HIV, drug use, and the politics of indifference -- The Church's rehabilitation program -- The Russian Orthodox Church, HIV, and injecting drug use -- Moral and ethical assemblages -- Synergeia and simfoniia: orthodox morality, human rights, and the state -- Working on the self -- Enchurchment -- Cultivating a normal life -- Normal sociality: obshchenie and controlling emotions -- Disciplining responsibility: labor and gender
Summary
This provocative study examines the role of today's Russian Orthodox Church in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Russia has one of the fastest-growing rates of HIV infection in the world--80 percent from intravenous drug use--and the Church remains its only resource for fighting these diseases. Jarrett Zigon takes the reader into a Church-run treatment center where, along with self-transformational and religious approaches, he explores broader anthropological questions--of morality, ethics, what constitutes a "normal" life, and who defines it as such. Zigon argues that this rare Russian partnership betw
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-258) and index
