Editorial

13 pages, 305 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

East-European Critical Thought: Myth, Religion, and Magic versus Literature, Sign and Narrative

by Dennis Ioffe

Religions 2021, 12(9), 717; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090717 - 02 Sep 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2499

The Introductory article offers a general overview of the highly complicated topic of religious and mythological consciousness discussed in sub-species narrative critique and literary theory. It also provides a detailed context for the wide array of religious matters discussed in this special volume [...] Read more.

The Introductory article offers a general overview of the highly complicated topic of religious and mythological consciousness discussed in sub-species narrative critique and literary theory. It also provides a detailed context for the wide array of religious matters discussed in this special volume of Religions. Each of the nineteen papers is positioned within its own particular thematic discourse. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

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11 pages, 263 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Only God Can Be”: Aleksandr Vvedensky, Kant, God, and Time

by Evgeny Pavlov

Religions 2021, 12(8), 658; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080658 - 18 Aug 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1893

Abstract

This article discusses the place of God in the poetic system of Aleksandr Vvedensky. Vvedensky’s famous pronouncement on his “poetic critique” is more throughgoing than Kant’s critical enterprise, and invites a comparison between the movement of Kant’s thought in the Critique of Judgment, [...] Read more.

This article discusses the place of God in the poetic system of Aleksandr Vvedensky. Vvedensky’s famous pronouncement on his “poetic critique” is more throughgoing than Kant’s critical enterprise, and invites a comparison between the movement of Kant’s thought in the Critique of Judgment, and what Vvedensky’s recourse to senselessness aims to achieve. Time in Vvedensky poetics may be seen as a radical extension of Kant’s philosophical system where it ultimately resides in an equally inaccessible realm on which its entire edifice is founded. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

30 pages, 425 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Poems by Polish Female Poets and the Burning Issue of Religion

by Dorota Walczak-Delanois

Religions 2021, 12(8), 618; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080618 - 09 Aug 2021

Viewed by 3018

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show the presence of religion and the particular evolution of lyrical matrixes connected to religion in the Polish poems of female poets. There is a particular presence of women in the roots of the Polish literary [...] Read more.

The aim of this paper is to show the presence of religion and the particular evolution of lyrical matrixes connected to religion in the Polish poems of female poets. There is a particular presence of women in the roots of the Polish literary and lyrical traditions. For centuries, the image of a woman with a pen in her hand was one of the most important imponderabilia. Until the 19th century, Polish female poets continued to be rare. Where female poets do appear in the historical record, they are linked to institutions such as monasteries, where female intellectuals were able to find relative liberty and a refuge. Many of the poetic forms they used in the 16th, late 17th, and 18th centuries were typically male in origin and followed established models. In the 19th century, the specific image of the mother as a link to the religious portrait of the Madonna and the Mother of God (the first Polish poem presents Bogurodzica, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus) reinforces women’s new presence. From Adam Mickiewicz’s poem Do matki Polki (To Polish Mother), the term “Polish mother” becomes a separate literary, epistemological, and sociological category. Throughout the 20th century (with some exceptions), the impact of Romanticism and its poetical and religious models remained alive, even if they underwent some modifications. The period of communism, as during the Period of Partitions and the Second World War, privileged established models of lyric, where the image of women reproduced Romantic schema in poetics from the 19th-century canons, which are linked to religion. Religious poetry is the domain of few female author-poets who look for inner freedom and religious engagement (Anna Kamieńska) or for whom religion becomes a form of therapy in a bodily illness (Joanna Pollakówna). This, however, does not constitute an otherness or specificity of the “feminine” in relation to male models. Poets not interested in reproducing the established roles reach for the second type of lyrical expression: replacing the “mother” with the “lover” and “the priestess of love” (the Sappho model) present in the poetry of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska. In the 20th century, the “religion” of love in women’s work distances them from the problems of the poetry engaged in social and religious disputes and constitutes a return to pagan rituals (Hymn idolatrous of Halina Poświatowska) or to the carnality of the body, not necessarily overcoming previous aesthetic ideals (Anna Świrszczyńska). It is only since the 21st century that the lyrical forms of Polish female poets have significantly changed. They are linked to the new place of the Catholic Church in Poland and the new roles of Polish women in society. Four particular models are analysed in this study, which are shown through examples of the poetry of Genowefa Jakubowska-Fijałkowska, Justyna Bargielska, Anna Augustyniak, and Malina Prześluga with the Witches’ Choir. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

