Who sets the meaning of church life? The priests' vision of “churchliness”
in the perspective of the sociology of parish communities
The article raises the question of the conceptual boundaries of sociological research on Orthodox religiosity in Russia. It analyses the enduring disparity between two well-established approaches: the macrosociology of 'generalised religiosity', which centres on individual practices and self-identification; and the sociology of church communities, which examines the local interactions between priests and laypeople. It is shown that, within the first approach, the role of the clergy is systematically excluded from the conceptualization and operationalization of churchliness, despite increasing empirical evidence of their significant role in running social mechanisms within parish life. A “blind spot” in the sociology of religion remains a lack of understanding of the vision of churchliness from the priest’s perspective. Drawing on data from two focus groups comprising 14 parish priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, divided according to age and length of ordination, this article reconstructs the collective vision of church life proposed by the clergy. The article reconstructs such a collective vision of churchliness proposed by the clergy based on the materials of two focus groups with the participation
of 14 parish priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, divided by age and ordination experience. It was revealed that for priests, the key signs of churchliness are not formal indicators (frequency of church attendance, communion), but poorly formalized qualities in sociology – embeddedness in the rhythm of church life, church thinking, inner attitude to church life, etc. Priests are skeptical about the very possibility of quantifying church life. The development of research on parish communities requires a vision of churchliness on the part of those who launch church life in one way or another. The possibilities of operationalizing and measuring this vision can become a perspective task and a definite challenge for the sociology of religion.
Pavlyutkin, I. V. (2026), “Who sets the meaning of church life? The priests' vision of “churchliness” in the perspective of the sociology of parish communities”, Research Result. Sociology and Management, 12 (3), 289-300. DOI: 10.18413/2408-9338-2026-12-3-1-8.
While nobody left any comments to this publication.
You can be first.
Alekseeva, P. A. (2023), “The connection between religiosity and value-normative ideas about marriage: the view of Russian married youth”, Mir Rossii, 32(3), 119-144, DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2023-32-3-119-144, EDN: FEENOM. (In Russian)
Emelyanov, N., Yudin, G. (2018), “The structural position of a priest in gift exchange systems”, Russian Sociological Review, 17(3), 9-29, DOI: 10.17323/1728-192X-2018-3-9-29, EDN: YNNFKX. (In Russian)
Emelyanov, N. N. (2018), “The paradox of religiosity: where do believers come from?”, Monitoring of public opinion: Economic and social changes, (2(144)), 32-48, DOI: 10.14515/monitoring.2018.2.02, EDN: XOFYDJ. (In Russian)
Emelyanov, N. N. (2019), “The importance of the family of an Orthodox priest in pastoral ministry: a theological approach”, St. Tikhon's University Review. Series 1: Theology. Philosophy. Religious Studies, (82), 34-50, DOI: 10.15382/sturI201982.34-50, EDN: DGQUMU. (In Russian)
Vrublevskaya, P. V. (2015), “Exploring a church community in a small town: the role of the priest and other aspects of Orthodox community”, Laboratorium, (3), 129-144, EDN: WMUDYX. (In Russian).
