Transnational Ways of Life, Secularization and Sects. Interpreting Novel Religious Phenomena of the Moldavian Csángó Villages Cover Image

Câteva elemente ale schimbării perspectivei religioase: secularizarea, transnaţionalismul şi adoptarea sectelor în satele de ceangăi din Moldova
Transnational Ways of Life, Secularization and Sects. Interpreting Novel Religious Phenomena of the Moldavian Csángó Villages

Author(s): Lehel Peti
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Politics and religion, Sociology of Culture, Social Norms / Social Control, Sociology of Religion
Published by: ISPMN Institutul pentru Studierea Problemelor Minorităţilor Naţionale
Keywords: Transnational Ways of Life; Secularization; Religious Phenomena; Moldova; Csángó Villages; Tradition;
Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to describe phenomena of modernization in Moldavian Csango villages in the context of religiosity. It interprets the most significant shifts in the life forms and traditional religiosity, the change of central values, tendencies of secularization and the emergence of sectarianism. The author argues that the religious experience gradually evades community and (Church) legitimation, so that the ever-larger individualization of religious experiences and conceptualization leads to the pluralization of worldviews. The impersonalization of social control, the changing norms that affect everyday life, the role change of religious values, the individualization of communities, basically the transforming forces of modernization on society disable the catholic church to fully integrate the Csango village population, who in rising numbers attend new teachings that offer an updated worldview, as well as a brand new set of community/religious norms. The author argues, that sectarianism/sectarianization is a part of modernizational strategies, and that as a consequence of transnational life forms, sects have become part of social mobility.

  • Page Count: 49
  • Publication Year: 2009
  • Language: English, Romanian