Icons Axed, Freedoms Lost

Russian Desecularization and a Ukrainian Alternative

Vyacheslav Karpov, Rachel L. Schroeder (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

298 Seiten

2025
Rutgers University Press (Verlag)
9781978822238 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

In Icons Axed, Freedoms Lost, Vyacheslav Karpov and Rachel L. Schroeder demonstrate how Russia went from persecuting believers to jailing critics of religion and why, in contrast, religious pluralism and tolerance have solidified in Ukraine. Offering a richly documented history of cultural and political struggles that surrounded desecularization-the resurgence of religion’s societal role-from the end of the USSR to the Russo-Ukrainian war, they show Russian critics of desecularization adhered to artistic provocations, from axing icons to “punk-prayers” in cathedrals, and how Orthodox activists, in turn, responded by vandalizing controversial exhibits and calling on the state to crush “the enemies of the Church.” Putin’s solidifying tyranny heard their calls and criminalized insults to religious feelings. Meanwhile, Ukraine adhered to its pluralistic legacies. Its churches refused to engage in Russian-style culture wars, sticking instead to forgiveness and forbearance. Icons Axed, Freedoms Lost offers original theoretical and methodological perspectives on desecularization applicable far beyond the cases of Russia and Ukraine.

VYACHESLAV KARPOV is a professor of sociology at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is the coeditor, with Manfred Svensson, of Secularization, Desecularization, and Toleration: Cross-Disciplinary Challenges to a Modern Myth. RACHEL L. SCHROEDER is an assistant professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Introduction: Approaching the Puzzle of Russian Desecularization
1 Desecularization and Its Social Dynamics
2 Desecularization as a Social Drama
3 The Unresolved Dramas of the Anomic 1990s
4 “Beware, Religion!”: A Threshold Social Drama of Russian Desecularization
5 Forbidden Art-2006: A Counteroffensive Defeated
6 Mother of God, Chase Putin Away! The Pussy Riot Case and the Making of the Law on Religious Feelings
7 Russia’s Silent Majority and “the Enemies of the Church”
8 The Aftermath: From the Enactment of the Law on Religious Feelings to the Invasion of Ukraine (2013–2023)
9 A Ukrainian Alternative
Conclusion: The Drama and Tragedy of Russian Desecularization

Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	05.04.2025
Zusatzinfo	1 table
Verlagsort	New Brunswick NJ
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 235 mm
Gewicht	472 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
ISBN-13	9781978822238 / 9781978822238
Zustand	Neuware