Orthodox Christian Material Ecology and the Sociopolitics of Religion (Renewal)

目标：这个项目的问题是：物质生态在塑造全球东正教的社会政治中扮演了什么角色？影响：东正教是一种基于话语的传统，但很少有研究关注它是如何运作的。专注于话语也往往会过度强调文字和信念。基于马克斯·穆勒的工作，这个项目坚持认为宗教必须从所感知的东西开始，而不是从信仰超自然之类的概念开始。这意味着我们把话语传统放在当地和全球人口的物质文化中，而不是放在概念上。这重塑了我们对宗教的理解，并预见了宗教实践对健康、环境和地缘政治等物质方面的影响。上下文：社会科学对宗教的兴趣着眼于生活在一个地方的宗教与另一个地方相比的差异。然而，有一段时间--例如从2018年4月乌克兰总统要求君士坦丁堡大主教干预乌克兰的俄罗斯教会--宗教不能只用当地语言来研究。当地东正教教会和当地对共同宗教遗产的理解，以及构成这些遗产的建筑物、土地和机构之间的历史紧张关系，使乌克兰正在进行的冲突变得更加复杂。研究：这个项目以三个研究领域为框架，聚焦于全球东正教社会政治的物质条件，在东正教基督徒和宗教机构中进行研究。该项目调查了物质生态(包括身体、建筑环境和更广泛的“自然”秩序)的属性和负担是如何形成的，并在东正教的论述中进行了编排。这一扩展侧重于将心理健康、慈善管理和治理作为前三个领域(身体、人和环境)的扩展，以进一步推动研究结果，并磨练理论和方法。精神健康领域着眼于目前的努力，将对人的心理洞察带入教会的实践中，以解决宗教社区中的精神健康危机。古代对人的神学理解和现代科学见解之间的紧张关系促使人们不断努力整合可能的东西，同时又不会失去精神传统所提供的丰富性，而精神传统本身强调的是一种整体的健康方法。慈善行政和金融领域采用历时和共时的方法，处理在联合王国建立各种东正教司法管辖区所依据的不同种族和历史条件。随着不同的移民潮抵达英国，移民们以不同的方式组成了散居海外的教堂，以满足他们的宗教和更广泛的社会需求。这一领域着眼于英国慈善法和教会法律之间的紧张关系，这些法律涉及适当的教会秩序，以及资金管理的道德和关于慈善/教会管理的决策方式。政策与治理的最后一个领域集中于不同的地方教会--例如在英国、希腊、俄罗斯、塞浦路斯、叙利亚和尼日利亚--如何相互联系，以及这些教会如何与自己的政府以及其他外国政府(通常代表受迫害的教会)相关。输出：这个项目将产生三本学术书籍，六篇学术文章，以及-通过与当地教会慈善机构的合作-政策指南和工具包，以帮助解决与前两个研究领域相关的问题。

Aims: This project asks 'What role does the material ecology play in shaping the sociopolitics of Global Orthodoxy?' and in this renewal period pushes this into less obviously material domains of mental health, administration and politics.Impact: Orthodox Christianity is a tradition based on discourse, but there has been very little research looking at the specifics of how that works. Focusing on discourse also tends to over emphasise words and belief. Based on the work of Max Muller, this project insists that religion must start with what is perceived, not with concepts such as belief in the supernatural. This means we situate discursive traditions not in concepts but the material culture of local and global populations. This reframes how we understand religion and forefronts the impact that religious practice has on material aspects like health, the environment and geopolitics.Context: Social scientific interest in religion looks at the variation in the lived religion from one place, compared to another. However there are periods of time - such as from April 2018, after the president of Ukraine asked the Patriarch of Constantinople to intervene in the Russian Church in Ukraine - when religion cannot be studied only in the local expression. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is complicated by historic tensions between local Orthodox Churches and local understandings of shared religious heritage and the buildings, land and bodies that make up that carry that heritage. The materiality of discourse must be seen as central to the form and practice of any given tradition.Research: Framed in terms of three research domains, this project focuses on the material conditions of Global Orthodox sociopolitics, conducting research amongst Orthodox Christians and religious institutions. The project investigates how the properties and affordances of the material ecology (including the body, the built environment, and the wider 'natural' order) shape and are marshalled within the discourse of the Orthodox Churches. This extension focuses on mental health, charity administration and governance as extensions of the previous three domains (the body, the person and the environment) in order to push the findings further and hone the theoretical and methodological approach. The mental health domain looks at current efforts to bring psychological insights about the human person into the practice of the Church in order to address the mental health crisis amongst religious communities. The tension between ancient theological understandings of the person and modern scientific insights gives rise to ongoing efforts to integrate what can be without losing the richness offered by the spiritual tradition that, itself, emphasises a wholistic approach to health. The charity administration and finance domain takes a diachronic and synchronic approach to the diverse ethnic and historical conditions by which the various Orthodox jurisdictions came to be established in the United Kingdom. As different immigration waves arrived in the UK, migrants formed 'diaspora' churches in different ways in order to meet their religious and wider social needs. This domain looks at the tensions between charity law in the UK and the church law concerning proper church order, as well as the ethics of money management and the ways decisions about charity/Church administration are made. The final domain, of policy and governance focuses on how different local Churches - for example in the UK, Greece, Russia, Cyprus, Syria, and Nigeria - relate to each other and how these Churches relate to their own governments and, often on the behalf of persecuted Churches, other foreign governments.Output: This project will produce three academic books, six academic articles, and - through partnership with the local Church charities - policy guidelines and toolkits to help address the issues relating to the first two research domains.