Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia

  1. Lemma
  2. Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia
  3. English
  4. Asliturk, Miriam
  5. Ecumenism and dialogue > Dialogue between churches - Ecumenism and dialogue > Dialogue between religions - Ecumenism and dialogue > Education - Culture and national identities - Orthodox theological tradition and practice - Integration - Ecumenism and dialogue > Westernism and anti-westernism - Ecumenism and dialogue - Orthodox Anthropology
  6. 01-11-2016
  7. Garrard, John [Author]. Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia
  8. Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia
  9. History of the Russian Orthodox Church - Russian Empire - Soviet Union - Russian government - Religious education - Nuclear centres - Catholic Church - anti-Westernism - Western Christianity - Protestant Church - Russian military - Moscow Patriarchate - Putin, Vladimir - Post-Soviet Russia - Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA) - Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) - KGB - Russian Academy of Sciences
    1. <p>Garrard, John & Garrard, Carol (2008). <em>Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia. </em>Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. </p>
    1. "Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent" explores the role that Russia's ancient Christian faith has played in the dismantlement of the Soviet Union and in the rise of Russian nationalism today. John and Carol Garrard tell the story of how the Orthodox Church's moral weight helped defeat the 1991 coup against Gorbachev launched by Communist Party hardliners. The book travels back to pre-Soviet times to explain the role of the Orthodox Church and the importance of relics and saints in Russia’s history from the earliest days. Thus, with the Soviet Union disintegration, the Russian Orthodox Church is able to build on and recreate images of the past, as Russians are searching for a new identity with strong linkages to their history. The Garrards reveal how Patriarch Aleksy II, a former KGB officer and the man behind the church's successful defeat of the coup, is reconstituting a new national idea in the church's own image.

      The book explains how in the new Russia, run largely by former KGB agents, it is the cross that has, slowly but surely, taken the place of the hammer and sickle. The Garrards explain the key role that the Orthodox Church, and notably Aleksy II, played in orchestrating a new and important role for the Church not only among the Russian people, but among Russian dignitaries, oligarchs and the military leadership as well, melding Russian patriotism and faith.

      The book highlights how the Russian Orthodox Church moved to create bridges with the Russian Academy of Sciences, and how it worked to bring the scientific community into the fold by speaking first to their Russian patriotism. In one speech, Aleksy II subtly reminds scientists of the role of nuclear scientists working in Sarov, the location of the first St. Seraphim Church and the links between the two.

      Lastly, the book explains how the Russian Orthodox Church began to play a key influencing role in Russian education, its tenuous relationship with the Catholic and Protestant churches, and its rehabilitation of Orthodox symbolism and property across Russia.