Based on several years of ethnographic research in Armenia and recent anthropological literature on religion as a sensual and material phenomenon, Konrad Siekierski discusses how Gospel Books (and some other religious texts) make visible the invisible, touchable the untouchable, and – ultimately – reachable the unreachable for Armenian Christians today. He also explores the Armenian veneration of home saints in the context of Soviet and post-Soviet Armenia’s changing socio-political landscape, the decay of traditional village life in the country, and the theft of many privately owned Gospel Books
Based on several years of ethnographic research in Armenia and recent anthropological literature on religion as a sensual and material phenomenon, Konrad Siekierski discusses how Gospel Books (and some other religious texts) make visible the invisible, touchable the untouchable, and – ultimately – reachable the unreachable for Armenian Christians today. He also explores the Armenian veneration of home saints in the context of Soviet and post-Soviet Armenia’s changing socio-political landscape, the decay of traditional village life in the country, and the theft of many privately owned Gospel Books