Raisa Toivo

I am a historian of the early modern society (ca. 1500-1800), working especially on sources from Finland and Sweden but always in a European context. I work on the history of the experiences of and in religion, religious tolerance, co-existence and persecution and inter-generational family violence, and in general on the current and future trends of early modern history. 

Currently I lead the theme on the history of lived religion and experience in the Research Council of Finland Center of Excellence for the History of Experience (HEX) and on the project "How did seventeenth-century Finland manage to avoid witch hunts?" , also funded by the Research Council of Finland.  

Selection of Recent(ish) Articles:

Toivo, Raisa Maria "“I Rejoice in the Lord as if my Soul was with you … :” Experience, Embodiment, and the Jesuit Mission to Sweden". Reformation 30(2025): 2, pp. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574175.2025.2555928 open access 

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Toivo, Raisa Maria: Communion as Shared Experience In Early Modern Finland. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 55:1 January 2025, pp 121-142. DOI https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-11568685 (free-access Author Link until 17.April): https://read.dukeupress.edu/jmems/article/55/1/121/393707/Communion-as-Shared-Experience-in-Early-Modern?guestAccessKey=d7edc808-7a20-442f-b6da-631935821703
 

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Lived Religion and Shared Experience in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe in: Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (2025) 55:1, (January 2025) pp. 1–10. DOI https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-11568607 (free-access Author Link until 17. April): https://read.dukeupress.edu/jmems/article/55/1/1/393713/Lived-Religion-and-Shared-Experience-in-Late?guestAccessKey=35d546ab-7e9b-4cdc-9ddc-f41be669359e

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Elämänkokemus. Henkilön ja kokemuksen historia yhteistyössä. [Life experience: Biography and history of experience in cooperation] In: Henkilöhistoria ja varhaismoderni aika ed by Lares, J., Toivo, R. M. & Välimäki, M. (eds.). Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, p. 177-208 (Historiallisia tutkimuksia; no. 292). DOI: https://doi.org/10.21435/ht.292

Toivo, Raisa Maria & Willumsen, Liv Helene: A narratological approach to witchcraft trial records: Creating experience. SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY. 47, 1 2022. Open Access

Eiranen, R., Hatavara, M., Kivimäki, V., Mäkelä, M. & Toivo, R., : Narrative and Experience: Interdisciplinary methodologies between history and narratology: SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY. 47, 1. 2022 . Open Access

Monographs:

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Lived Religion and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Routledge 2021. WITH OPEN ACCESS INTRODUCTION, co-authored Monograph

Muravyeva, Marianna G., Shon, Phillip S. & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Parricide and Violence against Parents. A Cross-Cultural View across Past and Present. Routledge 2021. (co-authored monograph)

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Faith and Magic in Early Modern Finland. Palgrave Macmillan 2016.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Finland: Finland and the Wider European Experience . Ashgate 2008.

Edited collections:

Lares, Jenni, Toivo, Raisa Maria & Välimäki, Mari: Henkilöhistoria ja varhaismoderni aika. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21435/ht.292

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari &Toivo, Raisa Maria: Histories of Experience in the World of Lived Religion. Palgrave Macmillan 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92140-8

Miettinen, Riikka & Toivo Raisa Maria (toim.): Varhaismodernin yhteiskunnan historia: Lähestymistapoja yksilöihin ja yhteiskuntaan. Gaudeamus 2021. [History of Early Modern Society: Current Approaches]

Muravyeva, Marianna & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Parricide and Violence against Parents Throughout History. Deconstructing Family and Authority . Palgrave Macmillan 2018.

Kallestrup Nyholm, Louise & Toivo Raisa Maria: Contesting Orthodoxy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe . Palgrave 2017. 

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Lived Religion and the long Reformation in northern Europe c. 1300-1700 . Brill 2017. 

Tiina Miettinen & Raisa Maria Toivo: mitä väliä on historialla? TUP 2016. Open access 

Journal Special Issues

Journal for Medieval and Early Modern Studies special issue 55:1 (January 2025): Lived religion as shared experience. Guest Editors Katajala-Peltomaa, S. and Toivo, R.M.

Scandinavian Journal of history Special Issue: Narrative and Experience: Interdisciplinary methodologies between history and narratology 47 (1) 2022 Guest editors Eiranen, R., Hatavara, M., Kivimäki, V., Mäkelä, M. & Toivo, R. (open access)

Scandinavian Journal of History Special Issue: Gender, Material Culture and Emotions in Scandinavian History . 41 (3)2016 guest editors Jacqueline van Gent and Raisa Maria Toivo 

Journal of Family History Special Issue: ‘‘Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother’’: A History of Violence against Parent s 41 (3) 2016. Guest Editors Marianna Muravyeva and Raisa Maria Toivo