Alexander Agadjanian

Invited Researcher of DEA Programme Stay in France: from March 23 to April 26, 2019

Born in Moscow Alexander Agadjanian got PhD in the Institute of Oriental Studies (Russian Academy of Sciences) and then worked as researcher in the same institution; later taught at Arizona State University and then at the Russian State University of the Humanities,  Moscow, where he is now Professor at the Center for the Study of religion (http://religion.rsuh.ru/center-eng/).  He has been at a few international projects studying Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Russia and religious developments in the Caucasus. His field is religion in the modern and today’s world, especially in post-Soviet space but also comparative studies in the sociology of religion. 

The project 

Title: Christian Roots, Plural Society, and Secular Habitus: Russian and French Identitarian Quests Compared

Keywords: Religion, modernity, national and religious identity, former Soviet Union   

Selected publications

Books, edited volumes, and special issues:

  • Religion, Democracy and Nation in the Southern Caucasus. (Co-editor and author). London, Routledge, 2015. doi:10.4324/9781315776804
  • Armenian Christianity Today: Identity Politics and Popular Practice. (Editor and author). Ashgate Publisher, 2014.
  • Turns of Faith, Search for Meaning: Orthodox Christianity and Post-Soviet Experience. Erfurt: Erfurt Studies in Eastern Christianity series: Peter Lang Edition, 2014.  
  • Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Special Issue (edited). Religion, State and Society, Vol. 40 (1), 2012.   
  • Parish and community in Russian Orthodoxy. Current processes against the background of the past century. Moscow: Ves’ mir, 2011 (in Russian).  
  • Laicité: International Experience and its Application in Russia and Eurasia (co-edited), Moscow, 2008 (in Russian)
  • Religious Practices in Today’s Russia (co-edited), Moscow: Novoe Izdatel’stvo, 2006 (in Russian)
  • Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age (co-edited), Walnut Creek etc.: Altamira Press, 2005
  • The Buddhist Way in the 20th Century: Religious Values and Contemporary History of Theravada Nations. Nauka Publishers, Moscow 1993 (in Russian)
  • The Peasant World and the State in Burma. Nauka Publishers, Moscow, 1989 (in Russian)

Articles and Chapters:

  • Религия и русская революция: явные и неявные взаимосвязи. На полях одной Конференции. - Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 36:1, 2018, 336-47 [Religion and Russian Revolution: explicit and implicit relationships. A conference review].
  • Богохульство: дискурсы и практики. (Совместно с М. Майзульсом). – Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 35:2, 2017, 7-14 (Введение в специальный выпуск журнала) [Blasphemy: discourses and practices. An introduction to the special issue].
  • Tradition, Morality and Community: Elaborating Orthodox Identity in Putin's Russia. – Religion, State and Society, Vol 45 (1), 2017, p. 39-60 doi:10.1080/09637494.2016.1272893  
  • От Редакции (Совместно с И. Стародубровской). Введение в специальный выпуск журнала [Editorial. An introduction to a special issue] - Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 35:3, 2017, 7-10.
  • Этнос, нация и религия: научные парадигмы и реальность Южного Кавказа // Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом. 2016, 34 (2), 331-356 [Ethnicity, nation and religion: scientific paradigms and South Caucasian realities].
  • Православный взгляд на современный мир. Контекст, история и смысл соборного документа о миссии Церкви // Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkovv Rossii i za rubezhom, 2016, 34 (1), 255-279 [Orthodox vision of the modern world: context, history and meaning of the All-Orthodox Synodal document on Church          mission].
  • Религия и секуляризм на Кавказе. (Совместно с С. Серрано и Д. Узланером). – Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 34:2 (2016), 7-12
  • Neue Formen der Ostlichen Ortodoxie. – Transit. Europaische Revue, Vol. 47 (Herbst 2015), p. 90-107
  • Vulnerable Post-Soviet Secularities: Patterns and Dynamics in Russia and Beyond.- In: Burchardt, Marian; Wohlrab-Sahr, Monika and Matthias Middell (eds.) Multiple Secularities beyond the West. Religion and Modernity in the Global Age. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, 241-60
  • The Religious Modernity of the Brotherhood: A New Face of Armenian Grassroots Christianity. In: Armenian Christianity Today: Identity Politics and Popular Practice. Ashgate Publisher, 2014, 71-89
  • Ethnicity, Nation and Religion. Current Debates and South Caucasus Realities. – In: Religion, Democracy and Nation in the Southern Caucasus. London, Routledge, 2014, 22-37 doi:10.4324/9781315776804
  • Reform and Revival in Moscow Orthodox Communities: Two Types of Religious Modernity, Archives des sciences sociales de religions, 163 (2013), 75-94
  • Религия и теория: современные тенденции, Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, №3 (31), 2013: 7-31 [Religion and theory: current trends]
  • Russia’s ‘Cursed Issues’, Post-Soviet Religion, and the Endurance of Secular Modernity – In: M. Rosati, K. Stoeckl, eds., Multiple Modernities and Global Post-Secular Society, Ashgate Publisher, 2012, 79-96. 
  • The Russian Orthodox Teaching on Human Rights: Social Cultural Significance and Social Theory Perspective. – In: A. Bruening, E. van der Zweerde, eds. Orthodox Christianity and Human Rights. Leuven: Peeters, 2012, 271-292     
  • Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches in Latin America and Eastern Europe: an Introduction. Religion, State & Society, Vol. 40, Number 1 (March 2012), 3-10
  • Множественные современности, российские ‘проклятые вопросы’ и незыблемость секулярного Модерна, Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, № 1 (30), 2012: 83-110 [Multiple modernities, Russia’s cursed issues, and the endurance of secular modernity].
  • Постсекуляризм: контуры новой гуманитарной парадигмы. - Гуманитарные чтения РГГУ – 2011: Теория и методология гуманитарного знания. Общественные функции гуманитарных наук. Россиеведение. Гуманитарное знание и образование : сб. материалов. Рос. гос. гуманитарный ун-т. - М. : РГГУ, 2012. - С. 151-162 [Postsecularism: a new paradigm in the humanities].
  • Буддизм в глобальную эпоху. В: Философия буддизма: энциклопедия. Российская академия наук, Ин-т философии. - М. : Восточная литература, 2011- С. 46-56 [Buddhism in the global era in: Philosophy of Buddhism: an Encyclopedia].
  • The Anglican Archbishop, the Russian Patriarch, and the Global Debate on Religion and Secularity. European University Institute: Religiowest Project: http://www.eui.eu/Projects/ReligioWest/Documents/conferencePapers/  (2011)
  • Приход и община в русском православии. Современные процессы в ретроспективе
  • последнего столетия. – А. Агаджанян, К. Русселе, ред. Приход и община в современном православии: Корневая система российской религиозности. Москва: Весь мир, 2011, 15-36 [Parish and community in Russian Orthodoxy. Current processes against the background of the past century].
  • Реформа и возрождение в двух московских православных субкультурах: два