32 pages, 947 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gogol’s “The Nose”: Between Linguistic Indecency and Religious Blasphemy

by Igor Pilshchikov

Religions 2021, 12(8), 571; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080571 - 24 Jul 2021

Viewed by 5881

Abstract

Focused on Nikolai Gogol’s absurdist tale, “The Nose” (1835), this article is an investigation into the concealed representation of suppressed and marginalized libertine and anti-religious discourses in nineteenth-century Russian literature. The author identifies overlooked idiomatic phraseology, forgotten specificities of the Imperial hierarchy (the [...] Read more.

Focused on Nikolai Gogol’s absurdist tale, “The Nose” (1835), this article is an investigation into the concealed representation of suppressed and marginalized libertine and anti-religious discourses in nineteenth-century Russian literature. The author identifies overlooked idiomatic phraseology, forgotten specificities of the Imperial hierarchy (the Table of Ranks), and allusions to religious customs and Christian rituals that would have been apparent to Gogol’s readers and shows how some were camouflaged to escape censorship in successive drafts of the work. The research builds on the approaches to Gogol’s language, imagery and plot developed earlier by the Russian Formalists, Tartu-Moscow semioticians, and a few other scholars, who revealed the latent obscenity of Gogol’s “rhinology” and the sacrilegious meaning of the tale’s very specific chronotope. The previous scholars’ observations are substantially supplemented by original findings. An integrated analysis of these aspects in their mutual relationship is required to understand what the telling details of the story reveal about Gogol’s religious and psychological crisis of the mid-1830s and to demonstrate how he aggregated indecent Shandyism, social satire, and religious blasphemy into a single quasi-oneiric narrative. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

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10 pages, 313 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Christian Saints in Russian Incantations

by Aleksey Yudin

Religions 2021, 12(8), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080556 - 21 Jul 2021

Viewed by 2233

Abstract

This article discusses the Christian saints who are most often mentioned in Russian incantations: Sts. George, Nicholas, Florus and Laurus, Kossma and Damian, Zosima and Savvaty of Solovki, as well as the semi-apocryphal saints Sisinius and Solomonia. The first six are among the [...] Read more.

This article discusses the Christian saints who are most often mentioned in Russian incantations: Sts. George, Nicholas, Florus and Laurus, Kossma and Damian, Zosima and Savvaty of Solovki, as well as the semi-apocryphal saints Sisinius and Solomonia. The first six are among the most popular saints of Russian folk Orthodoxy. The article presents the naming conventions of saints, and their attributes and functions in Russian folk magic. Depending on their magical function, the protagonists of the incantations can act as helpers, protectors, and healers. They assist in various practical areas of life, and protect against real and magical dangers, in addition to helping healing from diseases and wounds. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

12 pages, 232 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Franny’s Jesus Prayer: J.D. Salinger and Orthodox Christian Spirituality

by Andrey Astvatsaturov

Religions 2021, 12(8), 555; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080555 - 21 Jul 2021

Viewed by 3312

Abstract

The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way—is a Russian hesychast text that was first published in 1881 and translated into English in 1931. It has gained popularity in the English-speaking world thanks to J.D. Salinger who mentions and [...] Read more.

