Quest for the Alternative Spirituality: Construction of Religious Identity in Contemporary Lithuania

Abstract

The transformation of religious area by arising of new modes of expressing religiosity is almost worldwide phenomena. The idea of making up personal bricolage of beliefs, choosing what fits and what does not is very popular mode of religiosity or spirituality today. To hear that one could choose religious identity without religious belief is not surprising in Lithuania today. Sociologically, it could be explained referring to the identity constructing theories. This article presents the research that was performed by the Department of Sociology at Vytautas Magnus University (in 2003-2004). The aim of the research was to explore the process of construction of religious identity via applying Hervieu-Leger idea of four dimensions of religious identification. The data of focused interviews confirms that religious identity could be constructed via one or few dimensions of religious identification excluding other dimensions. However, reference exclusively to one or few dimensions shifts traditional ( or confessional) ways of expressing religiousness and still for somebody rises the question about her/his religiousness in general.