Role Of Christianity In Russia

The Russian Orthodox Church has a very dark unspoken past. The Russian Orthodox Church changed many policies over the years leading to many casualties. The Russian Church to many people was a sign of fear and change they were uncomfortable with.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

This megachange, makes people desperately to look for a secure place to keep changes away; a kind of safe heavenly place where the past will dwell forever. Robert Dale put it in this way: “Change, often viewed as a threat to traditional forms of faith, causes some churches to sprint frantically back into the past in search of security”. . Unfortunately, more churches preferred to choose the path leading to stagnation and slow death rather than to rise up and to reconsider their unique function in the world.

In addition to structural changes, the Church changed as well. It altered by losing its prestige and power. Due to this, people began to question why the Church could not receive forgiveness (Marks 133). As a result, the authority of the church began to erode and the Church began to weaken (Bill 46). Faith was no more, and the Church was no longer infallible. Some believe this single change was the most vital influence on the future of Europe (Marks 133).

Vladimir accepted Christianity in 988 CE for two reasons, the first being that he wanted Russia to have one religion, the second being that he wanted to marry Anna, sister of Byzantine Emperors Basil II and Constantine. Vladimir had a few options for the religion of Russia, being Islam, Judaism, the Catholic Christianity of Western Europe, and the Orthodox Christianity of Eastern Rome. Vladimir’s ambassadors described the great Cathedral of Hagia Sophia as though they did not know if it were in heaven or on earth, and said that God dwells there among men and that their service surpasses the worship of any other place. Vladimir was impressed by Anna, who the Emperors Basil II and Constantine offered to Vladimir as a bride, on the condition

We are shown how saints and pilgrimages intersected with national, religious, and regional identities with the peasants. Even though Chulos states that Russia didn't develop a sense of nation (78) a strong sense of cultural identity develop that was inseparable from Orthodoxy. I found this chapter to have greatly showed how religion was important to the peasants by showing just how intertwined it had become throughout the years, that without it the peasants would not have a major part of themselves that helped them live through their troubled

The Protestant Reformation often gets the lion’s share of attention when discussing religious reform and renewal during the Early Modern period. However, to state that the Reformation was the only significant shift in the ideology and practice of Christianity would be to greatly undersell the importance of a myriad of religious reformers that denounced the decrepit and outdated relationship between mainstream religious practice and God. For this new wave of religious reformers, the traditions of the mainstream Church (whether Protestant or Catholic) were getting in the way of godly men and women forging a personal relationship with their savior, one in which the individual is brought into the grace of God through a true lasting connection

Long before the reformation period,people within the church, both clergy and lay were keen for the church to eliminate all corrupt practices and for a reform,which would bring everyone closer to God. Those high up in church authority had ignored the concerns made by these reformers because they were personally gaining from practices like indulgences. However the sixteenth century split of protestant from the Catholic church became obvious and brought about bad publicity towards the church as the loss of members was a large concern, putting them under pressure to reform itself properly. The church responded in a very serious matter which resulted in the church starting

The Russian Orthodox Church supported the White Army which in the end was the losing side of the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution. The Soviet government saw the church as a "counter-revolutionary" organization. The Soviet government also believed the church had a great influence on society. Even though the Soviet Union claimed religious tolerance, the government still discouraged organized religion and tried its best to remove religious influence from Soviet society.

These church people were under the church’s jurisdiction and direct control and included monks, the clergy, church employees and their families, among others. (134, Engelstein) From its inception, the church served as a social welfare organization for the weakest and least fortunate elements of society who were threatened by death or slavery in these barbaric times. In this instance, the church acted as guardian as well as the government. This is yet another example of the construction of influence the church had in shaping Russian culture and government. (134,

For over two centuries the Catholic Church as been plagued because of business-like difficulties before the appearance of Protestantism. “Practical difficulties of several sorts had beset the Catholic Church for at least two centuries before the appearance of Protestantism. (Noll 175)” Before the appearance of Protestantism the Catholic Church was been besieged for at least two centuries because of constructive difficulties.

By the late 1500s, Christian denominations had been popping up all over Europe. This was in response to the reports of indulgences (selling of freedom from purgatory), clerical immorality, abuse of money, along with many other bad actions that were rampant among the Church. It was these problems that Luther and others rebelled and created their own religions. With the rising of these Reformation movements, the Church needed to make some reforms itself. These reforms took the form of educating the clergy, opening monasteries, the Inquisition, and the organizing of councils. In fact, even though Protestant attacks brought these reforms, many of these reforms were needed anyway. The problems in the Church were so bad that the Church would not

Religion has had a special history in Russia, having to go through periods of total control over the society to being reduced to nothing when the political power wanted to be the only thing people could believe in. By 1988, the persecutions against the clerics and the believers stopped in the USSR. Since then, the religious landscape has been evolving in Russia and former soviet republics. Religion takes a specific place in society, and plays a peculiar role.

By the turn of the 19th century, the Church of England grew into a dominant bureaucratic monster. Any account of English history shows how politics and religion became so interwoven that it is difficult to draw a clear line between these two forces. The two entities are largely one in the same; tyrannical in wealth and power. The elite strength possessed by the church of England coupled with the vast scope of this organization proved to be more of a detriment as the climate facilitated the growth of numerous internal problems. This, in turn, opened the opportunity for a variety of dissenting groups to mount a formidable uprising.

In Russia religion's influence was much different. There wasn't much influence at all in the period of 1815 to 1919. Czar Alexander proposed the Holy Alliance under which monarchs would pledge themselves to rule according to Christian teachings; here alot of them didn't have any sincerity, especially Alexander. Religion also intensified things as in France, Russia decided to intervene when the Greeks revolted against the Turks, claiming the need to protect fellow Christians from the Muslims. Russia has been Communist for a very long time already, and as such they are atheistic and they also persecuted organized religion as a rival for the people's loyalty. But since the collapse of Communist for reasons other than religion, it has allowed churches to practice freely, like the Russian Orthodox, have shown a surprising amount of popular support.