Modes of Religiosity in Eastern Christianity
Author | : Vlad Naumescu |
Publisher | : LIT Verlag Münster |
Total Pages | : 275 |
Release | : 2007 |
ISBN-10 | : 9783825899080 |
ISBN-13 | : 382589908X |
Rating | : 4/5 (80 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: This volume offers original insights into the religious transformations taking place in postsocialist western Ukraine. Applying a cognitive theory based on two modes of religiosity, the doctrinal and the imagistic, author Vlad Naumescu reveals the mechanisms of reproduction and change that make the local eastern Christian tradition a living tradition of faith. He combines rich ethnographic materials with historical and theological sources to depict a religion in equilibrium between the two modes, maintaining revelation at the core of its doctrinal corpus. He argues that religion is a potential source for social change that empowers people to act upon reality and transform it. With his innovative exploration of the dynamics of an eastern Christian tradition, Naumescu makes a major contribution to the emerging anthropology of Christianity as well as to studies of postsocialism.