Becoming Orthodox

Women, Religion, and Ethnicity in the American South

Elena V. Kravchenko

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781531513887
  9781531513870
• eBook ISBN:
  9781531513900
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Russian Politics

An exploration of an embodied, practice-centered, and continuous process through which Orthodox Christian women in the American South cultivate a compelling religious womanhood

Becoming Orthodox is a multi-lingual, ethnographic study of two Orthodox Christian communi­ties in the US. Utilizing interview material, participant observation, and participant participation, Kravchenko argues that Russian women who immigrate to the United States and American women who convert to Orthodox Christianity engage with the materiality and visuality of the Orthodox Church to embrace conservative gender roles of a patriarchal tradition in a way that propels them to actively advocate for the equality, freedom, and empowerment of women.

Becoming Orthodox adds a new angle to the literature on the conservative religious women because of its attention to the intersection of religion, gender, and ethnicity. By attending to how Russian immigrant and American convert women—in the midst of their simultaneously sympathetic and antagonistic relationships—made choices about what icons to venerate, what prayers to use, how to dress, what food to cook, and how to raise their children, the book demonstrates that the project of becoming a good Orthodox woman was entangled in the project of defining what it means to be authentically "Russian" and "American." Through performative ethnographic writing, the book illuminates how, in the social context of immigration and conversion, Russian and American women commonly sought to create a place of belonging by constructing meaningful ethno-religious homes and producing their respective Russian Orthodox and (Un)Russo-American Orthodox identities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: Becoming Orthodox as Russian Immigrant and American Convert Women in the American South
• 1. Becoming Orthodox by Building a Church
• 2. Becoming Orthodox in the Sanctuary
• 3. Becoming Orthodox Women in the Kitchen (and Other Spaces)
• 4. Telling Stories of Becoming Orthodox
• 5. Becoming Familiar with the Saints
• 6. Becoming Obedient Advocates for Women
• 7. Disciplining Children into Becoming Orthodox
• Conclusion: Thoughts and Feelings about Ethnography and Orthodox Christianity
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index
• About the Author
• Series Editors