Out of the “pagan darkness”: Christian education in Finnish Lapland

Abstract

This article examines Christian education for the Sámi people in Finnish Lapland from the seventeenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. During that time, a variety of forms of nationwide education were undertaken in Lapland, but the most enduring solution proved to be catechist education, with a travelling Sámi educator visiting homes to teach children the key elements of Christianity. According to contemporaries, the Sámi people managed to break out of their “primitiveness” in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Signs of finding the “road to civilisation” included a more Finnish lifestyle, as well as the adoption of the Christian faith: at the turn of twentieth century, the level of Christianity in the Sámi area was higher than anywhere else in Finland.