies as a written folklore genre. Information concerning male-female relationships is being analyzed using theoretically informed close readings thematic analysis, intertextual reading and reflexive reading. Theoretical implications stem from cognitive anthropology (the idea of cultural models) and an adaptation of discourse theory inspired by Michel Foucault. The structure of the analysis follows the structure of the shared knowledge concerning romantic male-female relationship: the first phase of analysis presents the script of a hetero-relationship and then moves into the actual structure, the cultural model of a relationship. The components of the model of relationship are, as mentioned in the title of the research, woman, man, love and sex. The research shows that all the writers share this basic knowledge concerning a heterosexual relationship despite their age, background or gender. Also the conflicts described and experienced in the relationships of the writers were similar throughout the timespan of the early 1900 s to 1990 s: lack of love, inability to reconcile sexual desires, housework, sharing the responsibility of childcare and financial problems. The research claims that the conflicts in relationships are a major cause for the binary view on gender. When relationships are harmonious, there seems to be no need to see men and women as opposites. The research names five important discourses present in the meaning giving processes of autobiographers. In doing so, the stabile cultural model of male-female relationship widens to show the complexity and variation in data. In this way it is possible to detect some age and gender specific shifts and emphasis. The discourses give meaning to the components of the cultural model and determine the contents of womanhood, manhood, sexuality and love. The way these discourses are spread and their authority are different: the romantic discourse evident in the autobiographies appeal to the authority of love supreme love is the purpose of male-female relationship and it justifies sexuality. In this discourse sex can be the place for confluence of genders. The ideas of romantic love are widely spread in popular culture. Popular scientific discourse defines a relationship as a site to become a man and a woman either from a psychological or a biological point of view. Genders are seen as opposites. These ideas are often presented in media and their authority in science which is seen as infallible. The Christian discourse defines men and women: both should work for the benefit of the nuclear family under the undisputed authority of God. Marital love is based on Christian virtues and within marriage sexuality is acceptable. The discourse I ve named folk tradition defines women and men as guardians of home and offspring. The authority of folk tradition comes from universal truth based in experience and truths known to the mediators of this discourse grandparents, parents and other elders or peers. Societal discourse defines the hetero relationship as the mainstay of society. The authority in societal discourse stems from the laws and regulations that control relationship practices.

Hiippakunta diakoniatyön tekijänä ja tukijana : Diakoniatyön kehitys Mikkelin hiippakunnassa 1945-1991

ABSTRACT The diocese as the agent and advocate of diaconial work. The development of diaconial work in the Mikkeli diocese 1945–1991. The roots of Finnish diacony are in the individual devotional life of Pietism. An acting faith had to be evident in acts of love. Following German institutional diacony, diaconial institutions were established in Finland until congregational diacony emerged alongside these institutions in the 1890s. Pastor Otto Aarnisalo acted as a pathfinder in this. He aimed to unite diacony with the Church and the life of the congregation. Diacony had been based on the idea of volunteering to separate it from statutory social work. In 1944 the church law was amended, which made diacony the concern of every member of the congregation. In the years immediately following the Second World War, discussion took place in the Church of Finland about the direction that diacony should take. In the consequential debate, caritative services overcame social diacony. The diocese administration moved to Mikkeli in 1945, when the majority of the Vyborg diocese became part of the USSR in the armistice negotiations. The Mikkeli diocese acted in its diaconial work with the same objectives as the diaconial solutions of the whole church. The acting principle of the diocese diacony became a form of helping which emphasised assistance of the individual. Especially from the 1960s onwards, the country's industrialisation and the reduction of agricultural trade had an effect on the Mikkeli diocese. The diocese administration, specifically Bishop Martti Simojoki and his successor Osmo Alaja, aimed to open up connections to the political left and people working in industry. At least indirectly this helped the diaconial work in industrial localities. In the Mikkeli diocese, a diaconial committee was established in 1971, and its work was overseen by the diocesan chapter of the bishop's office. This enabled the work of the diocese to be organised for the different areas of diacony. Previously, the diaconial work of the Finnish church had primarily been in nursing. The Health Insurance Law of 1972 brought a change to this when the responsibility for health services was transferred to the municipalities. Diacony began to move towards a psychological and spiritual emphasis. Beginning in the 1970s, the diocese started holding diaconial themed days at prescribed intervals. Although these did not result in great realignments, they did help clarify the direction that diacony would take. Large international collections were also carried out, especially in the 1980s. At the same time, socio-ethical activity vitalised and diversified Christian services. The idea that every member of the congregation should practice diacony was a strong factor in the Mikkeli diocese as well. The diocese's vision for diacony was holistic; Christian service was the responsibility of every member of the congregation. During the period of study (1945–1991), the theology of diacony was rather tenuous. Bishop Kalevi Toiviainen, however, brought forth the viewpoint of church doctrine and officially sanctioned theology. Diacony was part of the complete faith of the Church.

Pietismin kuva - ikkuna yksityiseen hengellisyyteen : Johann Arndtin opetukset pietistisen embleemin perustana

The image of Pietism a window to personal spirituality. The teachings of Johann Arndt as the basis of Pietist emblems The Pietist effect on spiritual images has to be scrutinised as a continuum initiating from the teachings of Johann Arndt who created a protestant iconography that defended the status of pictures and images as the foundation of divine revelation. Pietist artworks reveal Arndtian part of secret, eternal world, and God. Even though modern scholars do not regarded him as a founding father of Pietism anymore, his works have been essential for the development of iconography, and the themes of the Pietist images are linked with his works. For Arndt, the starting point is in the affecting love for Christ who suffered for the humankind. The reading experience is personal and the words point directly at the reader and thus appear as evidence of the guilt of the reader as well as of the love of God. Arndt uses bounteous and descriptive language which has partially affected promoting and picturing of many themes. Like Arndt, Philipp Jakob Spener also emphasised the heart that believes. The Pietist movement was born to oppose detached faith and the lack of the Holy Ghost. Christians touched by the teachings of Arndt and Spener began to create images out of metaphors presented by Arndt. As those people were part of the intelligentsia, it was natural that the fashionable emblematics of the 17th century was moulded for the personal needs. For Arndt, the human heart is manifested as a symbol of soul, personal faith or unbelief as well as an allegory of the burning love for Jesus. Due to this fact, heart emblems were gradually widely used and linked with the love of Christ. In the Nordic countries, the introduction of emblems emanated from the gentry s connections to the Central Europe where emblems were exploited in order to decorate books, artefacts, interiors, and buildings as well as visual/literal trademarks of the intelligentsia. Emblematic paintings in the churches of the castles of Venngarn (1665) and Läckö (1668), owned by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, are one of the most central interior paintings preserved in the Nordic countries, and they emphasise personal righteous life. Nonetheless, it was the books by Arndt and the Poet s Society in Nurnberg that bound the Swedish gentry and the scholars of the Pietist movement together. The Finnish gentry had no castles or castle churches so they supported county churches, both in building and in maintenance. As the churches were not private, their iconography could not be private either. Instead, people used Pietist symbols such as Agnus Dei, Cor ardens, an open book, beams, king David, frankincense, wood themes and Virtues. In the Pietist images made for public spaces, the attention is focused on pedagogical, metaphorical, and meaningful presentation as well as concealed statements.