The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way—is a Russian hesychast text that was first published in 1881 and translated into English in 1931. It has gained popularity in the English-speaking world thanks to J.D. Salinger who mentions and re-narrates it in his stories “Franny” and “Zooey”. This reference has often been noted in both critical works on Salinger and studies dedicated to the book The Way of a Pilgrim. However, scholars have never actually attempted to fundamentally analyze the textual interconnections between Salinger’s stories and the hesychast work. In this article, the text of The Way of a Pilgrim is read within the framework of Salinger’s stories and is interpreted as being significant for his later texts. From the hesychast book Salinger borrows a number of images and presents its philosophy as a spiritual ideal. At the same time, he approaches it with a certain irony and exposes several pitfalls of incorrectly interpreting the Jesus prayer, as illustrated by Franny, one of Salinger’s characters. Having brought to light the nature of Franny’s mistakes and her peccant intention, Salinger reestablishes the hesychast ideal and connects it with Søren Kierkegaard’s principle of theistic existentialism. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

16 pages, 703 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Kazimir Malevich’s Negative Theology and Mystical Suprematism

by Irina Sakhno

Religions 2021, 12(7), 542; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070542 - 16 Jul 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5653

Abstract

This article examines Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist art in the context of negative (apophatic) theology, as a crucial tool in analyzing both the artist’s theoretical conclusions and his new visual optics. Our analysis rests on the point that the artist intuitively moved towards recognizing [...] Read more.

This article examines Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist art in the context of negative (apophatic) theology, as a crucial tool in analyzing both the artist’s theoretical conclusions and his new visual optics. Our analysis rests on the point that the artist intuitively moved towards recognizing the ineffability of the multidimensional universe and perceiving God as the Spiritual Absolute. In his attempt to see the invisible in the formulas of Emptiness and Nothingness, Malevich turned to the primary forms of geometric abstraction—the square, circle and cross—which he endows with symbolic concepts and meanings. Malevich treats his Suprematism as a method of perceiving the ineffability of the Absolute. With the Black Square seen as a face of God, the patterns of negative theology rise to become the philosophical formula of primary importance. Malevich’s Mystical Suprematism series (1920–1922) confirms the presence of complex metaphysical reflection and apophatic thought in his art. Not only does the series contain icon paraphrases and the Christian symbolism of the cross and mandorla, but it also advances the formulas of the apophatic faith of the modern times, since Suprematism presents primary forms as the universals of “the face of the future” and the energy of the non-objective art. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

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15 pages, 315 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Myth of Faust, “Titanism”, and the Religious Topic of the Selling of the Soul in the Cultural Writings of Jan Patočka

by Petra James

Religions 2021, 12(7), 528; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070528 - 13 Jul 2021

Viewed by 1958

Abstract

The intensive and systematic scholarly interest in the relation of Patočka’s phenomenology to religion and Christianity is recent and has only intensified over the last ten years. Thus far, the topic has mainly been studied from philosophical and theological perspectives, and the extensive [...] Read more.

The intensive and systematic scholarly interest in the relation of Patočka’s phenomenology to religion and Christianity is recent and has only intensified over the last ten years. Thus far, the topic has mainly been studied from philosophical and theological perspectives, and the extensive body of Patočka’s cultural writings has largely failed to attract the attention of scholars. Moreover, a culturological approach is virtually absent. Therefore, this article suggests focusing on the analysis of cultural archetypes in Patočka’s cultural writings related to the topic of religion and Christianity from this perspective. The cultural archetypes of the Faustian figures of Patočka’s cultural writings, whether Goethe’s Faust, Goethe’s Marguerite, or Mann’s Adrian Leverkühn, are all Socratic-Christic avatars that personify Patočka’s philosophical concept of “care for the soul” in the modern age. The legacy of Plato’s Greek philosophy and that of Western Christianity as presented by Patočka insist on the universally shared existential experience of finitude that should be grasped as a positive challenge in the strife for meaning. Patočka’s “titanism” and the archetypal titanic figures of his cultural writings are Patočkian manifestations of this universal effort. A culturological approach to Patočka’s thinking on religion and Christianity might thus prove most relevant. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

14 pages, 400 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The “Christology” of Bely the Anthroposophist: Andrei Bely, Rudolf Steiner, and the Apostle Paul

by Monika Spivak

Religions 2021, 12(7), 519; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070519 - 10 Jul 2021

Viewed by 2441

Abstract

The article focuses on R. Steiner’s perception of the Gospels and the impact of that view on Bely’s works. The latter had always valued Steiner’s lectures on Christ and the Fifth Gospel, the “Anthroposophic” (relating to the philosophy of human genesis, existence, and [...] Read more.

