In the Danube Delta, on the border between Romania and Ukraine, a shrinking community of Russian Old BelieversāOrthodox Christians who rejected seventeenth-century religious reforms in Russiaāhas struggled for survival, withdrawn from the world while simultaneously trying to engage with it. Waves of social change, from internal divisions and migrationĀ to external secularization and modernization, have reinforced this community's commitment to the old Orthodox rites and customs, as well as their long-standing conviction that the end times are imminent.
Living in the End Times offers an in-depth ethnographic and historical exploration of theĀ persistence of this community in contemporary Romania. Vlad Naumescu examines theirĀ ways of making history, pursuing continuity, and inscribing their historical experience into aĀ narrative of radical hope.Ā The interwoven life stories of the Old Believers challenge broaderĀ dichotomiesĀ of the secular and the religious, socialist and post-socialist, and continuity andĀ rupture, revealing a community whose obligation to bear the pastĀ sanctifies the present and gives scope to the future.Ā AgainstĀ the threats of spiritual doubt, ritual failure, and lacking priesthood that have definedĀ centuries of religious crisis,Ā Old Belief has already provided its adherents the meansĀ to turn rupture into continuity, loss into creative transformation, and endings intoĀ beginnings. Ā
Living in the End Times reveals how the most orthodox of Eastern Christians became modern by staying true to their faith, inviting us toĀ reconsider the nature of orthodoxy, historicity and modernity.