The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Religion, Morality, and Community in Post-Soviet Societies
Catherine Wanner and Mark D. Steinberg
In the post-Soviet environment of expanded civil freedom with great everyday uncertainty, unhappiness, injustice, and suffering, religious organizations and beliefs in Russia and Eurasia face numerous opportunities and intense challenges. Based on recent research and interdisciplinary methodologies, this volume examines how religious organizations and individuals engage the changing and troubled environment in which they live. The contributions investigate not just Russian Orthodoxy, but also Old Belief, Judaism, Islam, Buriat shamanism, and Catholicism. Among the important questions considered are how religion addresses problems of charity, memory, justice, community, morality, nationalism, democracy, and civil liberties.
What People are Saying
"The authors contribute fresh field, archival, and literature research, updating aspects of the nexus of religion and politics in the post-Soviet region. . . . The scholarship is impressive." —Marjorie Balzer, Georgetown University
"The chapters in this volume represent the 'leading edge' of research in the field." —Serhii Plokhii, University of Alberta
Chapter List
Introduction
1. To Save the World or to Renounce It: Modes of Moral Action in Russian Orthodoxy, Scott Kenworthy
2. The Freezing of Historical Memory? The Post-Soviet Russian Orthodox Church and the Council of 1917, Irina Papkova
3. Aleksandra Vladimirovna: Moral Narratives of a Russian Orthodox Woman, Jarrett Zigon
4. Old Belief Between "Society" and "Culture": Remaking Moral Communities and Inequalities on a Former State Farm, Douglas Rogers
5. Communities of Mourning: Mountain Jewish Laments in Azerbaijan and on the Internet, Sascha Goluboff
6. Social Welfare and Christian Welfare: Who Gets Saved in Post-Soviet Russian Charity Work? Melissa Caldwell
7. Shamanic Transformations: Buriat Shamans as Mediators of Multiple Worlds, Katherine Metzo
8. Fearing Islam in Uzbekistan: Islamic Tendencies, Extremist Violence, and Authoritarian Secularism, Russell Zanca
9. Religious Freedom in Russia: The Putin Years. Zoe Knox
10. Afterword: Policy Implications of the Research and Analysis
Further Reading