medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear Colleagues

I am a Russianist researching the development of a term which I believe is
unique to Russian studies and would like to check this with list members.

"Dvoeverie" - "double-belief" or "dual faith" - is a highly influential
concept in Russian Studies, which began to be questioned (inadequate,
illogical, unsound) in the 1990s. Since the 1860s, academics have used it
to describe the conscious or unconscious preservation of pagan beliefs
and/or rituals by Christian communities (generally as a syncretic faith
containing Christian and pagan elements; a form of peasant/female
resistance to elite/patriarchal Christianity; or two independent
belief-systems held concurrently). This concept has coloured academic
perception of Russian medieval (and often modern) spirituality, leading to
a preoccupation with identifying latent paganism in Russian culture. It has
often been considered a specifically Russian phenomenon, with the medieval
origins of the term cited as evidence.

This definition of dvoeverie is supported in part by one text, the eleventh
century Sermon of the Christlover, but its notable absence in other
anti-pagan polemics (including those regularly cited as evidence of
'double-belief'), plus many uses of the word in different contexts, lead
one to conclude that the term was not originally understood in this way.
'Dvoeverie' probably originated as a calque from Greek, via the translated
Nomocanon. While at least six Greek constructions are translated as
dvoeverie or a lexical derivative thereof, the common thread is that of
being 'in two minds'; being unable to decide or agree, or being unable to
perceive the true nature of something. In the majority of these cases,
there is no question of there being two faiths in which the practitioner
believes simultaneously or even alternately, and sometimes no question of
religious faith at all. In other pre-Petrine texts, dvoeverie means
'duplicitous' or 'hypocritical', or relates to an inability or
unwillingness to identify solely with the one, true and Orthodox faith.
Lutherans and those fraternising with Roman Catholics, rather than
semi-converted pagans, were the target of this pejorative epithet.

Is there any Western European equivalent of the term 'dvoeverie' ? Do any
scholars of Western European medieval faith use the term  'double-belief'
as short-hand for elements of popular belief and ritual identified (by
scholar or cleric) as 'pagan'?


Many thanks


*****************************************
Dr Stella Rock
Research Fellow
Arts B
University of Sussex
Brighton  BN1 9QL
Tel: 01273 678837
Fax: 01273 877174
Email:[log in to unmask]
*****************************************

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