Vrublevskaya, P. V. (2025), “Orthodox parish in sociological perspective: echo of theory within the walls of empirics”, Puti Rossii, 3(1), 43-57, EDN: VXWQGF. (In Russian)
Zabaev, I. V., Oreshina, D. A., Prutskova, E. V. (2012), Tri moskovskikh prikhoda: osnovnye sotsialno-demograficheskie pokazateli i ustanovki predstaviteley obshhin krupnykh prikhodov [Three Moscow parishes: basic socio-demographic indicators and attitudes of parishioners of large parishes], Moscow, Russia, ISBN: 978-5-7429-0750-3, EDN: TFSQZL. (In Russian)
Zabaev, I., Elagina, V. (2025), “Orthodox church community: individualism, humility, justice”, Russian Sociological Review, 24(2), 137-163, DOI: 10.17323/1728-192x-2025-2-137-163, EDN: BURVAP. (In Russian)
Kublitskaya, E. A., Nazarov, M. M. (2019), “Dynamics of religiosity in modern Russia (based on research in the capital region)”, Vestnik Rossiyskoy Akademii Nauk, 89(11), 1120-1127, DOI: 10.31857/S0869-587389111120-1127, EDN: RNDVMC. (In Russian)
Kublitskaya, E. A., Lebedev, S. D. (2019), “Religious situation in the Belgorod region (monitoring studies)”, Sotsialno-Gumanitarnye Znaniya, (6), 160-180, EDN: KFNWNN. (In Russian)
Lebedev, S. D. (2005), “Religiosity: in search of the 'Rubicon'”, Sotsiologicheskiy Zhurnal, (3), 153-168, EDN: PCNLXZ. (In Russian)
Lebedev, S. D., Sukhorukov, V. V. (2013), “A narrow path to wrong place?”, Sotsiologicheskie Issledovaniya, 1, 118-126, EDN: PMKWKP. (In Russian)
Lebedev, S. D. (2020), “Virtualization of Religious Communities as a Key Tool to Understanding the Evolution of Sociological Concepts of Religiosity”, Concept: philosophy, religion, culture, 4 (3), 85-104, DOI: 10.24833/2541-8831-2020-3-15-85-104, EDN: WNOTCA. (In Russian)
Oreshina, D. A. (2016), “Partner parish: cooperation of clergy and laity as a factor in the development of social activities in modern parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church”, St. Tikhon's University Review. Series 1: Theology. Philosophy. Religious Studies, (5(67)), 99-120, DOI: 10.15382/sturI201667.99-120, EDN: WVPLAF. (In Russian)
Oreshina, D. A., Vrublevskaya, P. V., Zabaev, I. V., Pavlyutkina, E. L. (2018), «Partnerskiy prikhod»: Sotrudnichestvo svyashhennikov i miryan v razvitii sotsialnoy deyatelnosti v prikhodakh RPTs v nachale XXI veka [Partner parish: cooperation of priests and laity in the development of social activities in parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the early 21st century], St. Tikhon's University Press, Moscow, Rusia. (In Russian)
Prikhod i obshhina v sovremennom pravoslavii: kornevaya sistema rossiyskoy religioznosti Parish and community in modern Orthodoxy: the root system of Russian religiosity] (2011), ed. by Agadjanian, A., Rousselet, K., Moscow, Russia. (In Russian)
Prutskova, E. (2012), “Operationalization of the concept of religiosity in empirical research”, State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide, (2(30)), 268-293, EDN: PIHQHV. (In Russian)
Prutskova, E. V., Markin, K. V. (2017), “Typology of Orthodox Russians: the problem of constructing a generalized indicator of religiosity”, Sociological Studies, (8), 95-105, DOI: 10.7868/S0132162517080116, EDN: ZGOXSX. (In Russian)
Prutskova, E. V. (2013), “Religiosity and its consequences in the value-normative sphere”, Sotsiologicheskiy Zhurnal, (2), 72-88, EDN: QIXFRZ. (In Russian)
Prutskova, E. V., Baykov, M. D., Pavlov, N. M. (2024), “Family and community: intergenerational transmission of religiosity in parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church”, Research Result. Sociology and Management, 10(4), 50-63, DOI: 10.18413/2408-9338-2024-10-4-0-3, EDN: DKEDGQ. (In Russian)
Sinelina, Yu. Yu. (2001), “On criteria for determining the religiosity of the population”, Sociological Studies, (7), 89-99. (In Russian)
Sinelina, Yu. Yu. (2013), “On the dynamics of religiosity of Russians and some methodological problems of its study (religious consciousness and behavior of Orthodox and Muslims)”, Sociological Studies, (10), 104-115, EDN: RDRNXB. (In Russian)
Filatov, S. B., Lunkin, R. N. (2005), “Statistics of Russian religiosity: the magic of numbers and ambiguous reality”, Sociological Studies, (6), 35-45, EDN: OOUKPB. (In Russian)
Chesnokova, V. F. (2005), Tesny`m putem. Protsess votserkovleniya naseleniya Rossii v kontse XX veka [The narrow path: the process of churching of the Russian population at the end of the 20th century], Akademicheskiy Proekt, Moscow, Russia. (In Russian)
Prutskova, E. V. (2021), “Social vs. individual centrality of religiosity: research in religious and non-religious settings in Russia”, Religions, 12(15), 1-18.
the author would like to thank the participants of the roundtable discussion “Churchliness and its Limits”, organized by the Laboratory for the Study of Church Institutions at St Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities, for their comments on the report that served as the basis for this article.