Lifelong religion as habitus : religious practice among displaced Karelian Orthodox women in Finland / by Helena Kupari.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kupari, Helena, author.

Series:

Studies in the history of religions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orthodox Eastern Church--Finland.

Orthodox Eastern Church.

Women in the Orthodox Eastern Church--Finland.

Women in the Orthodox Eastern Church.

Christian women--Spiritual life.

Christian women.

Karelians--Finland.

Karelians.

Spiritual life.

Finland.

Physical Description:

viii, 198 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Brill, 2016.

Summary:

In this book, Helena Kupari examines the lived religion of Finnish, evacuee Karelian Orthodox women through an innovative reading and application of Pierre Bourdieu's practice theory. After the Second World War, Finland ceded most of its Karelian territories to the Soviet Union. Over 400,000 Finns, including two thirds of the Finnish Orthodox Christians, lost their homes. This book traces the ways in which the religion of Orthodox women was affected by their displacement and their experiences as members of the Orthodox minority in post-war and contemporary Finland. It contributes to theoretical discussions on lived religion by producing an account of lifelong minority religion as habitus, or an embodied and practical "sense of religion".

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

2 Practice, Habitus, and Lived Religion 10

Approaching Religion through Practice 10

The Religious Field 12

Religion as Habitus 17

Practice à la Bourdieu 17

A System of Socialized Senses 19

Habitus and Field - a Revisit 23

Habitual Agency? 25

Capturing Habitus 29

3 Studying Displaced Karelian Orthodox Women 34

The Interviewees 34

The Research Process 40

Locating Displaced Karelian Orthodox Women in Social Space 46

Religion, Gender, and Old Age in 20th and 21st Century Finland 46

Orthodoxy in Finland - Historical Developments 50

Orthodox-Lutheran Marriages in Post-Second World War Finland 55

4 Everyday Religious Practice 59

Religious Practice and Domestic Surroundings 59

Bodies Sensitized to the Sacred 63

Habitual and Intentional Practicing 67

Describing "Orthodox" Practice 71

5 Childhood Religion, Minority Setting 77

Childhood Religion - "Lived" Religion 77

Embodied Minority Experiences 81

Orthodox Christianity versus Evangelical Lutheranism 85

Childhood Religion versus Conversion 89

Childhood Religion, Pluralistic Setting, and Agency 93

6 Mothers Doing Religion 98

Gendered Habitus and Domestic Religion 98

Navigations between Orthodoxy and Lutheranism 103

Collective and Individual Practicing 107

Motherhood, Ethics, and Agency 111

7 The Practice of Belief 116

Prayer and Belief 116

Narrating God's Guidance 120

The Ethics of "Remembering God" 123

Performing Life after Death 128

8 Lifelong Religion and Change 134

Producing Continuums of Practice 134

Living Religion, Dying Tradition? 137

Religion versus the Secular World 142

On the Religion of Children and Grandchildren 145

A Grass-roots View on the Religious Field 149

9 Conclusions 154

The Religion of Displaced Karelian Orthodox Women 154

Lifelong Religious Habitus: A Sense of Religion 157

Habitual Religious Agency 161

Habitus and the Study of Lived Religion 165.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789004321427

900432142X

OCLC:

951955869