Communion as Shared Experience in Early Modern Finland

Abstract

This article investigates how Communion was shared as an experience of “lived religion” in early modern Finland. The article draws on church teaching and legal materials concerning Communion to investigate what scripts were available that shaped experience, and it draws on court record narratives on Communion‐related superstition or crime to uncover variations of that script for specific local situations involving various individuals and groups of laypeople. The article suggests that while Communion was meant to create an experience of intimate knowledge between the divine and the Christian, as well as between all Christians, at times its shared nature was limited and produced experiences of exclusion and self‐exclusion. Furthermore, the article considers experience in terms of a relational process, suggesting that “experience of religion” as a concept can help with investigating religious conflict and persecution when the concept of “lived religion” offers insufficient nuance.