Biblical Interpretation in the Russian Orthodox Church: A Historical and Hermeneutical Perspective

by Alexander I. Negrov. "In the majority of Western premodern and modern handbooks and surveys of the history of biblical scholarship, Eastern Orthodoxy is mostly and habitually dismissed. A clear orientation toward the Western branch of the Christian church is maintained throughout. However, because the Russian Orthodox Church is an organic part of the universal church this book attempts to assist in the Orthodox-Protestant interactions and serves as an introduction to Russian Orthodox hermeneutics. Alexander Negrov surveys the development of biblical interpretation within the history of the Russian Orthodox church from the Kiev period of its history (10th to 13th centuries) until the Synodal period (1721-1917). The purpose of his study is to present a coherent analysis of the essential elements of Orthodox biblical hermeneutics as it developed over a period of several centuries that were critical to the defining of the Orthodox church and to present a case study of the hermeneutical approach to the New Testament of D. I. Bogdashevskii (1861-1933).
The main hermeneutical features of the Russian Orthodox Church show that the church and tradition are the indispensable guides to the understanding of Scripture. Christ is considered the beginning, center, and end of biblical interpretation, and exegesis is based on cooperation between the Holy Spirit and the human interpreter. The church demands reading of the Scriptures guided by church dogmatics and a multidisciplinary approach to the text."
See Mohr Siebeck

Forthcoming Book from the Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series!

Believing in Russia - Religious Policy After Communism

"By Geraldine Fagan, this book presents a comprehensive overview of religion in Russia since the end of the communist regime, exposing many of the ambiguities and uncertainties about the position of religion in Russian life. It shows how religious freedom in Russia has, contrary to the widely held view, a long tradition, and how the leading religious institutions in Russia today, including especially the Russian Orthodox Church but also Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist establishments, owe a great deal of their special positions to the relationship they had with the former Soviet regime. It discusses the nature of everyday religious life in Russia, contrasting the internal life of faith communities with the public discourse of their leaders. It examines the flowering of religious freedom and the burgeoning of new sects in the years immediately after the end of the Soviet regime, showing how freedoms were subsequently curtailed, but only partially, by the important law of 1997. It discusses how far Russian Orthodox Christianity is related to Russian national culture, demonstrating the unresolved nature of the key question, Is Russia to be an Orthodox country with religious minorities or a multi-confessional state? and concluding that Russian society has so far failed to reach a consensus on the legal status of religion and its role in public life, contrasting the position in Russia on this with the position in other former Soviet republics including Belarus and Ukraine. "
See Routhledge Comtemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series

Orthodox Christian Studies Series at NIU Press!

"Northern Illinois University Press recently announced a new book series entitled, Orthodox Christian Studies. While NIU Press has a long-standing tradition of publishing books about the Russian Orthodox faith, this series will offer a global view of Orthodox Christianity—from East-West relations to studies of the faith in Churches around the world. The series editor is Roy Robson, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Members of the editorial board include: Predrag Metejic (Ohio State University), Vera Shevzov (Smith College), Stephen J. Shoemaker (University of Oregon), Theofanis Stavrou (University of Minnesota), and Christine Worobec (Northern Illinois University). Please contact Amy Farranto, Editor at afarranto@niu.edu or call (815) 753-9946 regarding manuscript submissions. The first book in this series will be published in Fall 2009."

