Portraitfoto Eva Arnaszus

Eva Arnaszus

Legitimizing Religion: Romuva’s Struggle for Legal Recognition as a Religion in Post-Independence Lithuania

2020 marked a decisive moment for religious minorities when the pagan community Romuva went before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to overturn Lithuania’s parliamentary decision to deny them state-recognized status. A country-wide discussion on religion, legitimacy and law surrounds the issue with contradictory historic narratives while Romuva’s status isn’t yet confirmed. My research seeks to investigate how the negotiation of the concept of religion is reflected in law and in the practices of Romuva.

Research interests

  • Transcultural studies
  • Minority studies
  • Nation Building
  • Philosophy of Language
  • Transhumanism

Vita

  • 2017 – 2022
    Technical writer at SAP
  • 2013 – 2016
    M.A. Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg University
  • 2011 – 2012
    volunteer at Women Empowerment Through Self-Help Groups in Ahmedabad, India
  • 2008 – 2011
    B.A. Philosophy at Bonn University

Talks, Workshops, and Events

  • 2023
    Talks: Romuvas Kampf um die rechtliche Anerkennung als Religion im unabhängigen Litauen at the Kickoff-Workshop of the WoC-Lab Religion glokal. University of Bremen. 12.10.2023.
  • 2015
    Symposium Histories of Japanese Art and their Global Contexts: New Directions. 22.10‐24.10.2015 Heidelberg University.
  • 2014
    Conference Transcultural Framing(s): Materials and Metaphors. 31.10-2.11.2014, Heidelberg University.
hierarchy of norms

“If social contradictions are reflected in law, law cannot form a hierarchy of norms free of contradictions.”

Andreas Fischer-Lescano
earthing

“Geography as a discipline stands for a certain worlding, if not earthing, of contradiction, in both theoretical and pracitcal respect.”

Julia Lossau
sustained engagement

“The history of Western philosophy can be understood as a sustained engagement with contradiction.”

Norman Sieroka
coherence in thought

“The imperative of non-contradiction generally produces a coherence in thought that is often at odds with social complexities.”

Yan Suarsana
paradox

“The basis of law is not an idea as a systematic unified principle but a paradox.”

Andreas Fischer-Lescano