Making use of the formerly secret archives of the Soviet government, interviews, and first-hand personal experiences, Nathaniel Davis describes how the Russian Orthodox Church hung on the brink of institutional extinction twice in the past sixty-five years. In 1939, only a few score widely scattered priests were still functioning openly. Ironically, Hitler's invasion and Stalin's reaction to it rescued the church -- and parishes reopened, new clergy and bishops were consecrated, a patriarch was elected, and seminaries and ...
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Making use of the formerly secret archives of the Soviet government, interviews, and first-hand personal experiences, Nathaniel Davis describes how the Russian Orthodox Church hung on the brink of institutional extinction twice in the past sixty-five years. In 1939, only a few score widely scattered priests were still functioning openly. Ironically, Hitler's invasion and Stalin's reaction to it rescued the church -- and parishes reopened, new clergy and bishops were consecrated, a patriarch was elected, and seminaries and convents were reinstituted. However, after Stalin's death, Khrushchev resumed the onslaught against religion. Davis reveals that the erosion of church strength between 1948 and 1988 was greater than previously known and it was none too soon when the Soviet government changed policy in anticipation of the millennium of Russia's conversion to Christianity. More recently, the collapse of communism has created a mixture of dizzying opportunity and daunting trouble for Russian Orthodoxy. The newly revised and updated edition addresses the tumultuous events of recent years, including schisms in Ukraine, Estonia, and Moldova, and confrontations between church traditionalists, conservatives and reformers. The author also covers battles against Greek-Catholics, Roman Catholics, Protestant evangelists, and pagans in the south and east, the canonization of the last Czar, the church's financial crisis, and hard data on the slowing Russian orthodox recovery and growth. Institutional rebuilding and moral leadership now beckon between promise and possibility.
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Good. Open Books is a nonprofit social venture that provides literacy experiences for thousands of readers each year through inspiring programs and creative capitalization of books.
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Good Condition. Text appears to be clean. Cover has wear and corner bumps. The spine is in good condition with some wear. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Education; ISBN: 0813340675. ISBN/EAN: 9780813340678. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 1561034736.
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Very Good. The methodology of this very recent study of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Soviet regime bears witness that cold statistics tell a great deal about the seventy-year horror story. Of the myriad examples given in this book, try this one: Before the Bolshevik revolution there were over 50, 000 churches in Russia, and at least 50, 000 priests. At the height of Soviet repression on the eve of World War II in 1939, there were left only 200-300 churches, 300-400 priests, and four bishops in the whole of the Soviet Union, a situation described by Davis as perilously close to institutional extinction. Davis's heavily documented study (a quarter of its length is made up of footnotes) follows the twists and turns of Soviet policy toward the Church, and the Church's resistance, sometimes overt and heroic, most of the time simply dogged, to the most severe and pervasive persecution in the history of Christianity. Advance uncorrected proof in VG condition, no wear or marks.
