Hare Kri na Soomes

The Finnish theology has been focused on the new religious movements and other religious minorities for a while. It has mostly been studied what kind of factors make the modernised Western people sensitive to foreign religions. The author discusses the problems related to the studies of the international new religious movements based on the fieldworks from years 1977 until 1999 concentrating on the Krishna movement in Finland. He finds that the increasing pluralism in the Western societies has reduced the tension between the minorities and dominating culture. The Krishna movement does not meet halfway in its theological and cultural position but admits that the strategies of preaching must further concentrate on a more gentle approach and the ways of cooperation with non-members should be found on a more neutral basis.