Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
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    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

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Friday 14 April 2023 14.00 - 16.00
H-11 REL07 Religion, Identity and Politics
B33
Network: Religion Chair: Eveline Bouwers
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Riho Altnurme : Regional Peculiarities. Historical Formation of South Estonian Identity through Religious Diversity
From the 13th to 16th centuries, the territory of today's Estonia was divided between the bishops and the German (Teutonic) Order into states with ecclesiastical power. In the 16th century, according to the borders of Polish and Swedish rule, the area was divided into Estonia and Livonia – Estonia in ... (Show more)
From the 13th to 16th centuries, the territory of today's Estonia was divided between the bishops and the German (Teutonic) Order into states with ecclesiastical power. In the 16th century, according to the borders of Polish and Swedish rule, the area was divided into Estonia and Livonia – Estonia in the north and Livonia in the south, with the latter also including the northern part of present-day Latvia. Estonians were the dominant nationality in the north and Latvians in the south. After the Great Northern War and becoming a part of the Russian Empire, the current Estonian territory was, at the beginning of the 18th century, divided in two provinces of the same names. The Lutheran confession initially maintained its dominant position as a unifying ideology for the different provinces. It can also be said that the dialect of southern Estonia achieved the status of a written language as a church language in southern Estonia. However, there are several factors where we can talk about the impact of religious diversity on the development of South Estonian identity.
1) Orthodox - under the Russian occupation (11th and 16th centuries) and through the conversion in the 19th century
2) Roman-Catholic „Polish period“ in the 16th-17th centuries
3) Old Believers - opposition to Orthodoxy from 17th century
4) The simple religious devotion of Moravian spirituality in the 18th-19th centuries
In view of all this, can we talk about long-term effects? What is the identity of the inhabitants of South Estonia due to these developments compared to that of North Estonia, where religious unity was greater? (Show less)

Maija Grizane : Religious Holidays under Sovietisation: the Case of Russian Old Believers in Latvia
Russian Old Believers, an ethnic-religious minority, became an integral part of Latvian society. The interwar Latvia promoted versatile development of community’s political, economic, cultural and religious life. Having a reputation of very religious community, Old Believers were supposed to stand against Soviet secularisation and preserve their religious traditions. Religious holidays, ... (Show more)
Russian Old Believers, an ethnic-religious minority, became an integral part of Latvian society. The interwar Latvia promoted versatile development of community’s political, economic, cultural and religious life. Having a reputation of very religious community, Old Believers were supposed to stand against Soviet secularisation and preserve their religious traditions. Religious holidays, including Church (Christmas, Easter) and family (baptism, wedding, funeral), according to the Soviet ideology had to be replaced with the civil ones.
By analysing oral history testimonies, it is possible to recover the experience of Old Believers and their adaptation to atheistic conditions. The community divided into those, who continued celebrating, but mostly in secret, and those, who adopted civil rites. In some cases, people used hybrid forms of celebration. The final choice of a person was influenced by his environment, place of residence and social status. It was noticed that the residents of cities were more influenced by Sovietisation and abandoned religious life. At the same time, in the countryside people continued to preserve their traditions and even openly demonstrated their religiosity.
Nowadays the sovietised generations of Old Believers try to restore the pre-war religiosity and face new challenges in the nowadays society. (Show less)

Lukasz Kozuchowski : Peasants’ Attitudes towards the Catholic Clergy in the Kingdom of Poland around 1900
Poland has historically been a predominantly peasant and Catholic country, upholding such an image in the opinion of many up till today. Many of the previous studies, from historical, sociological, anthropological and religious studies, e.g. these by Maria Krisa?, Florian Znaniecki, Stefan Czarnowski, Robert Blobaum and Daniel Olszewski, has indicated ... (Show more)
Poland has historically been a predominantly peasant and Catholic country, upholding such an image in the opinion of many up till today. Many of the previous studies, from historical, sociological, anthropological and religious studies, e.g. these by Maria Krisa?, Florian Znaniecki, Stefan Czarnowski, Robert Blobaum and Daniel Olszewski, has indicated that the 19th and early 20th century was a period of important changes in the popular religiosity in the Polish lands. One of the phenomena which changed at this time was the people’s attitude towards the Catholic clergy. Nevertheless, this topic seems to be underresearched and still needs further investigation.
The main thesis of the paper will be that around 1900 a significant shift happened in the peasant public sphere when it comes to attitudes towards clergy – a taboo of publicly criticising the priests was undermined. Arguably, there were three main causes for this. First of them was the Mariavite movement and its eventual schism from the Catholic Church (1906) which caused some of the peasants to look for religious practices outside of Roman Catholicism. Secondly, a popular anticlerical weekly “Zaranie” published its first edition in 1907, causing public outrage in the mainstream Catholic circles and giving a platform to discontent for the behaviour of some of the members of the clergy (on the other hand, it has to be indicated that truthfulness of those accusations is hard to verify). Thirdly, the infamous Macoch affair (1909—1912), which started with a robbery of the preciousness from the Marian chapel in the Jasna Góra monastery in Cz?stochowa, and evolved into an enormous scandal involving the main perpetrator – possibly an Okhrana agent installed in the sanctuary – being publicly convinced for a jail sentence. All these seem to have caused a significant change in the pre-existing taboo of publicly expressing negative opinions about the clergy. Nevertheless, it seems, the vast majority of the peasants maintained a high level of orthodoxically Catholic piety, upheld respect towards the priests and did not opt for more or less breakaway tendencies.
The thesis of the paper will be supported by arguments stemming from all the major contemporary reservoirs of peasant ego-documents: popular newspapers, especially readers’ letters published there, (weekly “Gazeta ?wi?teczna”, the champion of popularity in the Kingdom of Poland at time, and the subversive “Zaranie”, which attracted significant audience in the last years before the First World War) and peasant-migrants’ letters (edited by Florian Znaniecki and William Thomas in their classic sociological work The Polish Peasant in Europe and America). All of them reflect the previously sketched phenomenon. Earlier historiography – especially Znaniecki’s and Thomas’s work and more recent studies by Maria Krisa? – will serve as a theoretical background and source of context for the argued thesis. (Show less)



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