Laestadianism

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Laestadianism. A Christian revival movement in northern Scandinavia founded by Lars Levi Laestadius (1800–61). This Swedish pastor of the Lutheran church in Karesuando, near the Finnish border in Lappland, was more interested in botany than in souls until a deep personal awakening in 1844 led to a new preaching of the gospel, with emphasis upon repentance and the absolute forgiveness of sins within the congregation as the body of Christ and through his atoning death. Emigrating Laestadianism Finns were responsible for the foundation of the Apostolic Lutheran Church in the USA in 1871.