What should characterize the people of a nation? The answer to that question has varied in different historical contexts, but in the Nordic countries, the answer has often been sought within a Christian frame of reference, since Christianity has long been a part of nation-building and societal change in the Nordic countries. This is especially evident in times of crisis when the characteristics of the nation and its people have been negotiated and renegotiated. We argue that the study of the societal circulation of knowledge, especially religious knowledge, within the nation and between nations in times of crisis is crucial to the understanding of how religious ideals were implemented into grand national narratives and also images of ideal citizens. In this paper we want to acknowledge the role of Christianity in Nordic nation-building and the later development of the democratic welfare state by taking a closer look at three examples that highlight religion as a relevant factor in the formation of Finland and Sweden in the 19th and the 20th centuries: the Finnish author Zacharias Topelius and his nation-building, the promulgation of a new curriculum for Swedish primary schools during the interwar period and the second World War crisis for the Swedish nation in terms of threatened political independence, national identity and culture. We will examine how concepts of Christianity and morality circulated within and between Finland and Sweden during these different historical contexts that could be described as times of crisis.