Marking Transitions and Meaning across the Life Course: Older People's Memories of Religious and Secular Ceremonies in Eastern and Western Europe

在西欧，关于过去50年宗教衰落对整个生命过程，尤其是老年人的福祉的影响的辩论越来越多。这些担忧在英国表达得最为强烈。宗教和精神意义的丧失所填补的空白可能没有被世俗的替代品充分填补。前东欧国家为宗教和世俗意识形态的等同提供了有趣的测试案例。​保加利亚和罗马尼亚是邻国的例子，它们有着相似的近代史，但宗教信仰却截然不同。保加利亚的宗教活动明显而持续地减少，但罗马尼亚没有。那些经历了共产主义政权及其解体时期的老年人的记忆，可能为我们提供了重要的证据，证明在生活的关键时刻，社会主义和公民仪式是可以取代宗教仪式的。在这项建议中，我们打算采访来自每个国家的20名老年人，他们是经过精心挑选的，以代表主要的宗教团体以及人口中无神论者和不信教的部分。我们将请他们回忆他们生活中的重要事件，特别是出生、结婚和死亡，以及宗教和世俗仪式和仪式在增强这些事件意义方面的作用。我们还将要求他们反思自20世纪后半叶以来他们在社会生活这一领域所经历的变化，以及宗教和世俗仪式和仪式的减少（在保加利亚和罗马尼亚增加）作用如何影响他们和他们的家庭。这项研究将由口述历史学家和老年学家组成的小组进行，他们将定期开会，设计和协调所有三个国家的数据收集、分析和结果报告。研究结果将在口述历史、老年学和社会科学背景下传播。这个项目将有助于促进在欧洲的口述历史和老年学中被严重忽视的宗教研究，并有望为更具代表性的欧洲研究提供资金。它还应促进老年学家和口述历史学家之间进一步合作，以了解生活质量的决定因素和整个生命周期的调整。

In Western Europe debate has increased about the consequences of religious decline in the last 50 years for well-being across the life course, and particularly in old age. These concerns have been expressed most strongly in the UK. The gap filled by the loss of religious and spiritual meanings may not have been adequately filled by secular alternatives. The former states of Eastern Europe provide interesting test cases for the equivalence of religious and secular ideologies. The communist regimes set up at the end of WWII attempted to subvert religious culture into a socialist one with varying degrees of success. Bulgaria and Romania are examples of neighbouring countries with similar recent histories, but contrasting religiosity. A marked and persisting decline in religious practice took place in Bulgaria but not in Romania. The memories of those older people who lived through the period of communist power and its dissolution provide potentially important evidence on the perceived equivalence of the socialist and civic ceremonies designed to replace religious ritual at key points of life. In this proposal we intend to interview 20 older people from each country, carefully selected to represent the major religious groupings as well as the atheist and non-religious-practising parts of the population. We will ask them to recall the important events of their lives, particularly births, marriages and death, and the role of religious and secular ritual and ceremony in enhancing the meaning of these events. We will also ask them to reflect on the changes that they have experienced in this area of social life since the latter part of the 20th century, and how the decreasing (increasing in Bulgaria and Romania) role of religious and secular ritual and ceremony has affected them and their families. The research will be conducted by a team of oral historians and gerontologists, who will meet regularly to design and coordinate the data collection, analysis and presentation of results in all three countries. The results will be disseminated in oral history, gerontology and social science contexts. This project will help promote the study of religion which has been greatly neglected in oral history and gerontology across in Europe and will hopefully lead to funding of a more representative European study. It should also act as a stimulus to further cooperation between gerontologists and oral historians in understanding the determinants of quality of life and adjustment across the life cycle.