This article examines the current ethos of Russian Orthodox culture in terms of its correspondenc... more This article examines the current ethos of Russian Orthodox culture in terms of its correspondence to democratic values by analyzing the structure of memory of the Soviet past in the Orthodox milieu and among the Church's leadership. The premise is that collective memory of this kind can be a criterion in assessing the political ethos of a community. The memory of the Soviet past includes such elements as hagiography of the martyrs who died in the Soviet anti-religious terror; the issue of the Church's strategy of loyalty toward the repressive regime; the hermeneutics of trauma as providential sacrifice; and attitudes toward the Soviet past in view of Orthodox sociopolitical ideals. This article shows ambiguities in Orthodox assessment of the Soviet regime; but even the direct rejection of the Soviet past rarely translated into an engagement with a democratic agenda. This attitude is in line with the official endorsement by the Church leadership of Putin's authoritarian regime and of the Russian war in Ukraine started in 2022.
This article considers the place religion holds in post-Soviet Russian society, and most importan... more This article considers the place religion holds in post-Soviet Russian society, and most importantly, the case of the dominant Russian Orthodoxy. It shows that the gap between low everyday religiosity and high public profile of religion is the key to a specific Russian version of secularity. How religion's spectacular appropriation of physical and social space, up to the imaginative space of the national culture as such, does not cancel the strong counterweight of deeply ingrained secular cultural arrangementseither genetically linked to some European variations or specifically related to (post) communist experience.
... 123 Thorleif Pettersson Chapter Six Denmark: Solid or Fluid?.... 149 Peter Gundelach Chapter ... more ... 123 Thorleif Pettersson Chapter Six Denmark: Solid or Fluid?.... 149 Peter Gundelach Chapter Seven What Happened to Dutch Values? Investigating General and Differential Trends in Values in the Netherlands..... 175 Loek ...
Abstract Recent developments have brought about rapid changes in Russian society which in turn ha... more Abstract Recent developments have brought about rapid changes in Russian society which in turn have reshaped the religious landscape in that country. Looking at traditional religion as well as new forms of religiosity the author argues that Russia is experiencing a ...
... 123 Thorleif Pettersson Chapter Six Denmark: Solid or Fluid?.... 149 Peter Gundelach Chapter ... more ... 123 Thorleif Pettersson Chapter Six Denmark: Solid or Fluid?.... 149 Peter Gundelach Chapter Seven What Happened to Dutch Values? Investigating General and Differential Trends in Values in the Netherlands..... 175 Loek ...
EnglishThe author analyses major trends in the recent religious history of Russia by drawing upon... more EnglishThe author analyses major trends in the recent religious history of Russia by drawing upon one particular episode-a controversial art exhibit accused in court of being sacrilegious. Religion (most importantly, Russian Orthodoxy) has been increasingly active in the public square in the post-Communist context which was favourable, though often selectively, to religion. A sharp opposition has revived between secular liberal and religious discourses where religion is thematized as a grand narrative representing national values. Yet another trend, which is in line with late modern religious patterns found in Western Europe, consists of the emergence of a highly privatized, individual, diffused religiosity. This mixed picture questions established notions of private and public religion and reveals new modes of interaction between secular and religious forces in the 21st century.FrenchL'auteur analyse les tendances majeures de l'histoire récente religieuse russe à partir d&#...
This article examines the current ethos of Russian Orthodox culture in terms of its correspondenc... more This article examines the current ethos of Russian Orthodox culture in terms of its correspondence to democratic values by analyzing the structure of memory of the Soviet past in the Orthodox milieu and among the Church's leadership. The premise is that collective memory of this kind can be a criterion in assessing the political ethos of a community. The memory of the Soviet past includes such elements as hagiography of the martyrs who died in the Soviet anti-religious terror; the issue of the Church's strategy of loyalty toward the repressive regime; the hermeneutics of trauma as providential sacrifice; and attitudes toward the Soviet past in view of Orthodox sociopolitical ideals. This article shows ambiguities in Orthodox assessment of the Soviet regime; but even the direct rejection of the Soviet past rarely translated into an engagement with a democratic agenda. This attitude is in line with the official endorsement by the Church leadership of Putin's authoritarian regime and of the Russian war in Ukraine started in 2022.
This article considers the place religion holds in post-Soviet Russian society, and most importan... more This article considers the place religion holds in post-Soviet Russian society, and most importantly, the case of the dominant Russian Orthodoxy. It shows that the gap between low everyday religiosity and high public profile of religion is the key to a specific Russian version of secularity. How religion's spectacular appropriation of physical and social space, up to the imaginative space of the national culture as such, does not cancel the strong counterweight of deeply ingrained secular cultural arrangementseither genetically linked to some European variations or specifically related to (post) communist experience.
... 123 Thorleif Pettersson Chapter Six Denmark: Solid or Fluid?.... 149 Peter Gundelach Chapter ... more ... 123 Thorleif Pettersson Chapter Six Denmark: Solid or Fluid?.... 149 Peter Gundelach Chapter Seven What Happened to Dutch Values? Investigating General and Differential Trends in Values in the Netherlands..... 175 Loek ...
Abstract Recent developments have brought about rapid changes in Russian society which in turn ha... more Abstract Recent developments have brought about rapid changes in Russian society which in turn have reshaped the religious landscape in that country. Looking at traditional religion as well as new forms of religiosity the author argues that Russia is experiencing a ...
... 123 Thorleif Pettersson Chapter Six Denmark: Solid or Fluid?.... 149 Peter Gundelach Chapter ... more ... 123 Thorleif Pettersson Chapter Six Denmark: Solid or Fluid?.... 149 Peter Gundelach Chapter Seven What Happened to Dutch Values? Investigating General and Differential Trends in Values in the Netherlands..... 175 Loek ...
EnglishThe author analyses major trends in the recent religious history of Russia by drawing upon... more EnglishThe author analyses major trends in the recent religious history of Russia by drawing upon one particular episode-a controversial art exhibit accused in court of being sacrilegious. Religion (most importantly, Russian Orthodoxy) has been increasingly active in the public square in the post-Communist context which was favourable, though often selectively, to religion. A sharp opposition has revived between secular liberal and religious discourses where religion is thematized as a grand narrative representing national values. Yet another trend, which is in line with late modern religious patterns found in Western Europe, consists of the emergence of a highly privatized, individual, diffused religiosity. This mixed picture questions established notions of private and public religion and reveals new modes of interaction between secular and religious forces in the 21st century.FrenchL'auteur analyse les tendances majeures de l'histoire récente religieuse russe à partir d&#...
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