Description: Armenian Christianity Today examines contemporary religious life and the social, political, and cultural functions of religion in the post-Soviet Republic of Armenia and in the Armenian Diaspora worldwide. Scholars from a range of countries and disciplines explore current trends and everyday religiosity, particularly within the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), and amongst Armenian Catholics, Protestants and vernacular religions.
Review Quotes: 'Armenia provides one of the most fascinating instances of the seeming fusion of nation and church, and contemporary Armenia combines a post-Soviet desecularisation, especially with regard to public space and building, with an internal secularisation by national sentiment. This study of both the homeland and the numerically larger diaspora provides a rich and subtle sociological commentary on the myths and the realities.' David Martin, Fellow of the British Academy and Professor Emeritus of Sociology, London School of Economics, UK 'Armenian Christianity Today contains glimpses of the complex mosaic of the present-day Armenian religious worldview and practices. Christianity, adopted far back in time, and often perceived as a stable ethno-religion, is discussed in its multifaceted and multifunctional manifestations: from identity-preserving, social-political and transnational functions to parallel realities of folk Christianity.' Levon Abrahamian, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia 'This book in an important resource for anyone interested in the paradoxes of desecularisation in the countries of the some time Soviet bloc and for the debates over nationalism and religion associated with major scholars like Anthony Smith.' Journal of Contemporary Religion