Religion and Nationalism in Modern Russia; Or the Uses and Abuses of Edinoverie
-
White, James M. [1] ; Palkin, Alexander S. [1]
-
[1] Ural Federal University
Ural Federal University
Rusia
-
- Localización: The Soviet and post-Soviet Review, ISSN 1075-1262, Vol. 44, Nº. 3, 2017
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
-
Resumen
The Orthodox Church in post-Soviet Russia is currently tackling numerous issues. Some of these are modern, like the institution’s relationship with nationalism, while others are centuries-old, like the Old Believer schism. Some have argued that there is one potential solution to both problems: the restoration of edinoverie, a uniate movement founded in 1800 to bring the Old Believers into the Church. In this article, we consider all of the most recent works on this subject to demonstrate how a particular historical narrative has been sanctified by ecclesiastic writers to justify edinoverie’s revival. At the same time, its legacy is being utilised by a few nationalist or neo-traditionalist figures to restore a distinctively Russian character to Orthodoxy that can inoculate the country against irreligiosity and globalisation. Finally, we consider the failure to offer a convincing scholarly alternative to these narratives, a problem which is only now being rectified by young Russian academics.