The article focuses on R. Steiner’s perception of the Gospels and the impact of that view on Bely’s works. The latter had always valued Steiner’s lectures on Christ and the Fifth Gospel, the “Anthroposophic” (relating to the philosophy of human genesis, existence, and outcome) Gospel, the knowledge of which had been received in a visionary way. In addition, Bely was an esoteric follower of Steiner and often quoted from Apostle Paul’s 2 Corinthians, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men”. The citation occurs in Bely’s philosophical works (The History of the Formation of the Self-Conscious Soul, “Crisis of Consciousness”), autobiographic prose (Reminiscences of Steiner), the essay “Why I Became a Symbolist…”, and letters (to Ivanov-Razumnik and Fedor Gladkov). Bely’s own anthroposophic and esoteric ideas relating to the gospel sayings are also examined. The aim of the research is to show through the example of one quotation the specifics of Bely the Anthroposophist’s perception of Christian texts in general. This provides a methodological meaning for understanding other Biblical quotations and images in the works of Bely because anthroposophical Christology is also the key to their deciphering. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

10 pages, 235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

To Be or Not to Be God—The Issue of Authorial Power in Dostoevsky

by Alexander Zholkovsky

Religions 2021, 12(7), 506; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070506 - 07 Jul 2021

Viewed by 1625

Abstract

This paper problematizes the now widely accepted concept of Dostoevsky’s dialogism, which alleges the ‘Author’s’ equal empowerment of all his characters. Using examples from Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Zholkovsky focuses on instances of ‘scene-staging’ based on the ‘scripts’ devised [...] Read more.

This paper problematizes the now widely accepted concept of Dostoevsky’s dialogism, which alleges the ‘Author’s’ equal empowerment of all his characters. Using examples from Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Zholkovsky focuses on instances of ‘scene-staging’ based on the ‘scripts’ devised and enacted by some characters, that are ‘read,’ with varying success, by their targets. He documents the resulting ‘discursive combat’ among the characters, with special attention paid to those ‘playing god’ and thus, the more ‘authorial’ among them. In several cases, the would-be ‘divine’ manipulation is shown to be consistently subverted by the Dostoevskian narrative. However, in one instance, where Aliosha Karamazov charitably scripts Captain Snegirev’s behavior, the ensuing discussion of this episode, in Aliosha’s conversations with Lise Khokhlakova, upholds Aliosha’s right to play god with the Other—“for the Other’s own good”, of course (not unlike the Grand Inquisitor). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

26 pages, 7270 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Catherine’s Icon: Pavel Filonov and the Orthodox World

by Nicoletta Misler and John E. Bowlt

Religions 2021, 12(7), 502; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070502 - 06 Jul 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2193

Abstract

The authors discuss the Orthodox icon which Pavel Filonov (1883–1941) painted in 1908 or 1909 for his sister, Ekaterina, placing it within the broader context of his oeuvre, his family and his understanding of ‘religiosity’. Making reference to Filonov’s system of Analytical Art [...] Read more.

