Red Priests
Subtitle: Renovationism, Russian Orthodoxy, and Revolution, 1905-1946
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: November 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780253341280
Subjects: History of religion; Marxism & Communism; Orthodox Churches; Communism; Philosophy Of Christianity; Religion; History - General History; History: World; Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe); Russia; History; Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism; Christianity - General; 20th century; Communism and Christianity; Russkaia pravoslavnaia t; Russkaëiìa pravoslavnaëiìa ëtìserkov§; Soviet Union
First sentence: THE 1917 REVOLUTION that gave birth to Soviet Russia had a profound impact on Russian religious life.
Description: "The 1917 revolutions that gave birth to Soviet Russia had a profound impact on Russian religious life. Social and political attitudes toward religion in general and toward the Russian Orthodox Church in particular remained in turmoil for nearly thirty years. During that time of religious uncertainty, a movement known as "renovationism" led by reformist Orthodox clergy, pejoratively labeled "red priests," tried to reconcile Christianity with the goals of the Bolshevik state.

By embracing the radical socialism of Lenin and his party, red priests unwittingly proved that the great nineteenth-century Russian novelist Fedor Dostoevskii had been right. Nearly everyone - including most Orthodox believers and Bolshevik officials - feared clergymen who proclaimed themselves to be both Christians and socialists.".

"This study, based on previously untapped archival sources, recounts the history of the red priests who, acting out of religious conviction in a hostile environment, strove to establish a church that stood for social justice and equality. Relating the history of renovationism to broader historical developments, Red Priests sheds valuable new light on the dynamics of society, politics, and religion in Russia between 1905 and 1946."--BOOK JACKET.