Christian Orthodox Migrants in Western Europe: Secularization and Modernity through the Lens of the Gift Paradigm explores a religious community that has been getting increasing scholarly attention. ...While most of the literature in the field looks at this religious tradition in terms of its alleged inability to come to terms with modernity – due to its specific religious institutions, practices and dogma – this book takes a step back from such Western-centered and Protestant-biased analysis of religion. It addresses Orthodoxy’s recent encounter with the West, modernity and secularization in the process of post-communist migrations from Eastern Europe, revealing the complicated identity redefinition and re-compositions of a religious group that highly values continuity, tradition and ethnic/national belonging. Using socio-anthropological qualitative research on Romanian, Russian, Greek and Serbian Orthodox migrants in Western Europe in a comparative perspective, this volume grasps the interplay between the institutional and the individually lived aspects of religion in their relation to the increasingly secular ""conditions of belief"" in Western European host countries. This book is important for those studying or researching Orthodox Christianity, religion and migration, secularization and modernity, as well as those in related disciplines such as sociology, anthropology of religion, religious studies, political science, migration studies and cultural studies.
The role played by women in the evolution of religious art and architecture has been largely neglected. This study of upper-class women in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries corrects that ...oversight, uncovering the active role they undertook in choosing designs, materials, and locations for monuments, commissioning repairs and additions to many parish churches, chantry chapels, and almshouses characteristic of the English countryside. Their preferred art, Barbara J. Harris shows, reveals their responses to the religious revolution and signifies their preferred identities.
Charismatic pastors, fast-paced worship sessions, inspirational but shallow theology, and large congregations — these are just some of the associated traits of Pentecostal megachurches. But what lies ...beneath the veneer of glitz? What are their congregations like? How did they grow so quickly? How have they managed to negotiate local and transnational challenges? This book seeks to understand the growth and popularity of independent Pentecostal megachurches in Southeast Asia. Using an ethnographic approach, the chapters examine Pentecostal megachurches in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Each chapter dwells on the development of the megachurch set against the specific background of the country's politics and history.
In The American YMCA and Russian Culture, Matthew Lee Miller explores the impact of the philanthropic activities of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) on Russians during the late imperial ...and early Soviet periods. The YMCA, the largest American service organization, initiated its intense engagement with Russians in 1900. During the First World War, the Association organized assistance for prisoners of war, and after the emigration of many Russians to central and western Europe, founded the YMCA Press and supported the St. Sergius Theological Academy in Paris. Miller demonstrates that the YMCA contributed to the preservation, expansion, and enrichment of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. It therefore played a major role in preserving an important part of pre-revolutionary Russian culture in Western Europe during the Soviet period until the repatriation of this culture following the collapse of the USSR. The research is based on the YMCA’s archival records, Moscow and Paris archives, and memoirs of both Russian and American participants. This is the first comprehensive discussion of an extraordinary period of interaction between American and Russian cultures. It also presents a rare example of fruitful interconfessional cooperation by Protestant and Orthodox Christians.
Evangelical Bible study groups are the most prolific type of small group in American society, with more than 30 million Protestants gathering every week for this distinct purpose, meeting in homes, ...churches, coffee shops, restaurants, and other public and private venues across the country. What happens in these groups? How do they help shape the contours of American Evangelical life? While more public forms of political activism have captured popular and scholarly imaginations, it is in group Bible study that Evangelicals reflect on the details of their faith. Here they become self-conscious religious subjects, sharing the intimate details of life, interrogating beliefs and practices, and articulating their version of Christian identity and culture.In Words upon the Word, James S. Bielo draws on over nineteen months of ethnographic work with five congregations to better understand why group Bible study matters so much to Evangelicals and for Evangelical culture. Through a close analysis of participants' discourse, Bielo examines the defining themes of group life - from textual interpretation to spiritual intimacy and the rehearsal of witnessing. Bielo's approach allows these Evangelical groups to speak for themselves, illustrating Bible study's uniqueness in Evangelical life as a site of open and critical dialogue. Ultimately, Bielo's ethnography sheds much needed light on the power of group Bible study for the ever-evolving shape of American Evangelicalism.
Over the last century unprecedented numbers of Christians from traditionally Orthodox societies migrated around the world. Once seen as an 'oriental' or 'eastern' phenomenon, Orthodox Christianity is ...now much more widely dispersed, and in many parts of the modern world one need not go far to find an Orthodox community at worship. This collection offers a compelling overview of the Orthodox world, covering the main regional traditions of Orthodox Christianity and the ways in which they have become global. The contributors are drawn from the Orthodox community worldwide and explore a rich selection of key figures and themes. The book provides an innovative and illuminating approach to the subject, ideal for students and scholars alike.
An elegantly written study that charts the relationship between Christianity and social service in Britain since the eighteenth century and presents a challenging new interpretation of the links ...between Christian decline and democratic traditions.
In addition to being a religious countryùover ninety percent of Americans believe in God--the United States is also home to more immigrants than ever before.Churches and Charity in the Immigrant ...Cityfocuses on the intersection of religion and civic engagement among Miami's immigrant and minority groups. The contributors examine the role of religious organizations in developing social relationships and how these relationships affect the broader civic world. Essays, for example, consider the role of leadership in the promotion and creation of "civic social capital" in a Haitian Catholic church, transnational ties between Cuban Catholics in Miami and Havana, and several African American congregations that serve as key comparisons of civic engagement among minorities.
This book is important not only for its theoretical contributions to the sociology of religion, but also because it gives us a unique glimpse into immigrants' civic and religious lives in urban America.
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