By focusing on missionary narratives, the article offers
a short description of the Ukrainian eva... more By focusing on missionary narratives, the article offers a short description of the Ukrainian evangelical communities that have developed in Poland since 2014. Arguing that the outbreak of the war in Donbass was a decisive moment that shaped the waves of migrations from Ukraine, the article tries to analyze the strategy of reconstructing the biographies of Ukrainian evangelicals in the Polish cultural context. Using the categories of migrants and missionaries as biographical types, the article contextualizes the meaning of evangelicalism through its Ukrainian and Polish variations, and at the same time refers to the processes that are occurring in evangelical Christianity globally.
Migrations of the Assyrians from Iran during World War I: Fragmentization of tradition and the ne... more Migrations of the Assyrians from Iran during World War I: Fragmentization of tradition and the new forms of religiosity By focusing on the Assyrian Christians scattered around Urmia in the north-western part of Iran during World War I, the article analyzes the processes and changes that occurred in the religious life of the population under the circumstances of depravity, trauma and migration. The migrations, as it is suggested, caused two opposing tendencies among Assyrians strengthening individualization and ethnicization of the religious matters. The migratory experience played a crucial role in transforming the Church institutions as it might be seen in reference to the Assyrian Church of the East and shifting the focus away from religious authority while giving space to more emotional, private, and finally Pentecostal religiosity.
Religious Minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond the Mainstream, ed. Kh. Omarkhali, Series: Studies in Oriental Religions, vol. 68, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014
Dynamiczny rozwój chrześcijaństwa pentekostalnego, zwłaszcza w tych społeczeństwach, które niegdy... more Dynamiczny rozwój chrześcijaństwa pentekostalnego, zwłaszcza w tych społeczeństwach, które niegdyś doświadczyły zależności kolonialnych, powoduje przewartościowania i odmienne interpretacje jego początków oraz historii. Artykuł koncentrując się na ukazaniu przemian historiografi i ruchu zielonoświątkowego dowodzi, że współcześnie pisarstwo historyczne ukazuje go w wymiarze globalnym. Perspektywa globalna, paradoksalnie, powoduje konieczność uwzględnienia wielu odmiennych i niezależnych od siebie lokalnych i " oddolnych " historii ruchu, zdradzając przy tym zależność od krytyki postkolonialnej. Podejście postkolonialne, w istocie, zdaje się dominować w pracach współczesnych historyków ruchu.
The dynamic development of the Pentecostal Christianity especially in societies that experienced colonial domination and dependencies, evokes necessity to re-evaluate and re-interpret its origin and history. The article presenting tendency and changes in the Pentecostal historiography argues that today's historical writings concentrate on its global dimension. Global perspective, paradoxically, makes it necessity to take into account a variety of independent, local and grassroots histories of the movement, revealing its dependence on postcolonial theory. The postcolonial approach seems to dominate in works of the present historians of the Pentecostal movement.
Oddajemy do rąk polskiego czytelnika niewielkie dziełko, powstałe w połowie XIX wieku, jako efekt... more Oddajemy do rąk polskiego czytelnika niewielkie dziełko, powstałe w połowie XIX wieku, jako efekt wspólnej pracy Polaka, dyplomaty w służbie carskiej Rosji Augusta Kościeszy-Żaby i kurdyjskiego uczonego i duchownego Meli Mahmuda Bajazidiego. Niniejsza praca, stanowiąca zbiór informacji o kurdyjskiej społeczności, języku i kulturze oraz wybór czterdziestu opowieści, ukazała się w języku francuskim w 1860 roku w Sankt-Peresburgu, opatrzona krótkim wstępem niemieckiego filologa Petera Lercha. Od tego czasu, na wiele lat stała się jednym z kanonów wiedzy na temat Kurdów i ich języka.
The article presents the main missionary organizations both Protestant and Orthodox working in th... more The article presents the main missionary organizations both Protestant and Orthodox working in the Caucasus in the nineteenth century. By presenting them in a rather general and brief form, the article is intended to emphasize the importance of the Bible translations in the missionary projects. The Bible itself constitutes a text which influences the missionary approach, as well as the cultural and social practices of the people to whom the Bible and its translation is addressed. The main assumption of the text is, however, that the changing attitudes to the Bible among the Christians living in the Caucasus were related to the appearance of the Protestants and their understanding of the Holy Book.
