Pub Date : 2022-07-18DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10070
Oleh Melnychenko
The discourse of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) abundantly adopted religious themes. In my article, I show how the theme of Christmas, with its specific images and vocabulary, has been used in the rhetoric of the participants of the Revolution. In three sections, I demonstrate the three lines in which the protesters, speakers, and commenters drew parallels between the course of the Revolution and the Nativity story. These lines are the birth of Christ, the persecutions of Herod, and the Bethlehem infanticide. Finally, I show how the protesters killed at the end of the Revolution are represented in the post-Maidan discourse as national saints. I devote special attention to the Christmas play called Vertep, performed on the Maidan scene in the winter of 2013–2014, because it most fully embraces the link between these lines and the Revolution. The results of the study are intended to contribute to a better understanding of both phenomena: the Revolution of Dignity as an event, influenced by religion, and the Ukrainian Christmas tradition as a flexible and ever-renewable source for the conceptualization of social reality.
{"title":"Christmas and Revolution","authors":"Oleh Melnychenko","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10070","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The discourse of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) abundantly adopted religious themes. In my article, I show how the theme of Christmas, with its specific images and vocabulary, has been used in the rhetoric of the participants of the Revolution. In three sections, I demonstrate the three lines in which the protesters, speakers, and commenters drew parallels between the course of the Revolution and the Nativity story. These lines are the birth of Christ, the persecutions of Herod, and the Bethlehem infanticide. Finally, I show how the protesters killed at the end of the Revolution are represented in the post-Maidan discourse as national saints. I devote special attention to the Christmas play called Vertep, performed on the Maidan scene in the winter of 2013–2014, because it most fully embraces the link between these lines and the Revolution. The results of the study are intended to contribute to a better understanding of both phenomena: the Revolution of Dignity as an event, influenced by religion, and the Ukrainian Christmas tradition as a flexible and ever-renewable source for the conceptualization of social reality.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43926206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-07DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10065
Richard Schaefer
This article investigates an episode of anti-Catholic polemic in the late eighteenth century in Germany. It shows how fear over the influence of “crypto-Catholics” masquerading as Protestants and exponents of Enlightenment triggered the conceptualization of “Catholicism” as a social and cultural force beyond Church membership. It shows how Friedrich Nicolai played a leading role in suggesting that Catholics posed a distinct threat to the Enlightenment and the progressive achievements of the last few decades. Guided by Reinhart Koselleck’s insights into the temporalization of fundamental concepts, this article shows how the conceptualization of Catholicism was part of the larger attempt to navigate the dissolution of feudal society. It argues that placing Catholics on the wrong side of history was thus generative of the modern historical regime.
{"title":"On the Wrong Side of History","authors":"Richard Schaefer","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10065","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates an episode of anti-Catholic polemic in the late eighteenth century in Germany. It shows how fear over the influence of “crypto-Catholics” masquerading as Protestants and exponents of Enlightenment triggered the conceptualization of “Catholicism” as a social and cultural force beyond Church membership. It shows how Friedrich Nicolai played a leading role in suggesting that Catholics posed a distinct threat to the Enlightenment and the progressive achievements of the last few decades. Guided by Reinhart Koselleck’s insights into the temporalization of fundamental concepts, this article shows how the conceptualization of Catholicism was part of the larger attempt to navigate the dissolution of feudal society. It argues that placing Catholics on the wrong side of history was thus generative of the modern historical regime.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138542421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-05DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10053
Judith Roads
This empirical case study provides a new approach to the understanding of discursively constructed Quaker identity in the seventeenth century, from the point of view of those opposed to the dissenting Christian movement. This article asks how others may have viewed adherents to the Quaker communities in England. The findings illustrate a range of negative and denigrating discourses that go beyond abstract religious controversy to sow manufactured fear of the Quaker community. Overt and covert linguistic mechanisms used by anti-Quaker writers reveal expressions of emerging moral panic underlying unsubstantiated accusations attacking the minority Quaker community.
