Легитимация сакрального в современных дискурсах о чуде

Abstract

The article examines modern discourses about miracles to show how the discourses legitimize the sacred, i.e., justify its presence in the picture of the world. These discourses contain narratives about miracles as having a normative character: there are stories about proper and improper actions in contact with a miraculous object and about negative or positive results, desirable or undesirable transformations in the life of someone who had such contact. The article analyzes institutional religious discourses of the Russian Orthodox Church in comparison with modern vernacular discourses. The institutional religious discourses use narratives about miracles to form and maintain confessional norms and ideas, and they view negatively the vernacular forms with its emphasis on magical use of the sacred. At the same time, the article argues that the vernacular religious discourses generate miraculous plots, including those that ensure the reproduction of confessional norms and ideas.