The authors discuss the Orthodox icon which Pavel Filonov (1883–1941) painted in 1908 or 1909 for his sister, Ekaterina, placing it within the broader context of his oeuvre, his family and his understanding of ‘religiosity’. Making reference to Filonov’s system of Analytical Art and to what he called ‘madness’, the authors focus on the particular technical devices which he used in the icon and on the podlinnik (or primer) from which he copied the main elements. Reference is also made to other religious motifs in Filonov’s art such as the Magi, Flight into Egypt and Crucifixion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

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20 pages, 5166 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sacred and Profane: Tabooing in Russian Magical Manuscripts of the 17th–18th Centuries (Incantations and Herbals)

by Aleksandra B. Ippolitova

Religions 2021, 12(7), 482; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070482 - 28 Jun 2021

Viewed by 2667

Abstract

Linguistic taboos (euphemisms, omissions, and other) are an essential part of Slavic verbal and written culture. In this article, we analyze cryptography as a form of tabooing in the magical texts of the grassroots manuscript tradition of the 17th and 18th centuries (handwritten [...] Read more.

Linguistic taboos (euphemisms, omissions, and other) are an essential part of Slavic verbal and written culture. In this article, we analyze cryptography as a form of tabooing in the magical texts of the grassroots manuscript tradition of the 17th and 18th centuries (handwritten incantations and herbals). Our main objective is trying to see a system behind separate examples and define which kinds of texts are usually tabooed in incantations and herbals, their topics, and messages. We have managed to find out that the function of keeping secrecy is not relevant for the magical tradition; rather, encryption was used to emphasize the elements that are of special importance. In the book of incantations called the Olonets Codex, dating back to the 17th century, ciphering was used for the names and titles of sacred and demonological characters, antagonists, descriptions of certain rituals, closing phrases for the incantations (amen, “key”), etc. We hypothesize that the encryption is used in the Olonets Codex as a means of retaining the magical strength of all the texts in the manuscripts, protecting from hostile beings, sacralizing where necessary, tabooing what was considered sinful for religious reasons, accentuating the main meanings of the incantations, etc. In the herbals, cryptography is basically used for tabooing of “sinful” or trappy topics (love magic, magic used against courts and authorities, some contexts concerning sorcery, jinx, and “secret” knowledge), and in the texts that had to bear sacral meaning (incantations and prayers). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

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22 pages, 353 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The October Revolution as the Passion of Christ: Boris Pasternak’s Easter Narrative in Doctor Zhivago and Its Cultural Contexts

by Svetlana Efimova

Religions 2021, 12(7), 461; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070461 - 24 Jun 2021

Viewed by 3110

Abstract

This article offers a new interpretation of Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago in the cultural and historical context of the first half of the 20th century, with an emphasis on the interrelationship between religion and philosophy of history in the text. Doctor Zhivago [...] Read more.

This article offers a new interpretation of Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago in the cultural and historical context of the first half of the 20th century, with an emphasis on the interrelationship between religion and philosophy of history in the text. Doctor Zhivago is analysed as a condensed representation of a religious conception of Russian history between 1901 and 1953 and as a cyclical repetition of the Easter narrative. This bipartite narrative consists of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ as symbols of violence and renewal (liberation). The novel cycles through this narrative several times, symbolically connecting the ‘Easter’ revolution (March 1917) and the Thaw (the spring of 1953). The sources of Pasternak’s Easter narrative include the Gospels, Leo Tolstoy’s philosophy of history and pre-Christian mythology. The model of cyclical time in the novel brings together the sacred, natural and historical cycles. This concept of a cyclical renewal of life differs from the linear temporality of the Apocalypse as an expectation of the end of history. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

15 pages, 309 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Christianity and Slavic Folk Culture: The Mechanisms of Their Interaction

by Svetlana M. Tolstaya

Religions 2021, 12(7), 459; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070459 - 23 Jun 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6859

Abstract

In Slavic folk culture, Christianity is a foreign, borrowed cultural model, while the oral tradition is native and familiar. The different areas of folk culture were influenced to varying degrees by the Christian tradition. The most dependent area of Slavic folk culture on [...] Read more.

