Door to the Study of Diaconia

Pyykkö, Raija. “Hengellisen ja maallisen rajalla – kamppailu seurakuntien diakoniatyöntekijöiden sosiaalisesta ja kulttuurisesta toimialueesta“. [On the boundary of spiritual and secular – a battle over the social and cultural jurisdiction of the parish diaconal workers].  Tampere University Press 2011. Dissertation. Published in Finnish. E-form available http://acta.uta.fi/pdf/978-951-44-8606-7.pdf. Abstract: The object of the study is the jurisdiction [...]

Kulhia, Ali. “Uutta, vanhaa ja lainattua: Tampereen Kaupunkilähetyksen kristillissosiaalisen työn asemoituminen hyvinvointivaltion rakentumisessa vuosina 1939−1973“. 2012. [Old, New and Borrowed. The Positioning of Christian Social Work within the Tampere City Mission in the Building of a Welfare State 1939-1973] Dissertation. Published in Finnish . Abstract: The main purpose of this study was to provide a [...]

Van der Ven, Johannes A., “Inclusion and Exclusion from the Perspective of Socioeconomic Rights and Religion” This paper explores the legitimacy of religious relief agencies in the domain of diakonia and caritas in the perspective of the relation between socioeconomic rights and religion. It interprets this domain in terms of inclusion and exclusion of people [...]

Askeland, Harald. “What do Diaconal Hospital Managers really do?” What does it mean to be a manager, and how does the practice of managing a diaconal hospital manifest itself in everyday practice? Even though diaconal institutions have played a central part of the church’s ministry for over a hundred years, little attention has been given [...]

Anselm, Reiner. “How do we maintain a Credible Diaconia for the Future?” Both, open markets for social services in the EU and the secularisation, challenge diaconia in Germany. The article argues that for the future diaconia has to clarify its relation to the church and to the public welfare as well. Only if there is [...]

Smith, Greg. “Faith and Volunteering in the UK: Towards a Virtuous Cycle for the Accumulation of Social, Religious and Spiritual Capital?” In the context of a communitarian discourse under the New Labour government (1997‒2010), the theoretical concept of social capital as developed by Putnam1 was influential on policy in welfare and community development. Faith communities, [...]

Latvus, Kari. ”The Conventional Theory about the Origin of Diaconia. An Analysis of Arguments” The classical paradigm before the 1990s unanimously considered the early apostolic and biblical age as a special era for the diaconal ministry. According to this theory, in the early church, the deacons had a prominent position in their local churches and [...]

This study examines the diaconia work of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church from the standpoint of clients. The role of diaconia work has grown since the early 1990s recession, and since it established itself as one of the actors along with other social organizations. Previous studies have described the changing role of diaconal work, especially [...]

One essential form of helping people in the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s diaconal work is providing economic aid. It can be seen as work which is in accordance with the spirit of the Church Order (4:3). One of the tasks of diaconal work, determined by the Church Order, is to help those whose distress is the [...]

Latvus, Kari. “Origin of the caritative diaconia concept” The aim of the article is to analyze the historical development of the concept caritative diaconia.  In the New Testament the word διακονία refers to various tasks and ministries. The word does not have a specific caritative meaning and only in some cases it is connected with [...]