Reviving Orthodoxy in Russia An overview of the factions in the Russian Orthodox Church, in the spring of 1996*

摘要

Ralph Della Cava, Reviving Orthodoxy in Russia. An overview of the factions in the Russian Orthodox Church in the spring of 1996. Orthodoxy today is Russia's numerically largest confession and has for more than a millennium remained one and indivisible with the culture of the Eastern Slavs (including Belarussians and Ukrainians). But, the Russian Orthodox Church, that credo's most expressive and representative institution, faces a crisis of faith and institutional organization unparalleled in its history. The causes of that crisis are just as complex as are the strategies and tactics which the Church has adopted during the past five years to restore its ascendancy over believers and reestablish its credibility as a social force at home and abroad. In many ways, this challenge mirrors that of the Russian state and society. In this respect, the Church also finds itself no less rent by internal divisions. Four major ecclesial factions have emerged. Identified here as Ultra-nationalists, Ecumenists, Institutional ists and Pastoralists, each is examined separately and in relationship to one another. The perspective is largely from within the Church universe proper, while at the same time Church ties to political and social changes occurring inside post-Communist Russia are kept in sight. Data for this account are based on scores of personal interviews with clergymen, scholars, journalists and lay persons conducted in the spring of 1995 and 1996 in nine cities of European Russia and, for the first time in such an inquiry, on a close reading of the Orthodox and specialized religious press in Russia and abroad.