Saving the Post-Soviet soul: Religion as therapy in the narratives of Russian-speaking migrant women

The historical correlation between therapy and religion appears in a new form, namely, a therapeutic-religious assemblage emerging alongside the seemingly global triumph of therapeutic culture. Aiming to clarify the particular local Israeli features of new Russian-immigrant religiosity as well as its global post-Soviet characteristics, the study was enriched by a comparative perspective through research exchanges and interviewing post-Soviet religious immigrants outside of Israel. The reconfiguration of the therapeutic dimension of religious experience into a narrative of flexible, autonomous, self-managing subjectivity requires further discussion. To start with, the perception of religion as a form of therapy has a long history. Assumptions that shape the understanding of religion as alleviating pain, as providing a remedy, a coping resource, a boost at times of weakness and a recharge at moments of emptiness may be the oldest and most entrenched social thoughts about religion.