Conference paper
https://doi.org/10.17234/SEC.37.5
Churches between Mimicry and Syncretism
Andrej Pleterski
Abstract
The self-image of victorious Christianity, which, according to its own conviction, had already erased the old faith of our ancestors many centuries ago, has set a suggestive and solid framework for our expectations of what to see. Vitomir Belaj has provided an example that can be used to view things differently. Slovaks went to the Church of Perun! This is in line with recent findings that the Old-Faith Believers were secretly preserved throughout Europe. The article presents examples of how church buildings could be included in the spiritual life of the Old-Faith Believers. These are examples of mimicry and syncretism. The history of churches is therefore more than evidently also part of the history of the Old-Faith. Christianity’s victory was only apparent and Pyrrhic.
Keywords
Old-Faith Believers; churches; mimicry; syncretism; Europe; Middle Ages; Modern Age; Slavic religion; Christianization
Hrčak ID:
342878
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2025.
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