The Social Nature of Prayer in a Church of the Unchurched: Russian Orthodox Christianity from Its Edges

Kormina, Jeanne; Luehrmann, Sonja

doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfx055

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Others have found inspiration in Grace Davie's succinct depiction of the English as "believing without belonging." Jeanne Kormina (2010: 280) suggests that "belonging without believing" is more appropriate for Russians because they are part of a "church of the unchurched" (Kormina and Luehrmann 2017). Tobias Köllner (2012) characterizes Russians as "practicing without belonging," whereas Julie McBrien (2017) finds that "belonging" in Kyrgyzstan can morph into "believing."…”

Section: A N T I C L E R I C a L I S M A N D I N S T I T U T I O N A mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using metrics of belief and institutional participation, as is common to measure religiosity in predominantly Christian societies, many scholars have concluded that Eastern Slavs are “nominally Orthodox.” Others have found inspiration in Grace Davie's succinct depiction of the English as “believing without belonging.” Jeanne Kormina (2010: 280) suggests that “belonging without believing” is more appropriate for Russians because they are part of a “church of the unchurched” (Kormina and Luehrmann 2017). Tobias Köllner (2012) characterizes Russians as “practicing without belonging,” whereas Julie McBrien (2017) finds that “belonging” in Kyrgyzstan can morph into “believing.” “Minimal religion” is Mikhail Epstein's term to depict the Russian blending of mysticism, theosophy, “faith pure and simple,” and estrangement from religious institutions (1999: 378).…”

Section: Anticlericalism and Institutional Disaffectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is often projected onto a site where a church or monastery now stands with the assumption that pre-Christians worshiped there too, deepening the deposit of devotional energy and marking the site as a “place of forces” ( mistse syly / mesto sily ) (Lesiv 2013: 118; Golovneva and Shmidt 2015). Part of the appeal of a place animated with prayer is that it demands little performative competence and no clerical intermediary (Panchenko 2012; Kormina and Luehrmann 2017). There is no prescribed ritual that must be performed there.…”

Section: Forging Attachmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Affective Atmosphere of Religiosity: Animated Places, Public Spaces, and the Politics of Attachment in Ukraine and Beyond

Wanner

2020

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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When religious institutions engage the secular emotively and publicly, they can foster an affective atmosphere of religiosity, which potentially has motivational power, even for non-believers, because it shapes the sensorium of those who circulate in public space. When individuals appeal to “places animated with prayer” for the transformative energy that resides there through ritualized practices, they reaffirm an affective atmosphere of religiosity. In Orthodox Eastern Europe and elsewhere, a confessional tradition is allied with state borders, further normativizing this affective atmosphere and giving it pronounced political implications. When an affective atmosphere of religiosity inspires practices that are intentionally designed to prompt experiences rendered meaningful in otherworldly terms, over time such performativity can create mimetic instincts that become second nature. This is an essential step to religion becoming an expedient political resource and to the emergence of religious nationalism or a confessional state.

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Section: A N T I C L E R I C a L I S M A N D I N S T I T U T I O N A mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Anticlericalism and Institutional Disaffectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Forging Attachmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An Affective Atmosphere of Religiosity: Animated Places, Public Spaces, and the Politics of Attachment in Ukraine and Beyond

Wanner

2020

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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“…Next to analysis of the diversity within institutional structures (Fagan 2013;Papkova 2011;Richters 2013) and of the complex roles of Orthodoxy in societal and political issues (Curanovic 2012; Stoeckl 2014; Shterin 2016), more attention is being given to the interactions between the macro-, meso-and micro-levels (Köllner 2019;Zabaev, Mikhaylova, and Oreshina 2018). There is also increasing focus on the vibrant field of lived Orthodoxy (Hann and Goltz 2010;Panchenko 2012;Kormina 2012Kormina , 2014Kormina and Luehrmann 2018;Rock 2015 etc. ) and to (de)secularisation in Russia and post-Soviet states (Shterin 2012;Karpov 2013;Freeze 2015;Rosati and Stoeckl 2012;Agadjanian 2017Agadjanian , 2015Uzlaner 2020 etc.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Orthodox kaleidoscope: heterogeneity, complexity, and dynamics in the Russian Orthodox Church. An introduction

