Becoming Eastern Orthodox in diaspora: materializing Orthodox Russia and Holy Rus'

In this article, I draw on interviews and participant observation data from a two-year-long ethnographic study in a Russian Orthodox parish in the United States. I argue that both the Russian Orthodox immigrants and the Protestant converts to Orthodoxy attending this parish may be usefully thought o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religion
Main Author: Kravčenko, Elena (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group [2018]
In: Religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Russia / Orthodox Church / Conversion (Religion) / Diaspora (Religion) / Religious identity
RelBib Classification:KBK Europe (East)
KDF Orthodox Church
Further subjects:B Diasporic religious subjectivity Eastern Orthodoxy
B religious narratives, objects, and practice
B Conversion
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:In this article, I draw on interviews and participant observation data from a two-year-long ethnographic study in a Russian Orthodox parish in the United States. I argue that both the Russian Orthodox immigrants and the Protestant converts to Orthodoxy attending this parish may be usefully thought of as diasporic groups. Seeking to construct their particular Orthodox identity, both groups deal with their own physical and symbolic displacements, and attempt to find their place of belonging. I demonstrate how in the process, through reliance on religious narratives, prayer, and Russian Orthodox icons, parishioners construct two overlapping, yet distinctive places of their origin: Holy Rus' and Orthodox Russia. Finally, attending to how some Orthodox Christians were able to position themselves in two groups simultaneously, I suggest that we think of religious practitioners as able to inhabit two diasporas at once.
ISSN:0048-721X
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2017.1328619