Religion and Language in Post-Soviet Russia [Paperback]

Church Slavonic, one of the world's historic sacred languages, has experienced a revival in post-Soviet Russia. Blending religious studies and sociolinguistics, this is the first book devoted to Church Slavonic in the contemporary period. It is not a narrow study in linguistics, but uses Slavonic as a passkey into various wider topics, including the renewal and factionalism of the Orthodox Church; the transformation of the Russian language; and the debates about protecting the nation from Western cults and culture. It considers both official and popular forms of Orthodox Christianity, as well as Russia's esoteric and neo-pagan traditions.  Ranging over such diverse areas as liturgy, pedagogy, typography, mythology, and conspiracy theory, the book illuminates the complex interrelationship between language and faith in post-communist society, and shows how Slavonic has performed important symbolic work during a momentous chapter in Russian history. It is of great interest to scholars of sociolinguistics and of religion, as well as to Russian studies specialists.

 

1. Introduction  2. Religion, language, religious language  3. Az, buki, vedi: the ABCs of religious literacy  4. Translator, traitor? the debate over liturgical language  5. Logos: Slavonic letterforms and the graphic environment  6. From Marx and Lenin to Cyril and Methodius  7. Scripting Russian history: alphabet mysticism and conspiracy theory 

One of the many virtues of Brian Bennets book is that he views the many changes in Russian society through a rather neglected perspective: the prism of language... The book is an interesting and well written contribution to the literature on religious (and socio-linguistic) developments in present-day Russia. -- Annika Hvithamar, University of Southern Denmark, 2012.

Brian Bennelso