Sacralizing Ethnos: “Conversions” to Ethnoreligiosity in Eastern Europe

Radical entwinements of identity, politics, and religion rising from the ruins of socialist projects in Eastern Europe have added darker nuances to the terminology of “conversion.” It is this phenomenon that the chapter explores as the mobilization of religious resources on behalf of political formations based on national or civilizational supremacism. In particular, a slippage of laos (the universal Christian community) into ethnos (the particular ethnic group), often overseen and validated by church institutions, has led to a justification of state violence and warmaking. This chapter, cowritten by a theologian and an anthropologist, posits that this process necessitates a renewed understanding of religion innervated by interdisciplinary dialogue between the social sciences and theology. Drawing on post-Yugoslav and post-Soviet examples, it advances the concept of “ethnoreligiosity” to illuminate some of the most concerning dynamics shaping post-socialist Eastern Europe and explore the religious dimensions of past (if lingering) conflicts in the Balkans and current (if deep-rooted) conflict in Russia/Ukraine. By analyzing conversion as the sacralization of ethnonational identities, this chapter offers insight into the revival of political religions, with its ethical implications and consequences for global security.