Anglicans in Iran during the Islamic Revolution The Islamic Revolution had a great impact on defi... more Anglicans in Iran during the Islamic Revolution The Islamic Revolution had a great impact on defining the position of religious minorities in Iran. Christians belonging to ethnic churches – Armenians and Assyrians – obtained constitutional rights. Others, especially Anglicans, conducting missionary activity, faced restrictions and persecution such as confiscation of property and arrests caused by the revolutionary authorities. The article presents Anglicans' attitudes toward the Islamic Revolution, taking into account the international context of events related to the imprisonment of British citizens in 1980 – employees of the Anglican Diocese of Iran. It tries to prove, in fact, profound changes, both quantitative and qualitative, within Christianity in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Pojawienie się i rozwój chrześcijaństwa zielonoświątkowego na Bliskim Wschodzie związane jest z s... more Pojawienie się i rozwój chrześcijaństwa zielonoświątkowego na Bliskim Wschodzie związane jest z szeregiem czynników natury religijnej, spo-łecznej oraz politycznej. Ze względu na silne konotacje biblijne rejon ten odgrywał istotną rolę w kształtowaniu postaw misyjnych we wczesnej fazie rozwoju ruchu. Jerozolima stawał się naturalnym centrum inicjowania działań misyjnych. Dodatkowo przemiany zachodzące w społeczeństwach bliskowschodnich, w tym nasilająca się migracja do USA na przełomie XIX i XX wieku, umożliwiały obieg idei i upowszechnianie praktyk zielonoświąt-kowych na rozległych obszarach pomiędzy Egiptem, Palestyną a Iranem. W istocie jednak pierwsze wspólnoty zielonoświątkowe na Bliskim Wscho-dzie tworzyli zamieszkujący ten obszar chrześcijanie, w Egipcie – Koptowie, w Iranie – Asyryjczycy, którzy mieli uprzednio kontakt z amerykańskim protestantyzmem. W tym sensie pentekostalizm na Bliskim Wschodzie jawi się, w znacznym stopniu, jako kontynuacja działań misyjnych Amerykanów sięgających początku XIX wieku. Abstract Th e origin and development of Pentecostal Christianity in the Middle East is associated with a number of factors: religious, social and political.
The letter sent by Ayatollah Khomeini to Gorbachev seems to be important in modern Iranian histor... more The letter sent by Ayatollah Khomeini to Gorbachev seems to be important in modern Iranian historiography presenting Khomeini as an influential and prophet-like “father of the revolution”. The letter brings Khomeini’s personal insights into the situation of the Soviet Union offering to its leader Islam as the only solution for internal and external problems. The letter in fact may be consider an example or rather a product of Iranian political culture, an attempt to return to the global and finally as a Khomeini’s answer to history.
By focusing on missionary narratives, the article offers
a short description of the Ukrainian eva... more By focusing on missionary narratives, the article offers a short description of the Ukrainian evangelical communities that have developed in Poland since 2014. Arguing that the outbreak of the war in Donbass was a decisive moment that shaped the waves of migrations from Ukraine, the article tries to analyze the strategy of reconstructing the biographies of Ukrainian evangelicals in the Polish cultural context. Using the categories of migrants and missionaries as biographical types, the article contextualizes the meaning of evangelicalism through its Ukrainian and Polish variations, and at the same time refers to the processes that are occurring in evangelical Christianity globally.
Migrations of the Assyrians from Iran during World War I: Fragmentization of tradition and the ne... more Migrations of the Assyrians from Iran during World War I: Fragmentization of tradition and the new forms of religiosity By focusing on the Assyrian Christians scattered around Urmia in the north-western part of Iran during World War I, the article analyzes the processes and changes that occurred in the religious life of the population under the circumstances of depravity, trauma and migration. The migrations, as it is suggested, caused two opposing tendencies among Assyrians strengthening individualization and ethnicization of the religious matters. The migratory experience played a crucial role in transforming the Church institutions as it might be seen in reference to the Assyrian Church of the East and shifting the focus away from religious authority while giving space to more emotional, private, and finally Pentecostal religiosity.
Religious Minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond the Mainstream, ed. Kh. Omarkhali, Series: Studies in Oriental Religions, vol. 68, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014
Dynamiczny rozwój chrześcijaństwa pentekostalnego, zwłaszcza w tych społeczeństwach, które niegdy... more Dynamiczny rozwój chrześcijaństwa pentekostalnego, zwłaszcza w tych społeczeństwach, które niegdyś doświadczyły zależności kolonialnych, powoduje przewartościowania i odmienne interpretacje jego początków oraz historii. Artykuł koncentrując się na ukazaniu przemian historiografi i ruchu zielonoświątkowego dowodzi, że współcześnie pisarstwo historyczne ukazuje go w wymiarze globalnym. Perspektywa globalna, paradoksalnie, powoduje konieczność uwzględnienia wielu odmiennych i niezależnych od siebie lokalnych i " oddolnych " historii ruchu, zdradzając przy tym zależność od krytyki postkolonialnej. Podejście postkolonialne, w istocie, zdaje się dominować w pracach współczesnych historyków ruchu.
