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Andrey TiukhtiaevOn November 15–16, the European University in St Petersburg hosted the annual conference Exhibition of Academic Research Achievements. This event, which has already become a tradition, is intended to demonstrate what kind of research is currently being conducted at the European University and to discuss the results. The Center for Anthropology of Religion once again organized its own session devoted to the problems of faith and doubt in religious and ritual practices. The interest to this issue stems fromthe fact that modern processes of de-secularization form complex and sometimescontradictory configurations of ideas about cause-and-effect relationsunderlying different phenomena. Academic discourse competes with the conceptsof “alternative history” or conspiracy logic, while atheistic reasoningcompetes with religious ones. Such competition can be observed not only inpublic discourse, but also within individual epistemological trajectories.Anthropologists, in turn, are interested not so much in the status of suchbeliefs in their relationship to “reality” and “authenticity”, but rather in thepragmatics and social consequences of those narrative genres and practices thatdemonstrate reflection over competing perspectives.At the same time, these perspectivesdo not always change and exclude each other. Anthropologists Mathijs Pelkmans,Tanya Luhrmann, Vlad Naumescu and others study the mechanisms that form beliefsand show the functionality of doubts in the cycles of faith, belief and doubt.We decided to continue this discussion by addressing various manifestations ofreflection in religious communities and cultures, where knowledge of thesupernatural/transcendent is relevant, as well as the forms of religiouspractices that are characterized by playfulness and irony.Ülo Valk, professor of the University of Tartu, in his talk “The Supernatural and the Social: Entanglements and Uncertainties”, noted that beliefs related to the supernatural have not disappeared due to secularization, but have become an integral part of the public space. In particular, this is evidenced by the urban folklore presented in magazines and newspapers and TV shows. In this respect, modern mass culture does not differ much from premodern societies, and the rationalization of life has its significant limitations. There are many works that criticizethe concept of “disenchantment of the world” referring to similar materials andarguments. However, during the discussion, Alexander Panchenko, director of theCenter for the Anthropology of Religion, proposed to think about how productivethe category of supernatural is and whether we should find an alternative term.The main drawback of this concept is that the only characteristic of thebeliefs it denotes is the reference to the existence of inhuman or, at least,not quite human entities and creatures. In this regard, according to AlexanderPanchenko, it would be more productive to develop a theoretical apparatus thatwould explain the attractiveness of such beliefs. One of the ways in this caseis to borrow the ideas of cognitive religious studies, the representatives ofwhich are looking for the basis of religious and quasi-religious thinking inthe human cognitive mechanisms. In his presentation, AlexanderPanchenko applied a historical perspective to explain the popularity offolklore images of fairytale in contemporary New Age movements, which areconsidered to be closely related to the real world. Using materials collectedin the Last Testament Church in the Krasnoyarsk krai, Panchenko draws agenealogical line between the fairytales of the followers of this new religiousmovement, disciplinary practices of the community, and pedagogy and moraldiscourse of the late Soviet state.Svetlana Tambovtseva, a postgraduatestudent at the European University, talked about the images of the past, inparticular about the legacy of Alexander Pushkin in modern esoteric movements.Contemporary esotericism in Russia is often characterized by patriotic andconservative ideas. Therefore, the corpus of national literature becomes asource of hidden meanings for people interested in New Age science. Among suchactivities, amateur literary criticism is especially significant, in theframework of which key authors of Russian literature, such as AlexanderPushkin, are endowed with unique and sometimes mystical abilities. Asignificant figure of national literature is thus turned into a prophet.Svetlana drew attention to the importance of the discourse of mystery inWestern esotericism. She emphasized that the creation of secrets is becoming animportant symbolic resource for amateur linguistics and literary criticism. Ekaterina Khonineva from the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences focused in her presentation on Catholic traditionalism in Russia. Traditionalist communities are usually expected to be consistent and serious about their beliefs. However, in the case of Russian Catholic traditionalists, one can often observe how their passion for the Trident mass and criticism of the new rite (novus ordo) acquire features of playfulness. The irony over one's own conservatism, doubts about the authenticity of religious experience, and the cultivation of “conservative”  habits of dress and behavior – all these things unite the members of such communities and sometimes resemble a role-playing game (for the traditionalists themselves as well as for outsiders). Such a regime of religiosity usually refers to those believers who avoid regular parish life and tend to combine ideas from different religions and traditions, which anthropologists of religion Simon Coleman and John Elsner call “ironic” approach, contrasting it with “canonical” one. In the case of traditionalist Catholics in Russia, it turns out that their behavior, despite their commitment to a stationary form of religiosity and conservative attitudes, is much closer to the “ironic” approach. The role of irony and doubts in religious traditionalism were also discussed in the presentation of Andrei Tiukhtiaev, a research assistant at the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He focused on the organizers of a recreational center in Krasnodar Krai driven by an attempt to revive traditions of the ancient Slavs. However, traditional beliefs easily go with the doubt about the very possibility to reconstruct the past. This retreat center called “Ascension” (Восхождение) is a popular tourist attraction, which has a seasonal tent camping, as well as sites for mass events. The residents of this center, united by the desire to follow the “traditions of their ancestors”, become part of a common traditionalist performance during this kind of pilgrimage. However, the organizers of the center, expressing primarily their conviction in the traditional beliefs and practices, may also have doubts about the very possibility of discovering the “true” tradition. This evidence suggests that the examination of religiosity should not be based only on beliefs and ways of identification, but also on data about the involvement of people in certain practices. The alternation of faith and doubts is common in different religious cultures, as was being demonstrated through the differing contexts of New Age spirituality and Catholicism at the conference.The combination of play, faith and doubt was also a key issue in Angelina Kozlovskaia’s presentation from the European University, which was based on children’s play and communication about the supernatural. Children’s folklore related to belief in the existence of supernatural beings, sometimes shifts from a narrative mode to a regime of actualization, as a result, turning into a play in real time. At the same time, confidence in the existence of supernatural agents capable of causing harm to people is combined with doubts about their reality. This tension makes the play a play, but there is also a desire to become a non-play, to turn stories into ontological reality. This desire for non-play gives rise to anxiety and fear in children, but it also destroys the play, making those who believe in the existence of, for example, The Queen of Spades, scared for real.Front picture: At the Conference on Faith and Play © European University, St Petersburg, 2019This blogpost in Russian