Millä tavoin nykymaailmassa on mahdollista uskoa enkeleihin? Tätä kysymystä uskontotieteilijä, etnografi Terhi Utriainen lähti selvittämään tutustumalla suomalaisiin ihmisiin, joiden elämässä enkelit ovat läsnä.

Juuri nyt enkelit kiinnostavat ihmisiä kovasti, ja enkeleitä käsitteleviä kirjoja ja muita enkelituotteita ilmestyy markkinoille tiuhaan. ”Tavalliset” suomalaiset ihmiset kutsuvat enkeleitä kumppaneiksi elämän kiemuroihin. Kenttätutkimus enkeleistä kiinnostuneiden parissa vie tutkijan monenlaisiin tilanteisiin: joogakoulun enkelimeditaatioviikolle, henkisyyden messuille ja enkelihoitajakurssille.

Enkeleitä työpöydällä avaa lukijalle tutkimuspäiväkirjan, jossa suomalaisten naisten kasvavaa kiinnostusta enkeleihin hahmotetaan kohtaamalla ihmisiä, keskustelemalla ja osallistumalla. Kansanomaisessa, käytännöllisessä enkeliuskossa yhdistyy kutkuttavalla tavalla vanha ja uusi uskonto.

Angels on my desk: Ethnography on everyday enchantments

Angels are traditional religious figures and images which have become popular today not only within but also beyond institutional religions. Angels can be found in many artistic but increasingly also popularized and commercialized forms. Experiences with angels are reported for instance in women’s magazines and best-selling books. But how is angel religion practiced by the so-called ordinary people in their everyday lives? What are their sources of inspiration and what does engaging with angels add to their lives? Moreover, why is popular interest in angels depreciated or belittled by many outsiders?
Angels on my desk: Ethnography on everyday enchantments is written and structured as a research diary. The diary follows one scholar of religion and her eighteen-month-long process of ethnographic fieldwork among Finnish people (most of them women) who have, in different ways, invited angels into their lives. The book presents – to students, scholars and other interested readers – one example of the process by which ethnographic knowledge on religion and religiosity is produced in a complex present-day society. In the book, angel religiosity is approached as practical everyday religion which opens up intriguing questions about gender, enchantment, agency, and emotions as well as the changing places of religion or spirituality in modern life.
The process of ethnographic fieldwork among angel practitioners gives rise questions such as: Why are angels so inspiring to many women today? How is it possible to believe in angels in a very secularized society such as Finland? These and related questions are pursued by interviewing, talking to people and joining them in various angel practices, by reading research literature, watching films, and talking with friends and colleagues. The construction of hybrid ethnographic knowledge involves input from many partners, both within and beyond professional academic fields.