TY - JOUR
TI - “Sensualism” and “indistinguishability”: two anthropological concepts and the cult of the “miracle-working” icon of St. Menas in the Bulgarian monastery of Obriadovci. A conceptual revision inspired by the Orthodox Christian Theology of the Icon
AU - Lubańska, Magdalena
TI - “Sensualism” and “indistinguishability”: two anthropological concepts and the cult of the “miracle-working” icon of St. Menas in the Bulgarian monastery of Obriadovci. A conceptual revision inspired by the Orthodox Christian Theology of the Icon
AB - 
	This article focuses on religious healing practices in the monastery of St. Menas in Sofia, Bulgaria which involve the touching of a famous miracle-working icon of a saint. I use the practice as a springboard for discussing the relevance of two anthropological concepts known as “sensualism” (Polish: sensualizm) and “non-differentiation” (Polish: nierozróżnialność) for describing multi-sensory religious imageries of pilgrims. Th e concept of sensualism was fi rst proposed by Stefan Czarnowski and relates to religious practice centred primarily on sensory experience. Non-differentiation as an anthropological concept has been adapted from Gadamer by the Polish anthropologist Joanna Tokarska-Bakir. The two concepts have been applied to analyses of non-official practices in Catholic religiosity, a fact which poses certain methodological problems when the concepts are applied to Orthodox Christianity. This article relies on the Orthodox theological concept of the icon to propose a revision to our treatment of those two useful concepts.
VL - 2014
IS - Volume 42, Issue 1
PY - 2014
SN - 0083-4327
C1 - 2299-9558
SP - 1
EP - 16
DO - 10.4467/22999558.PE.14.001.1702
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/prace-etnograficzne/article/kategoria-sensualizmu-i-nierozroznialnosci-na-przykladzie-kultu-cudotworczej-ikony-sw-menasa-w-bulgarskim-monasterze-w-obriadowci-rewizja-inspirowana-prawoslawna-teologia-ikony
KW - icon
KW - ‘sensualism’
KW - indistinguishability
KW - St Menas
KW - Orthodox theology
KW - Bulgaria