Young people at a revivalist summer gathering: Rituals, liminality, and emotions

This article examines the religiosity of young people at a summer gathering of a Christian revivalist movement. Studies on religious mass events as social phenomena, as well as research on youth participation, are still quite few. The open-air summer gatherings of the traditional Finnish revivalist movements operating within the national Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland attract masses of people from all generations simultaneously as the church itself sustains losses in attendance at the more institutional collective practices. This article seeks to answer why one of these gatherings is appealing for a group of active young people by investigating their visitor experiences and the meanings attached. The study regards the event as an arena for expressing, negotiating, and reviving religious meanings. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and narratives, this qualitative case study seeks to illustrate current religiosity and, in general, to contribute to the comprehension of collective religiousness in people’s somewhat individualized and private religious lives