The dynamic development of the Pentecostal Christianity especially in societies that experienced colonial domination and dependencies, evokes necessity to re-evaluate and re-interpret its origin and history. The article presenting tendency and changes in the Pentecostal historiography argues that today's historical writings concentrate on its global dimension. Global perspective, paradoxically, makes it necessity to take into account a variety of independent, local and grassroots histories of the movement, revealing its dependence on postcolonial theory. The postcolonial approach seems to dominate in works of the present historians of the Pentecostal movement.
Oddajemy do rąk polskiego czytelnika niewielkie dziełko, powstałe w połowie XIX wieku, jako efekt... more Oddajemy do rąk polskiego czytelnika niewielkie dziełko, powstałe w połowie XIX wieku, jako efekt wspólnej pracy Polaka, dyplomaty w służbie carskiej Rosji Augusta Kościeszy-Żaby i kurdyjskiego uczonego i duchownego Meli Mahmuda Bajazidiego. Niniejsza praca, stanowiąca zbiór informacji o kurdyjskiej społeczności, języku i kulturze oraz wybór czterdziestu opowieści, ukazała się w języku francuskim w 1860 roku w Sankt-Peresburgu, opatrzona krótkim wstępem niemieckiego filologa Petera Lercha. Od tego czasu, na wiele lat stała się jednym z kanonów wiedzy na temat Kurdów i ich języka.
The article presents the main missionary organizations both Protestant and Orthodox working in th... more The article presents the main missionary organizations both Protestant and Orthodox working in the Caucasus in the nineteenth century. By presenting them in a rather general and brief form, the article is intended to emphasize the importance of the Bible translations in the missionary projects. The Bible itself constitutes a text which influences the missionary approach, as well as the cultural and social practices of the people to whom the Bible and its translation is addressed. The main assumption of the text is, however, that the changing attitudes to the Bible among the Christians living in the Caucasus were related to the appearance of the Protestants and their understanding of the Holy Book.
Anglicans in Iran during the Islamic Revolution The Islamic Revolution had a great impact on defi... more Anglicans in Iran during the Islamic Revolution The Islamic Revolution had a great impact on defining the position of religious minorities in Iran. Christians belonging to ethnic churches – Armenians and Assyrians – obtained constitutional rights. Others, especially Anglicans, conducting missionary activity, faced restrictions and persecution such as confiscation of property and arrests caused by the revolutionary authorities. The article presents Anglicans' attitudes toward the Islamic Revolution, taking into account the international context of events related to the imprisonment of British citizens in 1980 – employees of the Anglican Diocese of Iran. It tries to prove, in fact, profound changes, both quantitative and qualitative, within Christianity in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Pojawienie się i rozwój chrześcijaństwa zielonoświątkowego na Bliskim Wschodzie związane jest z s... more Pojawienie się i rozwój chrześcijaństwa zielonoświątkowego na Bliskim Wschodzie związane jest z szeregiem czynników natury religijnej, spo-łecznej oraz politycznej. Ze względu na silne konotacje biblijne rejon ten odgrywał istotną rolę w kształtowaniu postaw misyjnych we wczesnej fazie rozwoju ruchu. Jerozolima stawał się naturalnym centrum inicjowania działań misyjnych. Dodatkowo przemiany zachodzące w społeczeństwach bliskowschodnich, w tym nasilająca się migracja do USA na przełomie XIX i XX wieku, umożliwiały obieg idei i upowszechnianie praktyk zielonoświąt-kowych na rozległych obszarach pomiędzy Egiptem, Palestyną a Iranem. W istocie jednak pierwsze wspólnoty zielonoświątkowe na Bliskim Wscho-dzie tworzyli zamieszkujący ten obszar chrześcijanie, w Egipcie – Koptowie, w Iranie – Asyryjczycy, którzy mieli uprzednio kontakt z amerykańskim protestantyzmem. W tym sensie pentekostalizm na Bliskim Wschodzie jawi się, w znacznym stopniu, jako kontynuacja działań misyjnych Amerykanów sięgających początku XIX wieku. Abstract Th e origin and development of Pentecostal Christianity in the Middle East is associated with a number of factors: religious, social and political.
