ABSTRACT

This essay looks at the tradition of religious writing in Russia and attempts to draw out some of its major themes. It is not concerned with theology as such, insofar as the writers under review here, with rare exceptions, were neither official representatives of the Church nor academic theologians. Historically, in Russia the discipline of theology was confined to the seminaries, the traditional channel for young men who wished to take holy orders. In fact, there was a huge social and cultural gulf between the Orthodox priesthood and the educated classes in Russia, a gulf reflected in and perpetuated by the parallel existence of two educational systems: the seminaries and the universities. Ever since the reign of Peter the Great (reigned 1696-1725), who first introduced secular, western-style education in Russia, it was as though two worlds existed side by side. One, the rural, peasant world, contained the Church and breathed its ancient and traditional values. The other, much smaller world, predominantly urban, and for a long time aristocratic, was modelled on western forms – the state bureaucracy, the education system – and eventually assimilated the West’s secular, post-Enlightenment values.