“I felt that something was being hidden from me”: identity transformation in narratives of individual paths to Russian Orthodoxy at the end of socialism
This article focuses on the narratives of believers who came of age in the Soviet Union during the Soviet era, analysing their accounts of embracing religion and affiliating with the Russian Orthodox Church during the final years of socialism or the early 1990s in Lithuania. The evolution of self-id...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 2025, Volume: 40, Issue: 2, Pages: 223-238 |
| Further subjects: | B
Russian Orthodox
B Atheism B Socialism B Identity B Lithuania B Conversion B Secularism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article focuses on the narratives of believers who came of age in the Soviet Union during the Soviet era, analysing their accounts of embracing religion and affiliating with the Russian Orthodox Church during the final years of socialism or the early 1990s in Lithuania. The evolution of self-identity from irreligious to religious is constructed in several different ways: a gradual evolution or a sudden metamorphosis, described with terms such as ‘miracle’, ‘coincidence’ or ‘search’. This shift in self-identity can be understood as a form of conversion, catalysed by supernatural influences, the pursuit of cultural heritage or a quest for spirituality. This article argues that, within these stories of identity transformation, the self is constructed as having some agency both during the Soviet era and during the post-Soviet era. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9419 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2025.2532240 |
