EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY AS ANTHROPOLOGICAL OBJECT: CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY AS ANTHROPOLOGICAL OBJECT: CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I propose a model for understanding Eastern Orthodox Christianity (EOC) as object of anthropological understanding drawing mainly on Talal Asad’s notion of “tradition”. I present the conceptual and methodological advantages of such a standpoint by questioning scholarly and more general public views on the reconfiguration of EOC in post-socialist Romania, and single out the institutionalist perspective as being mainly responsible for an impoverished understanding of EOC. The anthropological approach opens up new conceptual and methodological avenues to what I called “the Orthodox complex space”. Moreover, this new conceptualization enables fresh fields for ethnographic endeavor.

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