Women and Religiosity in Orthodox Christianity
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Women and Religiosity in Orthodox Christianity fills a significant gap in the sociology of religious practice: Studies focused on women’s religiosity have overlooked Orthodox populations, while studies of Orthodox practice (operating within the dominant theological, historical, and sociological framework) have remained gender-blind.
The essays in this collection shed new light on the women who make up a considerable majority of the Orthodox population by engaging women’s lifeworlds, practices, and experiences in relation to their religion in multiple, varied localities, discussing both contemporary and pre-1989 developments. These contributions critically engage the pluralist and changing character of Orthodox institutional and social life by using feminist epistemologies and drawing on original ethnographic research to account for Orthodox women’s previously ignored perspectives, knowledges, and experiences.
Combining the depth of ethnographic analysis with geographical breadth and employing a variety of research methodologies, this book expands our understanding of Orthodox Christianity by examining Orthodox women of diverse backgrounds in different settings: parishes, monasteries, and the secular spaces of everyday life, and under shifting historical conditions and political regimes. In defiance of claims that Orthodox Christianity is immutable and fixed in time, these essays argue that continuity and transformation can be found harmoniously in social practices, demographic trends, and larger material contexts at the intersection between gender, Orthodoxy, and locality.
Contributors: Kristin Aune, Milica Bakic-Hayden, Maria Bucur, Ketevan Gurchiani, James Kapaló, Helena Kupari, Ina Merdjanova, Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, Eleni Sotiriou, Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir, Detelina Tocheva
This innovative collection of essays offers fresh and much needed perspectives on Orthodox worlds as experienced by women. These ethnographies not only bring us into the lived religious experiences of Orthodox women but show how they are animated by broader dynamics of political theology and neoliberalism. A must read for anyone interested in Orthodoxy today.—Catherine Wanner, Pennsylvania State University
Women and Religiosity in Orthodox Christian Contexts addresses its topic globally, with contributions devoted to women’s lived Orthodox experiences and identities from regions in which Orthodoxy has played a historically prominent role—Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Serbia, Romania, and Moldova—and countries where Orthodox Christians have historically been a distinct minority—Finland, but especially the United States.—Vera Shevzov, Smith College
This volume. . . is both a welcome contribution to the scholarship on women in religion and an essential guide for anyone thinking about the present state and future possibilities of Orthodox Christianity.—Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe
. . .[A]nother interesting book from the Fordham University Press series on Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought. . . Let us look forward to more inquiries into gender and religiosity in the contemporary world.—Journal of Religion in Europe
Women in Orthodox Christianity: A Foreword | vii
Kristin Aune
Introduction | 1
Ina Merdjanova
Women and Greek Orthodoxy in the Twenty-First Century: Charting Elements of Change | 15
Eleni Sotiriou
Women, Orthodox Christianity, and Neosecularization in Bulgaria | 50
Ina Merdjanova
Lay Women and the Transformation of Orthodox Christianity in Russia | 76
Detelina Tocheva
Women and the Georgian Orthodox Church | 101
Ketevan Gurchiani
Women and Orthodox Dissent: The Case of the Archangelist Underground
Movement in Soviet Moldavia | 129
James Kapaló
Gender and Religiosity in Communist Romania: Continuity and Change | 155
Maria Bucur
Doubly Neglected: Histories of Women Monastics in the Serbian Orthodox Church | 176
Milica Bakic-Hayden
Women as Agents of Glocalization in the Orthodox Church of Finland | 206
Helena Kupari and Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir
Head Coverings, Vaccines, and Gender Politics:
Contentious Topics among Orthodox Christian Women in US-based Digital Spaces | 241
Sarah Riccardi-Swartz
Acknowledgments | 275
List of Contributors | 277
Index | 281
