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Forgotten Time, or Techniques of Self-Transformation in Contemporary Russian Orthodox Convents
стр.6-26
From a secular perspective, certain religious techniques of self-transformation, such as the complete subordination of an individual to a spiritual leader, appear to violate fundamental human rights and are hence unacceptable. Conversely, religious traditions offer a different view of the subject and their welfare and the means by which this welfare can be achieved. Nowadays, however, the secular environment in which they operate affects religious groups. As a result, some techniques of self-transformation reflect a mixture of secular and religious worldviews. This article examines techniques of selftransformation in contemporary Russian Orthodox convents. It explores how the notion of spiritual growth is influenced by a paradox in the Russian Orthodox concept of sainthood involving a proportional relationship between the profound perception of one’s sinfulness and the increase of one’s virtues. The secular understanding of time that prevails in contemporary monasteries highlights this contradiction and calls into question the possibility for spiritual growth. By focusing on the diachronic dimension of self-transformation techniques, this article challenges current understandings of secular and non-secular agency.
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The Genealogy of the Idea of Monarchy in the Post-Soviet Political Discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church
стр.27-62
This article focuses on the concept of monarchy with an emphasis on the traditional Russian “autocratic” model. Mikhail Suslov inquires into the ways this concept is being used in today’s Russian Orthodox Church and in the circles of religiously motivated intellectuals. Informed by the “contextualist” tradition in conceptual history, this article traces the concept of monarchy back to pre-revolutionary and emigre thinkers and argues that two understandings of the term have been evolving throughout Russia’s modern history: the tradition of “divine kingship” ftsarebozhie), now largely marginalized, and the Slavophile interpretation that shifted substantially toward the idea of popular sovereignty and is now dominant in official and mainstream Orthodox political thought. The Slavophile concept of monarchy is internally contradictory and unstable, making its usage problematic, but, at the same time, it opens the possibility for new and original theorizing.
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Folk Judaism: Variations of Religious Practices among the Jews of Ukraine and Moldova (Research Findings, 2004—11)
стр.63-82
This article draws on analysis of interviews with Jews of Ukraine and Moldova who lived the first part of their lives following traditional Jewish ways, while the latter part occurred during the period of strong anti-religious pressure in the Soviet Union. As a result, several variations of what we can call “folk Judaism” emerged. One form consists of a coerced nonobservance of the laws of Judaism and entails the elaboration of various ways to observe Jewish traditions in the absence of the ability to follow the letter of the law. The second option involves conscious rejection of ancestral religious traditions, partial observance as “camouflage,” and minimal interaction with modern Orthodox Judaism. The third option is creating one’s own individual rules for observing selected religious commandments. Several key mechanisms of the formation of new Jewish “folk” religious practices can be identified. They are the transformation of the existing halakhic regulations with the help of a) ritual deception; b) changes in the status of the ritual object; and c) application of the laws of ritual purity to an object known to be unclean.
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Imagining My Country: Pilgrimage as Postcolonial Reassessment of National Identity in Contemporary Russian Domestic Travel Writing
стр.82-98
This article examines Irina Bogatyreva’s novella Off the Beaten Track (2008) through the prism of postcolonial theory, highlighting the specific ways in which an author can use religious elements, such as pilgrimage, to resist the totalizing ethnic or socioeconomic narratives imposed from the cultural and political centers of the Russian Federation. The incorporation of Orthodox, Soviet and pagan elements into the text allows Bogatyreva to question and critique the established worldview and to postulate an alternative identity model based on an opposition to the metropolis.
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