Authors

• Church Research Institute

Keywords

bereavement, bible, christianity, church, congregations, immortality, membership, ordination of women, religion, religious attendance, religious beliefs, religious communities, religious doctrines, religious groups

Abstract

The survey contained questions about church and religion. The respondents were asked whether they were members of a church or other religious community, and whether they were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. They were asked to estimate how significant the various reasons for being a member of the church were to them, and whether they had ever thought about resigning from it. Those who were not members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church were asked whether they had ever thought about joining it. The respondents were also asked to present their views on the Evangelical Lutheran Church with the help of a number of opposite adjective pairs (e.g. honest - dishonest, rich - poor, reliable - unreliable, tolerant - intolerant, efficient - inefficient).

Furthermore, the respondents were asked how often they participated in various congregational activities, such as church services, communion, church concerts or other religious meetings, and how often they prayed, read the Bible or the New Testament, watched religious programmes on television, or listened to them in the radio. Views were also probed on the afterlife, the existence of God, the creation of the world, and Jesus' status as the Son of God.

The respondents were presented with a list of duties belonging to the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church and its congregations, and asked to estimate how well they had fulfilled these obligations. Opinions were also charted on different religions and religious denominations, religious upbringing, Jesus, the Bible, the ordination of women, and the liturgical reform in Finland.

Background variables included respondent's age, gender, education, occupational group, income group, province of residence, and type of municipality.