  • способа сделать Православие «современным». – Ibid, p. 255-76 [Reform and revival in two Moscow Orthodox communities: forms of Russian religious modernity]. 
  • Exploring Russian Religiosity as a Source of Morality Today. – In Jarrett Zigon, ed. Multiple Moralities and Religion in Post-Soviet Russia. Berghahn Books, 2011. 
  • Liberal Individual and Christian Culture: Russian Orthodox Teaching on Human Rights in Social Theory Perspective, Religion, State and Society, vol.38, no. 2 (June 2010), 97-113
  • Individual and Collective Identities in Russian Orthodoxy, co-authored with K. Rousselet, in C. Hann, G. Holtz, eds., Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective, University of California Press, 2010, 265-279
  • Eastern Christianities, chapter in: Routledge Encyclopedia: The World's Religions: Continuities and Transformations, Routledge, 2008, p. 189-206
  • Индивидуализация религии и возвращение великого мифа: частная и публичная религия в России. – Агаджанян А., Русселе К., ред. Laicité: Мировой опыт и его применение в России и Евразии. Москва, 2008
  • In difesa dell’universalitàe dell’individualismo. Riposta ad Adam Seligman, - Daimon, Vol. 7, 2007, p. 239-254
  • Why and How Study Russian Religious Practices? Co-authored with K. Rousselet, in A. Agadjanian and K. Rousselet, eds., Religious Practices in Today’s Russia, Moscow: Novoe Izdatel’stvo, 2006
  • The Search for Privacy and the Return of a Grand Narrative: Religion in a Post Communist Society, Social Compass, vol. 53 (2006), 169-184. doi:10.1177/0037768606064318
  • Eastern Orthodoxy in the Global Age: Preliminary Considerations (co-authored with V.Roudometof). In:  V. Roudometof, A. Agadjanian and J. Pankhurst, eds., Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age, Walnut Creek etc.: Altamira Press, 2005, 1-26
  • Globalization and Identity Discourse in Russian Orthodoxy (co-authored with K.Rousselet). In: V. Roudometof, A. Agadjanian and J. Pankhurst, eds., Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age, Walnut Creek etc. : Altamira Press, 2005, 29-57.
  • Pourquoi et comment etudier les pratiques religieuses en Russie? (co-authored with K. Rousselet), Revue d’Etudes Comparatives East/Ouest, vol. 36, decembre 2005, Paris, p. 5-17
  • Dharma and Empire: Foundations and Limits of the Sacralization of Power in Buddhist Political Tradition. A Chapter in D. Bondarenko, A. Korotaev, eds., Sacralization of Power in the History of Civilizations, 2005, Vol. 2, 149-180 (in Russian).
  • Buddhism and Globalization. Chapter in: A. Malashenko, S. Filatov, eds. Religion and Globalization in Post-Soviet Eurasia. Moscow, Carnegie Center – Moscow, 2004, 222-55  (in Russian).
  • Religions Between Universal and Particular: Eastern Europe After 1989. In S. Saha, ed. Religious Fundamentalism in the Contemporary World: Critical Social and Political Issues. Lanham etc.: Lexington Books, 2004, p. 71-90
  • Breakthrough to Modernity, Apologia for Traditionalism: the Russian Orthodox View of Society and Culture in Comparative Perspective. – Religion, State and Society, vol. 31, #4 (Winter), 2003, 327-46.
  • The Social Vision of Russian Orthodoxy: Balancing Between Identity and Relevance. In: J. Sutton, W. van der Bercken, eds. Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Europe, Peeters Publishers, Leiden, 2003, 163-182.
  • The Public Religion in Russia and the Search for National Ideology. Journal for the Social Scientific Study of Religion. Vol.40, no.3 (September 2001), p.351-365
  • Revising Pandora’s Gifts: Religious and National Identities in Post-Soviet Societies. Europe-Asia Studies. Vol. 53, no.3, p.472-488 (May 2001)
  • Religious Pluralism and National Identity in Russia. International Journal on Multicultural Societies, vol.2, #2 (2000), www.unesco.org/shs/ijms/vol2/issue2.
  • Southeast Asia: A History of Ideas in the 20th Century. Introduction. In: Ideas and Ideologies in Southeast Asia at the Turn of the Century, edited by I. Podberezsky (In Russian). Nauka Publishers. (2001).
  • Buddhist Hermeneutics of Karma and Nirvana: A Sociology of Religious Reform. In: Ideas and Ideologies in Southeast Asia by the End of the Century, edited by I.Podberezsky (in Russian). Nauka Publishers. (2001).
  • Religious Minorities During Russia’ s Transition from Atheism to Secularism. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion. Ed. by J. Greer and D. Moberg. Vol.11, (2000) p. 65-79.
  • Russian Religion in Media Discourse: Entropy Interlude in Ideocratic Tradition. In: Matti Kotiranta, ed. Religious Transition in Russia. Helsinki: Aleksanteri Institute (2000): 251-286.
  • Entropy, Symphony, Ideocracy: Religion in Russian Print Media. In: D. Furman and K.Kaariainen, eds. Old Churches, New Believers. Moscow: Letnii Sad, 2000 In Russian).
Published at 4 April 2019