Dukhovnye stikhi

[Christine Worobec]

Dear Colleagues: There seems to be a misconception out there that
Western scholars are not interested in East Slavic popular spirituality.
The initial question posed had to do with dukhovnye stikhi, which is why
I did not reply. But to the larger question of popular or lived
religion, please note that there are numerous scholars working on the
topic, many of whom belong to the Association for the Study of Eastern
Christianity. Here are a some names of people very active in studying
practiced Russian and Ukrainian Orthodoxy, Old Belief, and sectarians:
Vera Shevzov (book and numerous articles); Nadia Kizenko (her work on
Father Ioann also delves into religious practices); Eve Levin (for the
early modern period); Valerie Kivelson and Robert Greene (ed. collection
on lived religion in Imperial Russia); Robert Greene (diss. on
veneration of saints in Imperial and Soviet Russia); Chris Chulos (book
on popular Orthodoxy in Voronezh Province in Imperial Russia); Christine
Worobec (possession; witchcraft; miraculous healings; pilgrimages); Roy
Robson (Old Believers); Robert Crummey (Old Believers); Irina Paert (Old
Believers; pilgrimages; oral interviews regarding practices in the
Soviet period); Laura Engelstein (sectarians; Russian Orthodoxy); Eugene
Clay (sectarians); Scott Kenworthy (miraculous cures and veneration of
saints); Mark Steinberg and Page Herrlinger (workers' religiosity in the
late Imperial period); Heather Coleman (evangelicals in the Imperial
period; Orthodoxy in the Ukrainian provinces of late Imperial Russia);
Sergei Zhuk (evangelicals in the Imperial period); Nicholas Breyfogle
(sectarians in the Imperial period); Margaret Paxton (anthropologist
whose new book on Solovyovo deals in large part with contemporary
beliefs); Faith Wizgell (lived Orthodoxy); William Wager and Marlyn
Miller (Russian Orthodox nuns); Gregory Freeze (numerous aspects of
practiced religion); W. F. Ryan (major book on popular religious
beliefs); and John-Paul Himka (Ukrainian Orthodoxy); Sibelan Forrester
(zagovory in contemporary Karelia). Catherine Wanner  is working on
evangelicals in contemporary Ukraine; and there has been a recent
dissertation from the University of Michigan on Old Believers. My
apologies to anyone I inadvertently left off the list.

Please note, too, that two new collection of essays will be appearing
this year, one edited by Mark Steinberg and Heather Coleman on Sacred
Stories in the Russian Empire (includes pieces on Jewish religiosity as
well), which is being published by Indiana University Press; and the
other edited published by John-Paul Himka and Zaharniuk having to do
with popular religiosity in Ukraine and Russia (forthcoming University
of Toronto Press).

I think that the study of East Slavic religiosity is alive and well!!!!

Best wishes,
Christine Worobec
Presidential Research Professor and
Professor of Russian History,
Northern Illinois University



>>> darancourlaferriere at COMCAST.NET 02/03/06 4:56 PM >>>
3 Feb 06

Thanks to those of you who have pointed to a few non-Russian sources 
about dukhovnye stikhi in Russia (and in Ukraine - Ukraine is not 
Russia, of course, although there are many Russian speakers and 
"surzhyk" speakers in Ukraine, and there are many there who identify 
themselves as Russians, or who are not sure whether to identify 
themselves as Russians or as Ukrainians - see: V. Tishkov, 1997, 
_Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in and After the Soviet Union: The 
Mind Aflame, London: Sage Publicatons, p. 20).

Still, my impression is that there is an overall resistance on the part 
of Western scholars to probe (let us call it) East Slavic popular 
spirituality.  What do ordinary believers there believe (and have 
believed in the past)?  How do ordinary believers feel (and how have 
they felt) about what they believe?  Are these questions best left to 
East Slavs themselves, or should Western scholars exert more effort in 
this area?

Regards,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere

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