Sonja Luehrmann

Secularism Soviet Style (eBook, ePUB)

Teaching Atheism and Religion in a Volga Republic

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A study of the USSR's effort to build a society without gods or spirits that "greatly enhances our understanding of the post-Soviet revival of religion" ( Review of Politics). Combining archival research on atheist propaganda of the 1960s and 1970s with ethnographic fieldwork in the autonomous republic of Marij El in Russia's Volga region, Sonja Luehrmann examines how secularist culture-building reshaped religious practice and interreligious relations. One of the most palpable legacies of atheist propaganda is a widespread didactic orientation among the population and a faith in standardized programs of personal transformation as solutions to wider social problems. This didactic trend has parallels in globalized forms of Protestantism and Islam but differs from older uses of religious knowledge in rural Russia. At a time when the secularist modernization projects of the twentieth century are widely perceived to have failed, Secularism Soviet Style emphasizes the affinities and shared histories of religious and atheist mobilizations.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Indiana University Press
• Seitenzahl: 293
• Erscheinungstermin: 22. Dezember 2021
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780253005427
• Artikelnr.: 75595346

Autorenporträt

Sonja Luehrmann is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Simon Fraser University and author of Alutiiq Villages under Russian and U.S. Rule.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface and Acknowledgments
Note on Translation, Transliteration, and Names
Introduction: Atheism, Secularity, and Postsecular Religion
I. Affinities
1. Neighbors and Comrades: Secularizing the Mari Country
2. "Go teach:" Methods of Change
II. Promises
3. Church Closings and Sermon Circuits
4. Marginal Lessons
III. Fissures
5. Visual Aid
6. The Soul and the Spirit
IV. Rhythms
7. Lifelong Learning
Conclusion: Affinity and Discernment
Glossary
Notes
References
Index