{"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":" ","pages":""},"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}
{"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":" ","pages":""},"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}
{"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":" ","pages":""},"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}
{"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":" ","pages":""},"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}
{"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":" ","pages":""},"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}
{"title":"Worship of Shrines in Armenia","authors":"Yulia Antonyan","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10059","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this article, the author tries to trace the trajectories of Soviet and post-Soviet transformations of vernacular religiosity in Armenia, in particular, the cult of shrines. She argues that the cult of shrines and related manifestations of vernacular religion were consistently reconceptualized, first, in the period of Soviet secularization and modernization, and, secondly, in the period of post-Soviet and post-secular transformations of the Armenian society. The Soviet modernity led to ‘neo-archaization’ of vernacular religious practice by instrumentalizing some pre-institutional forms and manifestations of religiosity. The post-secular reconceptualization of vernacular religion draws upon new realities, such as mobile/virtual religiosity, new religious materiality, commodification and consumerism, and a new, modernized interplay between institutional and non-institutional dimensions of religion(s).","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49202409","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}
{"title":"Georgian Israelites or Jews of Georgia","authors":"Ketevan Kakitelashvili","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10061","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The paper explores the evolution of Georgian-Jewish identity in different political, ideological, and cultural contexts from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries. It is focused on the beginning of the twentieth century when religious and national dimensions of Georgian-Jewish identity were developed as competing identity models. This paper addresses the impact of these identity models on contemporary Georgian-Jewish identity.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46536515","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}
{"title":"Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus since the Fall of the Soviet Union, by Bayram Balchi","authors":"Anna Cieślewska","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10058","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44283143","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}
{"title":"Religion in the South Caucasus","authors":"Sophie Zviadadze","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10062","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"11 5","pages":"207-223"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138520424","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}
{"title":"In Chase of ‘Modern Religiosity’","authors":"M. Goshadze","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10057","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In the spring of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly spread through the four corners of the world, Christian Orthodox churches were caught in the age-old altercation with science. Tensions condensed around a small material object—the communion spoon—and its potential to transmit the virus. The article examines the ensuing Eucharist-related debates between ‘liberal secularists’ and followers of the Orthodox Church of Georgia: namely, the former’s selective juxtaposition of abstract ‘faith’ against religious practice due to the latter’s alleged incongruity with modernity. The goal of this article is to illuminate the underlying discourse behind these accusations, which in turn draws on the notion of ‘modern religiosity’ informed by post-Reformation ideals.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41472928","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}