NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:I recently finished reading an essay on the modern Russian Church which gives a rather positive account of its embrace of, for a lack of a better umbrella term, modernism in both its survival during 70+ years of persecution, and it's rebirth and flourishing for the past 20 years. I believe the above [series of posts] are excellent examples of the modernist position; or at least, the better version that it's sharper minds aspired. All to a allow for a church conservative in it's approach to the liturgy, and dogma yet remarkably tolerant towards theological speculation; with the flexibility to incorporate (and lionize?) Bulgakov, Berdyaev and Florovsky.
This is what Loisy and Tyrell (among others) wanted for the Roman Church
A lot of different positions on issues and teachings in the contemporary orthodox community. The Russian Orthodox Church, like all religious traditions, perennially deal with the challenge of maintaining the integrity of their, historical and scriptural traditions while pursuing active, living traditions in their contemporary circumstances. Religions cannot survive in isolation, and scriptural and historical traditions are typically understood through the hermeneutics that are often framed by the challenges, attitudes, and issues of their times. It is very difficult to negotiate with the sensibilities of the age while maintaining the integrity of tradition, and while an essential effort, this is usually accomplished imperfectly.
It has been a challenge for the Orthodox faith to remain true to its traditions in the face of immigrant communities that are changing and the older generations dying off. Paranoia and a kind of resignation tends to be in the DNA of Russian Orthodox members partly due to the history of religious persecution in the 20th century, but largely due to the oppressed, brutish lives of the devout Russian peasantry for centuries. The rising anti-immigrant sentiment and bad press about Russia has not helped these attitudes in the US. Ecclesiastical politics, and negotiating the issues of autocephaly have also been very difficult. Orthodox communities, like all American religious communities also have had to contend with the contemporary values of materialism, feel good therapeutics, scientism, political convictions and agendas, assorted identity issues, and a pervasive narcissism. Indifference to spiritual issues and a lack of religious education have been serious obstacles in this process. Addressing the reality of evil in the world and the prospect of damnation are even harder.
Challenges to our most basic understandings in the face of changing circumstances can be very opening, My maternal grandparents managed to survive the 1921-1922 famine in Tatarstan, although my grandfather died in 1923 partly due to the deprivations. Even though Bolshevism was the passion in the cities and among the intelligentsia, the Russian rural populations remained deeply conservative. They believed that the famine was just God’s will and were passively resigned to their fate, largely due to centuries of Hobbesian “nasty, brutish and short” lives among the serfs and peasantry. When my grandmother, with my mother in tow, went to the American Relief Administration to receive a ration of corn, the official there spoke through a translator the Calvinist ethic of facing ones destiny not with resignation but with hard work, resolve, and discipline. A basic, get off your passive backsides and be responsible for your own destiny as a message of God's will. This greatly disturbed my grandmother who was concerned that such talk could lead her to a false pride and a Satanic defiance of God’s will. In the end, and partly out of family necessity, she worked closely with the ARA in their distribution efforts. This deeply affected my mother, who rejected the tradition of peasant fatalism in hope of an afterlife, took her fate into her own hands as a very young woman, and went off to Kazan to apprentice as a seamstress to make her way in the world. Her example and that of my father became the inspiration of who I am today, flaws and all.
Berdyaev remains controversial, which he would undoubtedly what he would have wanted his legacy to be. I have always appreciated Florovsky’s ecumenism and the value of open debates in the patristic traditions as a source of modern, Christian spiritual vitality. That is the spirit I have seen, at least in my own Church community. We respect tradition, but we must be open to our doubts and questions. This spirit is not so much a tolerance or forbearance in the face of diverse opinions, but rather a genuine openness to discussion and careful listening to the questions, doubts, and beliefs of others. This forces participants to not become complacent and idolatrous with their own convictions. This is also partly due to the instinctive recoiling from dogmatism, which not only motivated the political persecution of the church by authorities in the Soviet era, but also had been historically fostered by the church in a traditional, passive resignation to suffering in the hope of an afterlife. Our history of passive resignation to whatever faces us no longer speaks to us. We must be open while being the active, responsible agents in our lives as we have been created to be, and still take the time to stop and be silent to listen to the voice of God in our lives. A serious religious life is anything but easy.
In my own understanding, we are brought into the world to fulfill God’s often inscrutable will for us, not to make up our own minds about what we "believe" and follow our own self-indulgent constructions or the dictates of ecclesiastic authorities. All comes from God, and being challenged is part of that will, as is our response. Our priest often poses the question to keep our discussions on track, “where is God’s love here?” or “This is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with saving souls?” Nothing is better for strengthening faith than having it challenged and having to respond by contemplating those questions, not insisting that we "decide" what we "believe," and keeping our hearts and and minds open to His will.