Orthodox Christianity and New Age beliefs among university students of Russia: a case of post-communist mixed religiosity.

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the social phenomenon of mixed religiosity of university students in post-Soviet Russia. Results for this research are based on face-to-face interviews conducted under the direction of the Author among a sample of 323 Russian university students, between 18 up to 25 years of age. Nearly 68% of the respondents stated that they believe in God, however a religious faith comes second to last in the list of the 14 most important life values. As little as 4% of those respondents can be attributed to a ‘practicing believers’ group. We argue that this gap between practicing Orthodox believers and self-proclaimed believers among Russian students might be explained in terms of uninstitutionalized forms of religion and mixed religiosity. Mixed religiosity is a combination of different elements of religious concepts and practices, it is typical for postmodern secularized Europe. In case of Russia another important factor for a phenomenon of mixed religiosity is a lack of continuous religious tradition during the Soviet era. In contrast to the 90s of the XX century, in present Russian society there is much public discussion on corruption and bureaucracy in the Russian Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, Orthodox Christianity is still regarded primarily as an ethnic and cultural channel of identification by young generation.