The politics of prayer books: Delegated intercession, names, and community boundaries in the Russian Orthodox Church
Prayer is most easily conceived of as political speech when it is a spontaneous practice showing individual and group reactions to current events. Where prayer is a routinized activity involving the recitation of canonical texts, interpreters locate politics in the disciplining of bodies and acts of...
| Veröffentlicht in: | Journal of religious and political practice |
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| 1. VerfasserIn: | |
| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Lade...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Routledge, Taylor & Francis
[2016]
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| In: |
Journal of religious and political practice
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| weitere Schlagwörter: | B
social indexicality
B Pussy Riot B Russian Orthodox Church B Abortion B Prayer |
| Online Zugang: |
Vermutlich kostenfreier Zugang Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Zusammenfassung: | Prayer is most easily conceived of as political speech when it is a spontaneous practice showing individual and group reactions to current events. Where prayer is a routinized activity involving the recitation of canonical texts, interpreters locate politics in the disciplining of bodies and acts of claiming space. This paper takes inspiration from ethnographies of oral ritual performance and Quranic recitation to include texts and the delegation of speech roles in the analysis of recited prayer. Most Russian Orthodox Christians either pray from a prayer book or order such prayers to be said by specialists. Focusing on the use of baptismal names as indexical elements in intercessory prayer, I argue that Orthodox Christian textual practices sustain a particular form of fractal social authority. Standardized prayer texts synchronize lay and delegated clerical voices, while individualizing responsibility for non-Orthodox kin and acquaintances. Through analyzing canonical and non-canonical intercessory formulae, one can see that part of the political force of prayer lies in constructing community boundaries while dynamically readjusting them. |
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| ISSN: | 2056-6107 |
| Enthält: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious and political practice
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/20566093.2016.1085246 |