Towards Understanding of the Practice of Proclamation: The Core Element of Russian Baptist Worship, Timofey Cheprasov, 2015

tic formulas. concludes that religion is not a matter of linguistic formulations, and is not grounded in language, but first and foremost it is grounded in a way of life.** ‘The relation between the members of a community of believers is not one of speakers; it is not a matter of conversation, but of communion, that is, of union in a common set of practices that tie them together.’*" The value of this approach for my project is in its ability to offer an insight into the crisis of identity that many post-Soviet baptistic churches have experienced. The reduction of the identity to a particular way of life, passed on through actions, results in churches clinging to the visible expressions of their spirituality and identity. Such patterns of identity passing can successfully function with one condition — the church has to be forced into secluded existence, where its members could grow up, absorbing a particular way of life, which would be the only way known. Understanding tradition as a key element of passing on baptistic identity does not allow space for transformation and development, which became a requirement in a post-Soviet, post-oppressive realities of democracy and freedom. Those churches that attempt preservation of their life, of ‘the way they’ve always done things’ risk extinction or alienation from society. This, however, means their inability to fulfil their Christian calling — to witness. Therefore, another approach is needed, the one that would enable preservation of the identity, without necessarily rejecting the change and development. 3 Ibid. >? Ibid., p 119. 33 Ibid., p 119; Cf. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations § 241, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe (New York: Macmillan, 1965), p 88. 34 Gracia, Old Wine in New Skins, p 121. 5 | develop the notion of the crisis of Christian identity in the post-Soviet Baptist churches in section 9.1 Three sermons in a worship service. 172 Stanley Hauerwas offers that missing element from Gracia’s argument by adding narrative to the important element of tradition in passing on identity. He wrote, The church... cannot be limited to any one historical paradigm or contained by any one institutional form. Rather the very character of the stories of God requires a people who are willing to have their understanding of the story constantly challenged by what others have discovered in their attempt to live faithful to that tradition. *© This brings me to the importance of narrative, which is a second concept in Maclntyre’s argumentation. Narrative provides context, which fills actions with meaning. For example, how to understand an utterance of three unclear words ‘histrionicus histrionicus histrionicus’ addressed to you by a stranger at the bus stop? MacIntyre says that the only way these words (and the whole situation) may become intelligible is if there is an explanation of an action, if you are given a context that clarifies