The Multiple Faces of Greek American Religious Experience: Helen Papanikolas’s The Apple Falls from the Apple Tree

Year 2002, Issue: 16, 1 - 16, 01.10.2002

Theodora Tsimpouki

Abstract

After centuries of organized religious practice, a tendency among individuals to acknowledge themselves as having a strong personal faith, one that does not necessarily align itself with any of the well-delineated religious orders Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus , has become increasingly evident. Nevertheless, such private religious belief, termed America’s "invisible religion,”1 does not finally destroy the established form of religion or affect the astonishing proliferation of new varieties of religious movements. Rather, while religious faith is regarded as a private matter, religious practice as a public performance is undergoing a phase of revalorization as it potentially provides for community and fosters social bonds among members of the established religious orders or the new religious movements. Instead of being drawn by theological factors, members of religious groups are drawn by social ones that strengthen communal bonds and provide a sense of personal belonging and security.

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