Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Comparative Religion, Åbo Akademi University
Email: tuija.hovi@abo.fi
Current research
I am currently working on my post-doctoral research within the PCCR project focusing on the thematic questions of identity and agency as well as the experiential dimension and cultural accommodation of religion. Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, especially local forms of the global Neocharismatic Movement, is my primary research subject. The methodological issues that I am interested in are qualitative methods of anthropology and social psychology such as ethnography and narrative study. Traditionally, the study of Christian movements has been confined to theologians, historians and sociologists, and it has predominantly concentrated on quantitative surveys and textual studies. An ethnographic approach is applicable here because it seeks to highlight new and dynamically changing topics. It may also broaden the perspective of the sociologically constructed understanding of today's religious landscape in Finland.
