Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Orthodox Icons and Cosmonaut Exemplars: Which Way to Heaven?

Orthodox Icons and Cosmonaut Exemplars: Which Way to Heaven?

Gorbanenko, Jenia

Hardcover

Series: Anthropology of Outer Space

AnthropologyGeneral Christianity

ISBN10: 1041264089
ISBN13: 9781041264088
Publisher: Routledge
Published: Oct 23 2026
Pages: 216
Weight: 1.11
Height: 0.56 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

This book offers a fascinating ethnography of Russian Orthodox people and things in outer space, and of outer space in Russian Orthodoxy. It considers how the Russian Orthodox participate in cosmonautics on Earth and in outer space, and how they relate with humans venturing off Earth in their religious practices on Earth. The book's central ethnographic concern is the practice of sending icons to the International Space Station. Building on existing anthropological theory of Orthodox material culture, the author argues that icons are model objects that instruct the Orthodox in how to grasp God in all created things around them and, accordingly, how to orient themselves in the creation towards communion with God. Whatever one does for a living, including technoscientific research and flying to outer space, icons serve as a constant reminder for the Orthodox to always seek communion with God. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in Russian Orthodox parishes with links to the technoscientific industry of cosmonautics, the volume describes how living cosmonauts practice Orthodoxy and how deceased cosmonauts are remembered as Orthodox exemplars. It is especially relevant to scholars of the anthropology of religion and those interested in the social study of outer space, as well as others working on Orthodox Christianity, material culture, science and technology studies, and Russian and post-Soviet studies.

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