Women and Religiosity in Orthodox Christianity

Ina Merdjanova is Visiting Professor at Coventry University¿s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations & Senior Researcher and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Religious Studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin. She has held visiting fellowships at Oxford University, New York University, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and Aleksanteri Institute at Helsinki University, among others. She is author of four books and numerous articles on religion and politics in post-communist society. Her recent publications include Religion as a Conversation Starter: Interreligious Dialogue for Peacebuilding in the Balkans, and Rediscovering the Umma: Muslims in the Balkans between Nationalism and Transnationalism.

This volume engages women¿s lifeworlds, practices, and experiences in relation to Orthodox Christianity in multiple, varied localities, discussing both contemporary and pre-1989 developments. It critically engages the pluralist and changing character of Orthodox forms of institutional and social life in relation to gender by using feminist epistemologies and drawing on original ethnographic research.

Women in Orthodox Christianity: A Foreword | viiKristin AuneIntroduction | 1Ina MerdjanovaWomen and Greek Orthodoxy in the Twenty-First Century: Charting Elements of Change | 15Eleni SotiriouWomen, Orthodox Christianity, and Neosecularization in Bulgaria | 50Ina MerdjanovaLay Women and the Transformation of Orthodox Christianity in Russia | 76Detelina TochevaWomen and the Georgian Orthodox Church | 101Ketevan GurchianiWomen and Orthodox Dissent: The Case of the Archangelist UndergroundMovement in Soviet Moldavia | 129James KapalóGender and Religiosity in Communist Romania: Continuity and Change | 155Maria BucurDoubly Neglected: Histories of Women Monastics in the Serbian Orthodox Church | 176Milica Bakic-HaydenWomen as Agents of Glocalization in the Orthodox Church of Finland | 206Helena Kupari and Tatiana Tiaynen-QadirHead Coverings, Vaccines, and Gender Politics:Contentious Topics among Orthodox Christian Women in US-based Digital Spaces | 241Sarah Riccardi-SwartzAcknowledgments | 275List of Contributors | 277Index | 281