Læstadianismens Jerusalem: Om konstruksjoner av hellige steder

Abstract

The article examines the early ecclesiology of the Firstborn Laestadians in Northern Sweden and Norway where the geographical concept of “Lappland” (lappmark) became a significant term for the Laestadian congregations. The meaning of this term is interpreted in light of the Laestadians’ reading of the Bible in which the image of the biblical Jerusalem as the center for early Christianity is related to the Firstborn’s administrative center for their revival movement, Gällivare in the Western part of Swedish Lappland. Other Laestadians did not agree with this interpretation and developed analogous ideas of their own administrative centers.