The Church's Role In Ancient Russian Society And Politics

As the tenth century rolled about, the power of the Roman Catholic Church grew steadily stronger, the church had an argument with the normal Kingdom over who should rule supreme out of the Pope or the King, the church believed that the Pope who is the voice of God on Earth should be the ruler of the world while the peasants thought that the King should, the power struggle eventually ended with the Church coming out as the dominant force in the West. The Church passed a law that stated that everyone (mostly peasants) is forced to pay 10% of their income to the Church. The church had the ability to stop any laws that they did not like or make some new laws that benefited them, they were a very powerful group that could manipulate the peasants and knights in any way they liked, in Church there were photos of people being tortured in hell, this intensified the peoples longing for heaven and therefore extended the power and influence of the church. All Christians were expected to attend the mass and, by the 13th century, were expected to take the Eucharist at least once a year.

The significance of religious leaders during this era is evident by the fact that the writer of this poem places the bishop at the beginning of the table. Due to the fact that the “medieval society was a religious society” and that these religious leaders held a special relationship with God, it is no surprise that these individuals held the second highest social class position in the medieval time period (Feudalism and the Three Orders (Overview) 2).

Fr. Justin Havens gave a lecture about the history, principles and practices of the Orthodox church and emphasized that Christ should be the focus of our education, and our every thought and action. He described how religion is primarily about making ourselves better and orthodox focuses on becoming like the best human, nonetheless divine being in existence, Jesus Christ. His attributes, perfections, motivations, teachings, lifestyle and everything about Him is the epitome of goodness. Thus the succession in church leadership, from Jesus, to Peter, throughout the generations to various bishops is described as one of the key reasons why orthodox Christianity is perceived as God’s ordained church on the earth as well as the amazing durability of the religion as approximately 160,000 Orthodox followers were slaughtered, significantly reducing the religion’s population. However, as Fr. Havens

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.

Factory workers worked in excess of 60 hours per week and included all members of the family. They worked for little wages and the conditions were harsh. As people turned to the church, little encouragement or support was provided. The church became passive in their members struggles. It did not encourage them to stand up for themselves. Instead the church favored the newly rich members and left the factory workers abandoned. This is in such contrast to the Reformation and Revolution period in which the church controlled all parts of one’s life.

Before the France and Russia revolutions these two countries were both different but they both had some same aspects while have different ones also. These aspects can be classified as political, economic or social. Even though before these revolutions they were often different but shared some similar situations. The French and Russian revolutions were alike and different in their social, political and economic.

The influenza of the church and economic factors in the 900s and 1000s indicate that there was a slow revival in the culture and economy of Europe. The church wanted people to live in harmony and peace. For this, the church gave the hint to the people living in the European states during the period of 900s and 1000s to be stable, useful, peaceful, productive, and respectful to other cultures and ethnicities. To do this properly and on time, the church had the authority and prestige because Christianity reached all over the European living areas. In addition to this, the church organized some public services, such as “defense, charity, and civic maintenance.” The main concerns of the Church were violence that negatively affected on economic

Describes the early Church and relations which formed with the state institutions and imperial leaders.

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.

The Church’s power and wealth was greater than or the same as the King’s. Some people saw the Church’s power and started to abuse the power too. Soon the Church made Tithe barns to store the goods it got from peasant’s.The Church also did not have to pay taxes. This

In addition to being able to read scripture themselves, peasants also could read church liturgy and practices, which created questions and enabled peasants to see how insufficient their parish priest was. Peasants began sending petitions and grievances to local and national church offices; they wanted increased authority over their own parishes, something the Orthodox Church did not want to give. The Russian Orthodox Church viewed this increased interest among the peasantry very negatively. The Church “often interpreted peasant activism as a negative consequence of secular enlightenment that ultimately would harm the Orthodox faith through the dilution of its traditional hierarchical principles.” Thus, the church became increasingly reactionary and isolated itself further from the peasantry—interacting even less and trying to distance the peasantry from doctrine and liturgy. The Church saw peasant interest as directly undermining their power instead of a development of a more devoted populous. This led to the paradox of a weakening political and culture power of the Church while simultaneously the peasantry became increasingly devoted to “localized religious practice.” The gap widened even further between the Church and the peasantry due to the Church’s fear and mistrust of the peasantry.

The Medieval Church was its own form of organized life during Medieval Ages. During the Medieval Times the church dominated the lives of citizen’s, and was a great influence in society because of the limitations it was able to place on monarchy and its significant impact upon the economy and its citizens. During this time period Kings took counsel from high-ranking officials of the church making the church the most powerful force. In the Medieval ages citizens were deeply committed to their church because they believed they were spiritual human’s beings who are having a material experience and will return to spiritual existence after death. This deep commitment to the church made the citizens embody the value of the church which were discipline, spiritual labor toward salvation for individuals and community.

A skeptic religiously, Catherine tried to diminish the power of the Orthodox Church. She had given them the land peter had taken back, but she soon changed her mind. Catherine declared that the church’s wealth would belong to the state. To that end, she made the church part of the state, and therefor all of its holdings, including more than one million serfs.

Moreover, the Russian Revolution was the outcome of the communist party wanting to have complete control over the citizens in Russia. They displayed this idea with their thoughts about removing the practice of religion. They saw religion as an “opium,” for they believed it caused the people to be inactive –mainly the working class (Brose, 167). For they saw religion as a malicious idea, which caused them to see churches as a danger to the bourgeoisie because they believed that the proletarians were planning evil events against them (Brose, 167). Eisenstein demonstrated the communist oppression of religion with the jester on the cross in the priest’s hand as being a weapon (Bordwell, 66). When the priest in Battleship Potemkin was stroking

Imperial Russian society during the time of serfdom was characterized by constantly changing social order. The society experienced a complex social change at the threshold to emancipation. It was undergoing many changes with increasing westernization and serfdom culture that gave rise to formation of new classes (raznochintsy) during the nineteenth century. Many authors have reflected and emphasized this component of change in the structure of pre-emancipation Russian society. This paper will examine how two writers: Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Turgenev, in their novels, Dead Souls and Fathers and Sons depict the society’s constantly changing nature through the relationships between their characters and the development in their beliefs and ideas. Although both the novels explore societal change during the pre-emancipation of serfs, the emphasis of change is different in both the novels. In Fathers and Sons, Turgenev oversees shifting values prevalent in the society. He explores the shift in generational values by depicting the difference in beliefs of characters like Bazarov and Nikolai. On the other hand, in Dead Souls Gogol focuses on issues of morality in society. He depicts a struggle for morality and portrays a corrupt society through the landowners and the protagonist, Chichikov, in his book.