Religion in ethnicity making in the Russian Orthodox community of Lithuania: the perspective of believers
ENThis chapter discusses how members of the Russian Orthodox Church in Lithuania perceive the relationship between religion (Orthodoxy) and ethnicity (Russianness), as well as the ways Orthodoxy is seen as being related to Lithuania. In the social sciences, various confi gurations of the interplay between religion and ethnicity have been investigated: for example, religion can be seen as a primary dimension of identity without relation to ethnicity, or, on the contrary, religion can be used to defi ne an ethnic group. Using qualitative research, we aim to contribute to these discussions by analysing fieldwork data among religious Russians and / or Russian-speakers in Lithuania. We will argue that the role of religion in ethnicity construction is diverse. We will demonstrate that some of our research participants described Russian Orthodoxy as a denomination that is global and inclusive and so not determined by ethnicity: at the same time, however, others argue that Orthodoxy is a cultural resource for the construction of Russianness. The emphasis on religion as a marker of ethnic identity is more common among those research participants who might be described as attached to religion by cultural traditions rather than deep religious affiliation: such individuals are sometimes described as adherents of ‘cultural religion'. [p. 114-115].
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