Religion and Society in Russia: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

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Oxford University Press, 1992 - History - 278 pages
This book traces the evolution of religious attitudes in an important transitional period in Russian history. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Russia saw the gradual decline of monastic spirituality, the rise of miracle cults, and ultimately the birth of a more personal and private faith that stressed morality instead of public rituals. Bushkovitch not only skillfully reconstructs these rapid and fundamental changes in the Russian religious experience, but also shows how they were influenced by European religious ideas and how they foreshadowed the secularization of Russian society usually credited to Peter the Great.
 

Contents

Russian History and Russian Orthodoxy
3
1 Orthodoxy in the Sixteenth Century
10
2 The Landholding Class and Its Religious World
32
3 The Church in the Seventeenth Century
51
4 Saints and Miracles in Church Policy
74
5 The Era of Miracles
100
6 The Beginnings of Change
128
7 The Rise of the Sermon
150
Conclusion
176
The Manuscripts of Epifanii Slavinetskiis Sermons
180
Notes
183
Bibliography
241
Index
265
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About the author (1992)

Paul Bushkovitch is professor of history at Yale University. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

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