ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Orthodox permanencies, changes or recompositions in the circulation of the vertical gift between the divine and the human worlds, in the context of migration to a secular society. The evacuation of transcendent references from human and social life – the chief aspect of secularization according to the Orthodox point of view – is depicted as something unambiguously negative by all Orthodox, independent of their “liberal”, “progressive” or “conservative” orientation. When the community that embodies a particular gift exchange system perceives obstacles to its perpetuation, they develop ways to adapt it so as to allow its survival (recompositions of the gift). For example, there is, on the one hand, a tendency to protect the gift by trying to reproduce an ideal version of it (the Orthodox ethos before communism, or the monastic model of being in the world without belonging to or identifying with the world); on the other hand, an attempt to espouse those elements of secularity that appear least threatening (as a consequence of cultural and institutional integration), and to adapt the religious institution and recode its role in the gift system. In the case of individuals, the chapter analyzes some transformations of highly important devotional acts such as individual and collective worship, fasting and confession and identifies those elements that are recoded so as to make these practices compatible with the contemporary ethos of choice, authenticity and self-fulfillment.