Bodies Like Bright Stars: Saints and Relics in Orthodox Russia

"By Robert H. Greene, this title explores popular devotion to the cult of saints in late imperial and early Soviet Russia. While the late imperial church celebrated saints as paragons of virtue and piety whose lives were to be emulated in the search for salvation, ordinary Russian Orthodox lay believers sought the assistance of the saints for mundane and worldly matters. The believers were more likely to pray to the saints for help in the concerns of health and home than for salvation. Evidence from miracle stories, devotional literature, parish records, diocesan reports, religious newspapers and magazines, and archival documents demonstrates how Orthodox believers sought to cultivate a more direct and literally hands-on relationship with their heavenly protectors by visiting saintly graves, touching and kissing their miracle-working relics, and making pledges to repay the saints for miracles rendered. Exploring patterns of popular devotion to the cult of the saints in both late imperial and early Soviet Russia, Greene argues for an interpretation of Orthodoxy as a proactive faith grounded in the needs and realities of everyday life. "Bodies like Bright Stars" makes two significant contributions to the fields of Russian history and religious studies. First, it straddles the customary historiographical dividing line of 1917, illustrating how the devotional practices associated with the cult of the saints evolved from the mid-19th century to the end of the first decade of Soviet power. Greene shows that it was the adaptability of the cult of the saints that allowed Orthodoxy to remain relevant amid great political, social, and economic change. Importantly, the book underscores the role of materiality in Russian Orthodox religious practices and emphasizes what anthropologists of religion have described as the sacrality of place. "Bodies like Bright Stars", the first book in NIU Press' "Orthodox Christian Studies Series", will be of interest to Russian historians, anthropologists, and scholars of religion. Written in a clear and lively style, the book is suitable for both survey courses and advanced courses in Russian history and will also appeal to general readers of religious studies. "

Available October 2009

See Northern Illinois University Press

National Survey of the Orthodox Church in the United States

"The Orthodox Church Today" (2008) is the first national survey based study of the laity, ordinary church members, in the two largest Orthodox Churches in the United States: the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA) and the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). To a significant degree, this study reflects the profile of an entire Orthodox community in the United States. The study focused on the personal social and religious attitudes of Orthodox parishioners and on the patterns of everyday life in their local parishes. "The Orthodox Church Today" addresses four broad questions:

• What is the "image" of the Orthodox clergy in the eyes of the "people in the pews?"
  To what extent do the social and religious attitudes of the ordinary parishioners reflect those of their parish priests?


• What do church members think about patterns of Church life in their local parishes?


• What do laity think about various issues dealing with "Democracy and Pluralism in the Church,"


• "Changes and Innovations in the Church," and "religious 'Particularism' and Ecumenism.

Numerous comparisons with the US Roman Catholic and various Protestant Churches make this study especially interesting to a wide audience.

To view the full report see Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

And God Created Lenin: Marxism vs Religion In Russia, 1917-1929

"When the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in November 1917, they used a wide range of techniques—some subtle, some violent—to eradicate religion in areas under their control. The new Soviet government arrested priests, closed church buildings, exposed fraudulent monastic relics, forbade the printing of religious literature, and denied religious education to the young—all the while proclaiming abroad that there was no religious persecution in Russia. They set out to crush not only all organized religion but even the likelihood of religious thought. And God Created Lenin examines in depth the conflict between Lenin’s logic-driven efforts to stamp out religion and the churches’ passionate attempts to save themselves from obliteration. It looks at both sides objectively and admits that they both presented strong cases. In this thoroughly researched yet accessible study, historian Paul Gabel offers a new understanding of the only effort in world history to upset the universality of religion. Besides the main conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church and the atheist state, Gabel also considers the tensions that this campaign against religion caused within the Communist Party. In addition, he discusses the bitter hatred dividing the Orthodox factions that refused cooperation with the government from those that tried to adapt the church to communism. Was the failure of Soviet communism to eradicate religion simply a matter of practical miscalculation, or was this effort, in light of the persistence of religion throughout history, ultimately unrealistic and doomed from the start? This is the key question that Gabel’s fascinating, insightful narrative attempts to answer. "

See Prometheus Books

The Teachings of Modern Orthodox Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature

"Edited by John Witte Jr. and Frank S. Alexander, the Teachings of Modern Orthodox Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature examines how modern Orthodox Christian thinkers have answered the most pressing political, legal, and ethical questions of our time. It discusses the enduring teachings of important Orthodox Christian intellectuals of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Leading contemporary scholars analyze these thinkers' views on the nature and purpose of law and authority, the limits of rule and obedience, the care of the needy and innocent, the ethics of war and violence, and the separation of church and state, among other themes. A diverse and powerful portrait of Orthodox Christian legal and political thought, this volume underscores the various ways Orthodox Christian intellectuals have shaped modern debates over the family, the state, religion, and society. The book concentrates on Russian philosophers Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900) and Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958); Russian theologian Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1948); Russian nun and social reformer Mother Maria Skobtsova (1891-1945); and Romanian theologian Dumitru Staniloae (1903-1993)."

See Columbia University Press