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This volume looks at the Finnish-German military alliance (1941–1944) as a translation zone – a multilingual network of military, administrative and civilian encounters that was held together by linguistically versed soldiers and civilians acting as interpreters and translators. It focuses on interpreters and liaison officers of the Finnish Liaison Staff in Rovaniemi, who were assigned to the staffs of the German army units with the task of maintaining communication between the two armies and assisting German troops in their daily matters. Furthermore, attention is paid to Finnish civilians, especially women whose language skills made them candidates for a range of mediation tasks in the German units. The reconstruction of military interpreters' and liaison officers' tasks and mediation agency between the two military cultures is based on their war-time weekly reports, whereas the civilian interpreters' experiences are drawn from a variety of autobiographical accounts, including interviews.

Discursive study of religion (DSR) has become an increasingly recognised and applied approach to the study of religion. It asks: What passes for 'religion' in society? How do different constructions of 'religion' affect other social spheres such as politics, law, and everyday life, and vice versa? In this collection, Finnish scholars—many of them internationally recognized authorities on the subject—discuss DSR's theoretical underpinnings, map the variety of discursive approaches, and apply the approach to case studies of politics, spirituality, and history. The book can be used as a textbook for religion and method courses in various disciplines.

Ivar Vegge shows that the ancient Mediterranean world was especially sensitive to idealized praise and blame or threats as hortative means. This is reflected in the pedagogy of the moral philosophers (psychagogy) and in the letter-writing tradition (epistolography), and to some extent also in the rhetorical tradition. Paul utilizes this method in 2 Corinthians. It is argued that idealized praise is manifested in the description of reconciliation in 2 Cor 7:5-16 in order to attain full reconciliation, and in numerous expressions of confidence in the addressee that support various appeals to reconciliation (and/or collection). The harsh and threatening tone in 2 Cor 10-13 is intended to correct the Corinthians, in the hope of achieving reconciliation. The apologetic elements in the letter repeatedly lead up to and substantiate appeals to reconciliation. 2 Corinthians is, therefore, one single letter about reconciliation.