The letter sent by Ayatollah Khomeini to Gorbachev seems to be important in modern Iranian histor... more The letter sent by Ayatollah Khomeini to Gorbachev seems to be important in modern Iranian historiography presenting Khomeini as an influential and prophet-like “father of the revolution”. The letter brings Khomeini’s personal insights into the situation of the Soviet Union offering to its leader Islam as the only solution for internal and external problems. The letter in fact may be consider an example or rather a product of Iranian political culture, an attempt to return to the global and finally as a Khomeini’s answer to history.
Rediscovering Kurdistan’s Cultures and Identities: The Call of the Cricket offers insight into li... more Rediscovering Kurdistan’s Cultures and Identities: The Call of the Cricket offers insight into little-known aspects of the social and cultural activity and changes taking place in different parts of Kurdistan (Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran), linking different theoretical approaches within a postcolonial perspective. The first chapter presents the book’s approach to postcolonial theory and gives a brief introduction to the historical context of Kurdistan. The second, third and fourth chapters focus on the Kurdish context, examining ethical changes as revealed in Kurdish literary and cinema narratives, the socio-political role of the Kurdish cultural institutions and the practices of countering othering of Kurdish migrants living in Istanbul. The fifth chapter offers an analysis of the nineteenth-century missionary translations of the Bible into the Kurdish language. The sixth chapter examines the formation of Chaldo-Assyrian identity in the context of relations with the Kurds after the overthrow of the Ba’ath regime in 2003. The last chapter investigates the question of the Yezidis’ identity, based on Yezidi oral works and statements about their self-identification.
This book contains the proceedings of the International conference, “Shifting Identities: Changes... more This book contains the proceedings of the International conference, “Shifting Identities: Changes in the social, political, and religious structures in the Middle East”, which was held in Cyprus in July 2015. The conference brought together around 50 professors, historians, theologians, social scientists and researchers from over 15 countries including Europe, the USA, and the Middle East. Case studies from Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, and Sweden were presented. Some of these case studies focused on particular community like the Armenians, Syrian orthodox, or Protestants while others studies chose to tackle issues like feminism or Arabism in the Middle East. Several of the articles struggled theologically to find a meaning to what is happening in the aftermath of the so-called Arab Spring showing a way forward. Shifting identities is not a pure theoretical exercise but are related to shifts that were experienced by several of the authors in the course of their biographical journeys.
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Papers by Marcin Rzepka
a short description of the Ukrainian evangelical communities
that have developed in Poland since 2014. Arguing that
the outbreak of the war in Donbass was a decisive moment
that shaped the waves of migrations from Ukraine,
the article tries to analyze the strategy of reconstructing the
biographies of Ukrainian evangelicals in the Polish cultural
context. Using the categories of migrants and missionaries as
biographical types, the article contextualizes the meaning of
evangelicalism through its Ukrainian and Polish variations,
and at the same time refers to the processes that are occurring
in evangelical Christianity globally.
The dynamic development of the Pentecostal Christianity especially in societies that experienced colonial domination and dependencies, evokes necessity to re-evaluate and re-interpret its origin and history. The article presenting tendency and changes in the Pentecostal historiography argues that today's historical writings concentrate on its global dimension. Global perspective, paradoxically, makes it necessity to take into account a variety of independent, local and grassroots histories of the movement, revealing its dependence on postcolonial theory. The postcolonial approach seems to dominate in works of the present historians of the Pentecostal movement.
a short description of the Ukrainian evangelical communities
that have developed in Poland since 2014. Arguing that
the outbreak of the war in Donbass was a decisive moment
that shaped the waves of migrations from Ukraine,
the article tries to analyze the strategy of reconstructing the
biographies of Ukrainian evangelicals in the Polish cultural
context. Using the categories of migrants and missionaries as
biographical types, the article contextualizes the meaning of
evangelicalism through its Ukrainian and Polish variations,
and at the same time refers to the processes that are occurring
in evangelical Christianity globally.
The dynamic development of the Pentecostal Christianity especially in societies that experienced colonial domination and dependencies, evokes necessity to re-evaluate and re-interpret its origin and history. The article presenting tendency and changes in the Pentecostal historiography argues that today's historical writings concentrate on its global dimension. Global perspective, paradoxically, makes it necessity to take into account a variety of independent, local and grassroots histories of the movement, revealing its dependence on postcolonial theory. The postcolonial approach seems to dominate in works of the present historians of the Pentecostal movement.