Tolstaya

2020

Religion, State and Society

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This introduction to 'Orthodox Kaleidoscope: Heterogeneity, Complexity, and Dynamics in the Russian Orthodox Church' sheds light on its contributions from a methodological-theoretical angle. Six of the seven contributions to this issue spring from an interdisciplinary academic network established in 2015 by scholars of 15 institutions in search of approaches and theories that would do justice to the multifaceted and fluid return of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to society and (geo-)politics after perestroika. One of the challenges this Orthodox revival presents to scholarship is an extreme heterogeneity of groups, worldviews, and teachings, each claiming to represent 'true' Orthodoxy by virtue of their belonging to Orthodox Tradition. Such belonging grants the right to exist and exercise sacral authority on micro-, meso-and macro-levels, but also involves a non-belonging, a simultaneous insider and outsider perspective of Orthodoxy/ Orthodox Tradition. Since this problem arises in each situation when such an overreaching position (sub specie aeternitatis) is claimed, it is common to each religious tradition and is therefore pertinent to religious studies more broadly. In the Introduction I discuss this variation of Russell's paradox and the ways to overcome this conceptual problem.

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“… 10 Note that this certainty based on practical competence (Kormina and Luehrmann 2017) is different from the confidence of Evangelical Christians “being in the spirit,” even though the body as primary site of knowledge is central to both (see Brahinsky 2012). It also lacks the individualistic pursuit of virtuosity present in piety movements, since individual acts are inscribed into a broader relational field where people act but are also acted upon, where human and divine agents are linked in “mutual relationships of care, intercession and patronage” (Kormina and Luehrmann 2017: 8).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pedagogies of Prayer: Teaching Orthodoxy in South India

Naumescu

2019

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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This article focuses on religious pedagogies as an essential part of the practice and the making of modern religion. It takes the case of the Syrian Orthodox communities in Kerala, South India to examine how shifts in pedagogical models and practice have reframed their understanding of knowledge and God. The paper highlights two moments of transformation—the nineteenth-century missionary reforms and twenty-first-century Sunday school reforms—that brought “old” and “new” pedagogies into conflict, redefining the modes of knowing and religious subjectivities they presuppose. For this I draw from historical and pedagogical materials, and ethnographic fieldwork in churches and Sunday schools. The paper diverges from widespread narratives on the missionary encounter by showing how colonial efforts to replace ritual pedagogies with modern schooling were channeled into a textbook culture that remained close to Orthodox ritualism. The “new” pedagogy turned learning into a ritualized practice that continued to emphasize correct performance over interiorized belief. Contrasting this with todays’ curriculum revisions, I argue that educational reforms remain a privileged mode of infusing new meanings into religious practice and shaping new orthodoxies, especially under the threat of heterodoxy. This reflects a broader dynamic within Orthodox Christianity that takes moments of crisis or change as opportunities to turn orthopraxy into orthodoxy and renew the faith. The paper engages with postcolonial debates on religion, education, and modernity, and points to more pervasive assumptions about what makes Orthodox Christianity and the modes of knowing and ethical formation in Eastern Christianity.

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The Social Nature of Prayer in a Church of the Unchurched: Russian Orthodox Christianity from Its Edges

Cited by 13 publications

References 45 publications

An Affective Atmosphere of Religiosity: Animated Places, Public Spaces, and the Politics of Attachment in Ukraine and Beyond

An Affective Atmosphere of Religiosity: Animated Places, Public Spaces, and the Politics of Attachment in Ukraine and Beyond

Orthodox kaleidoscope: heterogeneity, complexity, and dynamics in the Russian Orthodox Church. An introduction

Pedagogies of Prayer: Teaching Orthodoxy in South India

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