The Social Nature of Prayer in a Church of the Unchurched: Russian Orthodox Christianity from Its Edges

Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 2018. Vol. 86. No. 2. P. 393–424.

Kormina J., Luehrmann S.

The Russian Orthodox Church portrays itself as a hierarchically ordered and socially influential “public religion,” but occupies quite a tenuous position in contemporary Russian society. Following Marcel Mauss’s idea of prayer as a social phenomenon, we argue that lay intercessory prayer as a way of assuming social responsibility is key to extending the Church’s reach into the lives of casual believers (so-called zakhozhane). Although individualization of religious practice does occur in post-Soviet Russia, contemporary Russian Orthodox prayer is less about personal self-cultivation than about claiming and exercising competence within interpersonal networks. The notion of prayer as practical competence helps to understand the role of lay prayer in a clerically dominated church, and explains the enduring role of established, mainstream denominations as ambient faith in a secular society.

Keywords: марсель мосс, religious practices, религиозные практики, anthropology of religion, антропология религии, постсоветское православие, prayer, молитва, Marcel Mauss