Sacred Stories: Religion and Spirituality in Modern Russia

by Mark D. Steinberg, Heather J. Coleman

Overview

Sacred Stories brings together the work of leading scholars writing on the history of religion and religiosity in late imperial Russia during the critical decades preceding the 1917 revolutions. Embodying new research and new methodologies, this book reshapes our understanding of the place of religion in modern Russian history. Topics examined include miraculous icons and healing, pilgrim narratives, confessions, women and Orthodox domesticity, marriage and divorce, conversion and tolerance, Jewish folk beliefs, mysticism in Russian art, and philosophical aspects of Orthodox religious thought. Sacred Stories demonstrates that belief, spirituality, and the sacred were powerful and complex cultural expressions central to Russian political, social, economic, and cultural life.

Contributors are Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Heather J. Coleman, Gregory L. Freeze, Nadieszda Kizenko, Alexei A. Kurbanovsky, Roy R. Robson, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Gabriella Safran, Vera Shevzov, Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Mark Steinberg, Paul Valliere, William G. Wagner, Paul W. Werth, and Christine D. Worobec.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253218506
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	01/24/2007
Series:	Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark D. Steinberg is Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His books include The Fall of the Romanovs; Voices of Revolution, 1917; and Proletarian Imagination: History, Religion, and the Sacred in Russia.

Heather J. Coleman is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Imperial Russian History in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta. She is author of Russian Baptists and Spiritual Revolution, 1905–1929 (IUP, 2005).

Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Rethinking Religion in Modern Russian Culture Mark D. Steinberg and Heather J. Coleman
1. Miraculous Healings Christine D. Worobec
2. Transforming Solovki: Pilgrim Narratives, Modernization, and Late Imperial Monastic LifeRoy R. Robson
3. Scripting the Gaze: Liturgy, Homilies, and the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Late Imperial RussiaVera Shevzov
4. Written Confessions and the Construction of Sacred NarrativeNadieszda Kizenko
5. "Orthodox Domesticity": Creating a Social Role for WomenWilliam G. Wagner
6. Profane Narratives about a Holy Sacrament: Marriage and Divorce in Late Imperial RussiaGregory L. Freeze
7. Arbiters of the Free Conscience: State, Religion, and the Problem of Confessional Transfer after 1905Paul W. Werth
8. Tales of Violence against Religious Dissidents in the Orthodox VillageHeather J. Coleman
9. Prayer and the Politics of Place: Molokan Church Building, Tsarist Law, and the Quest for a Public Sphere in Late Imperial RussiaNicholas B. Breyfogle
10. Divining the Secular in the Yiddish Popular PressSarah Abrevaya Stein
11. Revolutionary Rabbis: Hasidic Legend and the Hero of WordsGabriella Safran
12. "A Path of Thorns": The Spiritual Wounds and Wandering of Worker-PoetsMark D. Steinberg
13. A New Spirituality: The Confluence of Nietzsche and Orthodoxy in Russian Religious ThoughtBernice Glatzer Rosenthal
14. Malevich's Mystic Signs: From Iconoclasm to New TheologyAlexei Kurbanovsky
15. The Theology of Culture in Late Imperial RussiaPaul Valliere

Further Reading
List of Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

". . . certainly recommended for any combination of curious philosopher, cross-disciplinary psychologist, radical feminist, and communication theorist among us.November 6, 2008"—Brittany Shoot, Feminist Review

". . . an important contribution to the history of, mainly, Orthodox popular religiosity and Orthodox Christian spirituality of modern Russian and Ukraine.Vol. 81.1, March 2009"—Martin A. Miller, Duke University

"In summary, this is an excellent collection of illuminating essays by noted scholars in their fields, finely written and thoughtfully conceived, which should be read by anyone interested in religious life in late imperial Russia.Vol. 53.3 Fall 2009"—Michael Pesenson, University of Texas, Austin

From the Publisher

In summary, this is an excellent collection of illuminating essays by noted scholars in their fields, finely written and thoughtfully conceived, which should be read by anyone interested in religious life in late imperial Russia.Vol. 53.3 Fall 2009

Universityof Texas, Austin - Michael Pesenson

. . . certainly recommended for any combination of curious philosopher, cross-disciplinary psychologist, radical feminist, and communication theorist among us.November 6, 2008

Feminist Review - Brittany Shoot

. . . an important contribution to the history of, mainly, Orthodox popular religiosity and Orthodox Christian spirituality of modern Russian and Ukraine.Vol. 81.1, March 2009

Duke University - Martin A. Miller

"In summary, this is an excellent collection of illuminating essays by noted scholars in their fields, finely written and thoughtfully conceived, which should be read by anyone interested in religious life in late imperial Russia." —Michael Pesenson, University of Texas, Austin, SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN JOURNAL, Vol. 53.3 Fall 2009

— Michael Pesenson, University of Texas, Austin

Slavic And East European Journal

"... an important contribution to the history of, mainly, Orthodox popular religiosity and Orthodox Christian spirituality of modern Russian and Ukraine." —Martin A. Miller, Duke University, JOURNAL OF MODERN HISTORY, Vol. 81.1, March 2009

— Martin A. Miller, Duke University

Journal of Modern History

"... certainly recommended for any combination of curious philosopher, cross-disciplinary psychologist, radical feminist, and communication theorist among us." —Brittany Shoot, Feminist Review, November 6, 2008

— Brittany Shoot

Feminist Review

"In summary, this is an excellent collection of illuminating essays by noted scholars in their fields, finely written and thoughtfully conceived, which should be read by anyone interested in religious life in late imperial Russia.Vol. 53.3 Fall 2009"

University of Texas, Austin - Michael Pesenson