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Can I read Castration and the heavenly kingdom : a Russian folktale on EtoBox?
Castration and the heavenly kingdom : a Russian folktale by Laura Engelstein is a history book available to read on EtoBox.
What is Castration and the heavenly kingdom : a Russian folktale about?
Of the many sects that broke from the official Russian Orthodox church in the eighteenth century, one was universally despised. Its members were peasants from the Russian heartland skilled in the arts of animal husbandry who turned their knives on themselves to become "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." Convinced that salvation came only with the literal excision of the instruments of sin, they were known as Skoptsy (the self-castrated). Their community thrived well into the twentieth century, when it was destroyed in the Stalinist Terror. In a major feat of historical reconstruction, Laura Engelstein tells the sect's astonishing tale. She describes the horrified reactions to the sect by outsiders, including outraged bureaucrats, physicians, and theologians. More important, she allows the Skoptsy a say in defining the contours of their history and the meaning behind their sacrifice. Her deft handling of their letters and notebooks lends her book unusual depth and pathos, and she provides a heartbreaking account of willing exile and of religious belief so strong that its adherents accepted terrible pain and the denial of a basic human experience. Although the Skoptsy express
Who reads Castration and the heavenly kingdom : a Russian folktale?
It is typically read by self-directed learners exploring a subject in depth.
Common subject areas: history, science, philosophy, social sciences.
- Author
- Laura Engelstein
- Publisher
- Cornell University Press
- Published
- 2003
- Language
- EN
- ISBN
- 9780801488795
- Category
- history
- Subjects
- Philosophy, Fiction, Christian
- Rating
- 3.33 / 5 (14 ratings)
- Updated
- 2026-03-14