Religion and Society in Russia The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries [Hardcover]

This book traces the evolution of religious attitudes in an important transitional period in Russian history. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Russia saw the gradual decline of monastic spirituality, the rise of miracle cults, and ultimately the birth of a more personal and private faith that stressed morality instead of public rituals. Bushkovitch not only skillfully reconstructs these rapid and fundamental changes in the Russian religious experience, but also shows how they were influenced by European religious ideas and how they foreshadowed the secularization of Russian society usually credited to Peter the Great.

A bold and remarkable book....This stimulating book draws our attention to the full range of Moscovite religiosity. --Modern Greek Studies Yearbook

This is a fresh, well-documented, and important work, filling a near-total void in the history ofreligionin Russia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as opposed to the history of the church, or the history of literature. There is simply no work like it, whether in English or Russian, which analyzes the changes and the complexities in Rusian spirituality during these centuries. --Brenda Meehan-Waters, University of Rochester

It is a most welcome addition to the scholarly literature. --American Historical Review

Bushkovitch's superb book...breaks important ground by reopening the field of religious history and sets a high standard for works on religion yet to come. --The Russian Review

Bushkovitch's book is a masterful work, based on a vast array of published and unpublished material. --Religious Studies Review

Paul Bushkovitch presents an important contribution to the social history of Russia....The author writes well and has presented a vast body of important material concisely and directly. --The Historian

The importance of this work is that Bushkovitch goes aglã3