A Review of J. V. Kormina, Palomniki: etnograficheskie ocherki pravoslavnogo nomadizma [Pilgrims: Ethnographic Sketches of Orthodox Nomadism]. Moscow: HSE Publishing House, 2019, 349 pp.

Abstract

This book draws attention to Orthodox religiosity in contemporary Russia as a lived religion beyond church buildings and the Church as an institution. The study approaches the topic from an innovative theoretical frame of religious nomadism and analyses such phenomena as pilgrimages, sacred sites, saints, and the Orthodox fairs. The book collects some of the main findings and theoretical insight from Jeanne Kormina’s long experience in ethnographic fieldwork among Russian Orthodox Christians and is a welcome contribution to research on vernacular Orthodoxy in contemporary Russia.