In Slavic folk culture, Christianity is a foreign, borrowed cultural model, while the oral tradition is native and familiar. The different areas of folk culture were influenced to varying degrees by the Christian tradition. The most dependent area of Slavic folk culture on Christianity was the calendar. In many cases, it only superficially accepted the Christian content of calendar elements and reinterpreted it in accordance with the traditional mythological notions. The same can be said about the folk cult of saints. The Christian saints replaced pagan gods and over time were included in the system of folk ideas, beliefs and rituals. The mechanism for regulating the balance between man and the world is a system of prohibitions, the violation of which is recognized as sin and is punished by natural disasters, death, disease and human misfortunes. The Slavic folk tradition adapted not only the individual elements, structures and semantic categories of Christianity, but also the whole texts, plots, motifs, and themes developed in various folklore genres. Therefore, the pre-Christian folk tradition of the Slavs was able to assimilate many Christian concepts, symbols, and texts, translate them into its own language and fill them with its own content. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

17 pages, 284 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Merezhkovsky’s Neo-Christianity of the Third Testament: From Symbolist Historiosophy to Radical Politics

by Vadim Polonsky

Religions 2021, 12(7), 456; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070456 - 22 Jun 2021

Viewed by 2047

Abstract

This article places Dmitry Merezhkovsky’s Chiliastic concept of Three Testaments into a unified structure. The author analyzes the writer’s integral system of Christological, anthropological, and historiosophicidiomyths and meta-symbols. He studies the religious, philosophical, and aesthetic genesis of the semantic transformation of traditional theological [...] Read more.

This article places Dmitry Merezhkovsky’s Chiliastic concept of Three Testaments into a unified structure. The author analyzes the writer’s integral system of Christological, anthropological, and historiosophicidiomyths and meta-symbols. He studies the religious, philosophical, and aesthetic genesis of the semantic transformation of traditional theological constructions and the doctrinal compilation of Russian fin de siècle culture dominant elements. It is shown how religious Modernist mythmaking alters political reality in Merezhkovsky’s mind and draws him towards radical ideologies of the extreme left and right. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

29 pages, 1477 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Making of a Marian Geography of Grace for Greek Catholics in the Polish Crownlands of the 17th–18th Centuries

by Dieter Stern

Religions 2021, 12(6), 446; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060446 - 16 Jun 2021

Viewed by 1823

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which the newly founded and highly contested Christian confession of the Greek Catholics or Uniates employed strategies of mass mobilization to establish and maintain their position within a contested confessional terrain. The Greek Catholic clerics, above all [...] Read more.

This article explores the ways in which the newly founded and highly contested Christian confession of the Greek Catholics or Uniates employed strategies of mass mobilization to establish and maintain their position within a contested confessional terrain. The Greek Catholic clerics, above all monks of the Basilian order fostered an active policy of acquiring, founding and promoting Marian places of grace in order to create and invigorate a sense of belonging among their flock. The article argues that folk ideological notions concerning the spatial and physical conditions for the working of miracles were seized upon by the Greek Catholic faithful to establish a mental map of grace of their own. Especially, the Basilian order took particular care to organize mass events (annual pilgrimages, coronation celebrations for miraculous images) and promote Marian devotion through miracle reports and icon songs in an attempt to define what it means to be a Greek Catholic in terms of sacred territoriality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

11 pages, 226 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synthesizing Religions: Vasily Rozanov’s “Phallic Christianity”

by Henrietta Mondry

Religions 2021, 12(6), 430; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060430 - 09 Jun 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2200

Abstract

Vasily Rozanov was one of the first Russian writers of the fin de siècle to create a nexus between the study of the history of world religions and the history of sexuality. He viewed Christianity’s asceticism as a source of the disintegration of [...] Read more.

