Editors’ introduction

Abstract

In this special issue, we invite our readers to think deeply about religious activism by reflecting on the meaning of this concept as the human ability to engage with the sacred in a wide variety of ways to produce social or individual change. This focus on religious activism takes us straight to the heart of academic and public debates on the role and relevance of religion, and re-engages us with the ideas of their key participants, from Karl Marx and Max Weber to Saba Mahmood and Jürgen Habermas. We are grateful to Tsypylma Darieva and Jeanne Kormina, the guest editors of this special issue entitled Religious Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond, for their stimulating thoughts on the meaning and significance of this theme, and for assembling a constellation of contributors to explore it through highly illuminating case studies. Tsypylma Darieva is a social anthropologist and a Senior Researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) in Berlin, Germany. Jeanne Kormina was previously Professor of Anthropology and Religious Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in St Petersburg, Russia, and she is currently hosted by École Pratique des Hautes Études, Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, in Paris, France. Most of the studies in this special issue are focused on Eastern European countries with a socialist past. Still grappling with the legacies of the secularist state regulation of religion, people in these countries are finding highly creative ways of engaging with religious ideas, practices, and communities in their pursuit of social and political change. The comparative case of Old Believers in the US state of Oregon presents a thoughtprovoking example of political activism that is rooted in religious convictions yet downplays them to enhance its broader appeal. These nuanced discussions promise to stimulate further research on the variety of intersections and liaisons between religion, politics, and social aspirations well beyond the geographical foci of this collection.