Wandering Meditations

The Russian Religious Mind

3 min read

Favourite Quotes

“we did not know whether we were on earth or in heaven” - p. 511

Detailed Summary

Note: I only read chapters 1, 2, and 12 ***

Chapter 1: Pre-Christian Paganism

  • chapter 1 covers pre-Christian Russian paganism. This is because in order to understand Russian Christianity you must understand that which influenced it, i.e. Russian paganism

Chapter 2: Religious Byzantinism

  • chapter 2 covers Christianity in Russia, specifically Byzantium Christianity
  • the apocrypha played a big role in Russian Christianity.
  • The notion of distinguishing between inspired scripture (like Biblical canon) and the works of the early Fathers did NOT exist. This is why apocrypha were accepted.
  • the lives of the saints were more popular than scripture itself
  • this is quite interesting. It plays into the whole idea of saints being successors to the ‘gods’ of Pagan times.
  • The Russians chose Byzantine Christianity due to its supreme beauty over other rites and religions. - p. 51
    • it is said that Prince Vladimir sent envoys to the Muslims, Catholics, and Byzantines. His envoys said about the Byzantine service “we did not know whether we were on earth or in heaven”

Chapter 12: Paganism and Christianity

  • Drinking is a big part of Russian tradition.
  • When Prince Vladimir was still pagan and Muslim missionaries were preaching to him, he said “drinking is the joy of the Russians; we cannot do without it”. Now alcohol is upheld as the thing that via destiny/Gods had saved Russia from the evil of becoming Muslim - p. 353
  • the pagan cult of the ‘Rozhanitsy’ (deities of motherhood, femininity, etc) was likely what made the veneration of mother Mary so popular - p. 361
    • again, going back to the concept of paganism influencing the expression of Christianity, this is a perfect example

Analysis

The practice and expression of any particular religion relies heavily on what came before. People never just abandon their previous beliefs. We can see remnants of paganism all over Russian Christianity. On a general note, Christmas is a great example. It was a very popular holiday in the Pagan Roman Empire. Then the pope thought it’d be great if Christianity adopted that day as Jesus’s birthday, thus causing Christianity to be more readily accepted by the pagan people.

Reflections

Overall this book was great, or at least the parts I read. This is honestly such a large topic that I should read more about.

Footnotes

  1. Context: the envoys of Prince Vladimir said this about the Byzantine service/liturgy after witnessing the Muslim and Catholic services. ↩

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