Red Priests Renovationism, Russian Orthodoxy, and Revolution, 1905-1946 [Hardcover]

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 30 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. But Church hierarchy and Bolshevik officials alike feared clergymen who proclaimed themselves to be both Christians and socialists. This innovative 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. Red Priests sheds valuable new light on the dynamics of society, politics, and religion in Russia between 1905 and 1946.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 2003

Preface
List of Abbreviations

1. The Path to Church Revolution
2. Renovationists Come to Power
3. Ecclesiastical Civil War
4. The Religious NEP
5. Renovationism in the Parish
6. Liquidation

Conclusion

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Edward E. Roslof is Dean of Masters Studies and Associate Professor of Church History at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio.

Roslof (United Theological Seminary, Ohio) has produced a wonderfully successful and clearly written study of the Russian Orthodox clergy, who attempted to reconcile Christianity with the goals of the Bolshevik state . . . by actively accommodating Orthodox religious beliefs and institutions to new Soviet realities. This renovationist church faced a hostile world, opposed by the hierarchy of the traditional Orthodox Church and trusted by neither Orthodox believers nor the Soviet state. The first chapter is an insightful reading of the best seconlC(