The Third Rome
A history of the Russian Orthodox Church and its role in the world today
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ISBN-13
9780281077526-grouped
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Neil Kent is Senior Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. Formerly Professor of European History and Culture, St Petersburg State Academic Institute of Art, Sculpture and Architecture (The Russian Academy of Art), his previous publications include Helsinki: A Cultural and Literary History (2004), A Concise History of Sweden (2008) and Crimea: A History (2016).
About
The origins of the Russian Orthodox Church will be examined with respect to its eastern Christian roots, including its dogmas, canons and practices. The political and military realities will be given their context. Hemmed in between the aggressive Catholic powers of Sweden in the west and the Mongol Hordes to the east, Moscow was in a difficult position. Judaising traditions in the church vied with those which sort to focus more on the New Testament. Not only military prowess but the spiritual healing power of icons was paramount.
Later, Russia, emerging from Moscow's growing strength under the 'Tatar Joke' was able to consolidate itself under its own metropolitan, then patriarch, only to undergo a painful reformation under Patriarch Tikhon, which led to schism with the Old Believers. Peter the Great undermined the independence of the Church, making it an instrument of state. Yet the Church Survived this 'Babylonian Captivity' and, in philosophical and spiritual terms, increasingly flourished during the nineteenth century. Yet now it had to contend with terrorists, atheists and extreme forms of nationalism and authoritarianism, on the one hand, anarchism and communism, on the other.
The outbreak of the February Revolution in 1917 indirectly led to the re-establishment of the Patriarchate. However, the Bolshevist Revolution of October of that year led to the murder of the Patriarch and a Persecution of the Church and Christians unknown for centuries. Except for a brief period of respite in the Second World War, the Church continued to suffer until the post-Soviet period when it enjoyed a veritable resurrection. Today it provides Russia with its principal ideology of life, but one which is susceptible, many fear, to deleterious political influence and manipulation.
Later, Russia, emerging from Moscow's growing strength under the 'Tatar Joke' was able to consolidate itself under its own metropolitan, then patriarch, only to undergo a painful reformation under Patriarch Tikhon, which led to schism with the Old Believers. Peter the Great undermined the independence of the Church, making it an instrument of state. Yet the Church Survived this 'Babylonian Captivity' and, in philosophical and spiritual terms, increasingly flourished during the nineteenth century. Yet now it had to contend with terrorists, atheists and extreme forms of nationalism and authoritarianism, on the one hand, anarchism and communism, on the other.
The outbreak of the February Revolution in 1917 indirectly led to the re-establishment of the Patriarchate. However, the Bolshevist Revolution of October of that year led to the murder of the Patriarch and a Persecution of the Church and Christians unknown for centuries. Except for a brief period of respite in the Second World War, the Church continued to suffer until the post-Soviet period when it enjoyed a veritable resurrection. Today it provides Russia with its principal ideology of life, but one which is susceptible, many fear, to deleterious political influence and manipulation.
Author
Neil Kent is Senior Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. Formerly Professor of European History and Culture, St Petersburg State Academic Institute of Art, Sculpture and Architecture (The Russian Academy of Art), his previous publications include Helsinki: A Cultural and Literary History (2004), A Concise History of Sweden (2008) and Crimea: A History (2016).
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Later, Russia, emerging from Moscow's growing strength under the 'Tatar Joke' was able to consolidate itself under its own metropolitan, then patriarch, only to undergo a painful reformation under Patriarch Tikhon, which led to schism with the Old Believers. Peter the Great undermined the independence of the Church, making it an instrument of state. Yet the Church Survived this 'Babylonian Captivity' and, in philosophical and spiritual terms, increasingly flourished during the nineteenth century. Yet now it had to contend with terrorists, atheists and extreme forms of nationalism and authoritarianism, on the one hand, anarchism and communism, on the other.
The outbreak of the February Revolution in 1917 indirectly led to the re-establishment of the Patriarchate. However, the Bolshevist Revolution of October of that year led to the murder of the Patriarch and a Persecution of the Church and Christians unknown for centuries. Except for a brief period of respite in the Second World War, the Church continued to suffer until the post-Soviet period when it enjoyed a veritable resurrection. Today it provides Russia with its principal ideology of life, but one which is susceptible, many fear, to deleterious political influence and manipulation.