{"title":"Early Quaker Identity from the Perspective of Some Ecclesiastical Anti-Quakers","authors":"Judith Roads","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10053","url":null,"abstract":"This empirical case study provides a new approach to the understanding of discursively constructed Quaker identity in the seventeenth century, from the point of view of those opposed to the dissenting Christian movement. This article asks how others may have viewed adherents to the Quaker communities in England. The findings illustrate a range of negative and denigrating discourses that go beyond abstract religious controversy to sow manufactured fear of the Quaker community. Overt and covert linguistic mechanisms used by anti-Quaker writers reveal expressions of emerging moral panic underlying unsubstantiated accusations attacking the minority Quaker community.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138520455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10066
M. Penttilä
Understanding of space is central in migrant identity-building and integration to a host society. Identity also relates to time, which is effectuated by memory. This article shows how the interplay between religiosity and space may be central to believers’ identity narratives. Religiosity and memories of the past may affiliate migrants to a specific country. Through narrative analysis, I have shown five different ways Russian speakers from various denominations in Finland affiliate spatially—whether to the past country which does not exist anymore, country of origin, two home countries, host country or the global society. Each narrative has its own way of memorizing. The article shows multiplicity in Russian-speaking believers’ life courses and present-day identity-building in Finland. The article also demonstrates, in a migration situation, the effect on identity narratives of denominational background and recognition as sectarian or necessity of remediation.
{"title":"Post-Soviet Believers in Migration","authors":"M. Penttilä","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10066","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Understanding of space is central in migrant identity-building and integration to a host society. Identity also relates to time, which is effectuated by memory. This article shows how the interplay between religiosity and space may be central to believers’ identity narratives. Religiosity and memories of the past may affiliate migrants to a specific country. Through narrative analysis, I have shown five different ways Russian speakers from various denominations in Finland affiliate spatially—whether to the past country which does not exist anymore, country of origin, two home countries, host country or the global society. Each narrative has its own way of memorizing. The article shows multiplicity in Russian-speaking believers’ life courses and present-day identity-building in Finland. The article also demonstrates, in a migration situation, the effect on identity narratives of denominational background and recognition as sectarian or necessity of remediation.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44099698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10067
A. Shisheliakina
Based on ethnographic materials, the article discusses Muslim women’s narratives as an expression of the process of identity negotiation in the post-Soviet cultural context. Muslim women’s narratives based on Islamic, ethnic, gendered epistemologies are intertwined with each other and hybrid. Muslim-Tatar women’s identity as women, Muslims and Tatars is tied together, while simultaneously being fragmented and peripheral to male identity. Since the Russian state imbues veiling with political meaning, Muslim women identity is politicized, therefore veiling as a part of Muslim-Tatar women’s identity is negotiated not only inside of the Muslim-Tatar community, but outside due to external discourses.
{"title":"Muslim Women’s Narratives of Veiling and Identity in Post-Soviet Contexts","authors":"A. Shisheliakina","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10067","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Based on ethnographic materials, the article discusses Muslim women’s narratives as an expression of the process of identity negotiation in the post-Soviet cultural context. Muslim women’s narratives based on Islamic, ethnic, gendered epistemologies are intertwined with each other and hybrid. Muslim-Tatar women’s identity as women, Muslims and Tatars is tied together, while simultaneously being fragmented and peripheral to male identity. Since the Russian state imbues veiling with political meaning, Muslim women identity is politicized, therefore veiling as a part of Muslim-Tatar women’s identity is negotiated not only inside of the Muslim-Tatar community, but outside due to external discourses.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41451470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10050
R. Marselis
This article explores the potential of combining material analysis with object-elicited memory work in order to explore the role of objects in lived religion. It presents a case study on two traditional cross pendants, a Dagmar Cross and a Huguenot Cross, and analyses the cultural-historical contexts of the two crosses, including their importance for specific national and religious memory communities. Furthermore, the memory work sections of the article foreground how the pendants were used as transgenerational gifts during a mixed-faith upbringing in a transnational family. The article argues that such a multidimensional approach is helpful for unfolding the potential meanings of religious objects in lived religion.
{"title":"Cross Pendants as Memory Objects","authors":"R. Marselis","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10050","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article explores the potential of combining material analysis with object-elicited memory work in order to explore the role of objects in lived religion. It presents a case study on two traditional cross pendants, a Dagmar Cross and a Huguenot Cross, and analyses the cultural-historical contexts of the two crosses, including their importance for specific national and religious memory communities. Furthermore, the memory work sections of the article foreground how the pendants were used as transgenerational gifts during a mixed-faith upbringing in a transnational family. The article argues that such a multidimensional approach is helpful for unfolding the potential meanings of religious objects in lived religion.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47531813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10048
Inga Koralewska
{"title":"Religion and Sexualities: Theories, Themes and Methodologies , by Sarah-Jane Page and Heather Shipley","authors":"Inga Koralewska","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10048","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46372660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10049
Isabella Kasselstrand
In the debate on European secularization, it has been argued that conventional religion has given way to spirituality, and that religion is thus changing as opposed to diminishing. Focusing on northern Europe, this study uses semi-structured interviews and survey data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) to explore meanings and trends of spirituality and religious beliefs. Findings highlight a movement away from both religiosity and spirituality. Moreover, individuals who identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’ hold diverse beliefs about the supernatural and various interpretations of spirituality, some of which are in essence secular. Ultimately, this study suggests that current trends of spirituality are consistent with broader patterns of secularization in northern Europe.