Vasily Rozanov was one of the first Russian writers of the fin de siècle to create a nexus between the study of the history of world religions and the history of sexuality. He viewed Christianity’s asceticism as a source of the disintegration of the contemporary family. This article examines Rozanov’s strategy to synthesize religions and to use pre-Christian religions of the Middle East as proof of common physical and metaphysical essence in celestial, human, animal, and mythological human/animal/divine bodies. I argue that while his rehabilitation of the physical life by endowing it with religious value was socially positive, his self-proclaimed “mission of sexuality”, when politically motivated, was manipulative and incorporated the notion of the atavistic ‘survivals’. In conclusion, I explain that Rozanov’s monistic search for the divine in the physical body as well as his strategy to synthesize religions were additionally driven by his personal doubts in the preeminence of Christian eschatology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

10 pages, 237 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Orthodox Christian Bulgarians Coping with Natural Disasters in the Pre-Modern Ottoman Balkans

by Raymond Detrez

Religions 2021, 12(5), 367; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050367 - 20 May 2021

Viewed by 2061

Abstract

Premodern Ottoman society consisted of four major religious communities—Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Armenian Christians, and Jews; the Muslim and Christian communities also included various ethnic groups, as did Muslim Arabs and Turks, Orthodox Christian Bulgarians, Greeks, and Serbs who identified, in the first place, [...] Read more.

Premodern Ottoman society consisted of four major religious communities—Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Armenian Christians, and Jews; the Muslim and Christian communities also included various ethnic groups, as did Muslim Arabs and Turks, Orthodox Christian Bulgarians, Greeks, and Serbs who identified, in the first place, with their religious community and considered ethnic identity of secondary importance. Having lived together, albeit segregated within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, for centuries, Bulgarians and Turks to a large extent shared the same world view and moral value system and tended to react in a like manner to various events. The Bulgarian attitudes to natural disasters, on which this contribution focuses, apparently did not differ essentially from that of their Turkish neighbors. Both proceeded from the basic idea of God’s providence lying behind these disasters. In spite of the (overwhelmingly Western) perception of Muslims being passive and fatalistic, the problem whether it was permitted to attempt to escape “God’s wrath” was coped with in a similar way as well. However, in addition to a comparable religious mental make-up, social circumstances and administrative measures determining equally the life conditions of both religious communities seem to provide a more plausible explanation for these similarities than cross-cultural influences. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

11 pages, 260 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Carol about the Pagan Rite of Sacrifice of a Goat and Its Interpretation in Russian Scholarship of the 19th to 20th Centuries

by Andrey Toporkov

Religions 2021, 12(5), 366; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050366 - 20 May 2021

Viewed by 2242

Abstract

In publications of Russian folklore, along with authentic texts there are a number of literary stylizations based on folklore. The article traces the history of one such pseudo-folkloric text—a carol which was first published by Ivan Petrovich Sakharov (1807 to 1863) in 1837. [...] Read more.

In publications of Russian folklore, along with authentic texts there are a number of literary stylizations based on folklore. The article traces the history of one such pseudo-folkloric text—a carol which was first published by Ivan Petrovich Sakharov (1807 to 1863) in 1837. It has been established that this carol is a montage of two texts: the first is a carol, printed in 1817 by I.E. Sreznevsky in the Ukrainian Bulletin, and the second is a song included in the Tale of Brother Ivanushka and his Sister Alyonushka (SUS 450). Such contamination is unique and is found only in this one text, which was later reprinted many times. Taking into account Sakharov’s reputation as a falsifier of folklore, there is no reason to doubt that it was he who composed this carol; such contamination of works belonging to different folkloric genres is also characteristic of other of Sakharov’s publications. The carol that Sakharov published attracted the particular interest of researchers of Slavic mythology due to the fact that it described how an old man was going to sacrifice a goat. Several generations of historians saw in this pseudo-folkloric text a description of a ritual that pagan Slavs performed in ancient times. Considering the carol as an historical document, researchers of mythology built their interpretations based on the supposed time of its appearance, the nature of its genre, plot, and individual details. Thus, Sakharov’s pseudo-folkloric creation found an eager audience among scholars, and it stimulated their imagination in picturing the life of pagan Rus’. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment)

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East-Slavic Religions and Religiosity: Mythologies, Literature and Folklore: A Reassessment

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