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

biography) of Russian Baptist communities, in order to identify those convictions that are at the core of their identity. Chapter 1 maps the historical context of the emerging Russian baptistic movement. Numerous economic and social reforms initiated by the Emperor Alexander Il, the spiritual crisis that broke out in the Orthodox Church, and then spread throughout the wider society, and the publishing of the Bible in the contemporary Russian language, which was made available to a great number of people — all of these factors have contributed to the appearance of the baptistic groups in the Russian Empire, which initially could be seen as a reformation movement within the Orthodox Church. Using the example of the early peasant Stundist communities, | have argued that, despite the fact that these groups were disjointed and somewhat chaotic in structure and teaching, they shared one major characteristic feature — communal preaching in a form of simplistic literal reading of the Bible with its immediate application to the lives of the members of these communities. Suspicion and rejection that these evangelistic groups experienced from the Orthodox clergy were among the major factors that have > \V. Popov, “Otechestvenniaia Shkola Propovedi...” 3 Harris, “Toward an Understanding of Russian Baptist Preaching,” (1996). 241 eventually caused their break-away from the Orthodox Church, leading to the formation of new denominations. Thus, without rejecting the important contribution of various European evangelicals (such as German settlers in the South of the Russian Empire, various missionaries) on the appearance of the Baptist church in Russia, it is possible to speak about the practice of preaching, in a form of simplistic biblical interpretation, playing a prominent formative role in the appearance and spread of the first baptistic churches in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19" century. Chapter 2 seeks to establish a theological background from which Russian baptistic communities had emerged and begun to grow. Context, a set of unique historical, sociological, political and theological settings, inevitably influences the development of any community of faith. Russian Baptist communities differ significantly from the Baptist churches in Europe, Africa, South or North America. Vast cultural and ecclesial heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has penetrated all aspects of Russian culture, must be taken into consideration in any attempt to gain a deeper understanding of Russian Baptist convictions and practices. Due to the limitations of this work and its focus on preaching in Russian Baptist churches, in my study of the context, | have concentrated on three distinct theological and ecclesial elements of the Orthodox theology and practice. These are theosis (or deification), sobornost (or social conformity) and the concept of the Charismatic (or anti-rhetoric) preaching. Understandin