{"title":"Secularization or Alternative Faith?","authors":"Isabella Kasselstrand","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10049","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In the debate on European secularization, it has been argued that conventional religion has given way to spirituality, and that religion is thus changing as opposed to diminishing. Focusing on northern Europe, this study uses semi-structured interviews and survey data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) to explore meanings and trends of spirituality and religious beliefs. Findings highlight a movement away from both religiosity and spirituality. Moreover, individuals who identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’ hold diverse beliefs about the supernatural and various interpretations of spirituality, some of which are in essence secular. Ultimately, this study suggests that current trends of spirituality are consistent with broader patterns of secularization in northern Europe.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45596684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10051
S. Mudrov, Nikolay Zakharov
Based on extensive fieldwork across Belarus, this article analyses an ongoing discussion within the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) regarding various issues that are key in assessing the country’s identity politics and politico-ideological developments. Since the independence of Belarus in 1991, the Church has continuously played an important public and societal function. A special agreement, signed between the Church and Belarusian Government in 2003, has fostered Church cooperation with various governmental institutions, including educational establishments. Discussing the contribution of the BOC to the construction of a distinct Belarusian national identity, we will address the national language, relationships with the state, foreign policy orientation and the Church’s autocephaly. The empirical part of this study is based on seventeen in-depth interviews with clergymen and laypeople from the BOC. Our study shows that Church representatives have not hesitated to develop their profound perspectives on the important issues of identity politics and the relationships of the BOC and state, and these perspectives were often reflective of wider debates within Belarusian intellectual circles.
{"title":"The Internal Discussions in the Belarusian Orthodox Church on Identity and Policy Issues","authors":"S. Mudrov, Nikolay Zakharov","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10051","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Based on extensive fieldwork across Belarus, this article analyses an ongoing discussion within the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) regarding various issues that are key in assessing the country’s identity politics and politico-ideological developments. Since the independence of Belarus in 1991, the Church has continuously played an important public and societal function. A special agreement, signed between the Church and Belarusian Government in 2003, has fostered Church cooperation with various governmental institutions, including educational establishments. Discussing the contribution of the BOC to the construction of a distinct Belarusian national identity, we will address the national language, relationships with the state, foreign policy orientation and the Church’s autocephaly. The empirical part of this study is based on seventeen in-depth interviews with clergymen and laypeople from the BOC. Our study shows that Church representatives have not hesitated to develop their profound perspectives on the important issues of identity politics and the relationships of the BOC and state, and these perspectives were often reflective of wider debates within Belarusian intellectual circles.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48243924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10055
Alexandre Grandjean
In recent years, the involvement of Swiss wine-crafters (vignerons) with ‘holistic spiritualities’ has become more visible. Through the use of esoterically driven preparations, energetic crystals, and neo-shamanic ‘vision questing’ practices, vignerons have incorporated alternative self-healing practices in their workplace. Under the umbrella term ‘biodynamic farming,’ vignerons are experimenting and delineating a new professional and relational ethos, be it with humans or nonhumans (e.g., grapevines). In the context of the Swiss vineyards, however, the engagement of vignerons with ‘holistic spiritualities’ has also forced them to grapple with potential social stigmas. This article examines the social uses, dynamics, and dilemmas resulting from the gradual ‘spiritualization’ of vignerons’ workplaces.
{"title":"Biodynamic Wine-Crafting and the Spiritualization of the Workplace","authors":"Alexandre Grandjean","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10055","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In recent years, the involvement of Swiss wine-crafters (vignerons) with ‘holistic spiritualities’ has become more visible. Through the use of esoterically driven preparations, energetic crystals, and neo-shamanic ‘vision questing’ practices, vignerons have incorporated alternative self-healing practices in their workplace. Under the umbrella term ‘biodynamic farming,’ vignerons are experimenting and delineating a new professional and relational ethos, be it with humans or nonhumans (e.g., grapevines). In the context of the Swiss vineyards, however, the engagement of vignerons with ‘holistic spiritualities’ has also forced them to grapple with potential social stigmas. This article examines the social uses, dynamics, and dilemmas resulting from the gradual ‘spiritualization’ of vignerons’ workplaces.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45465589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}