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

g is primarily concerned with (being perceived as the most important instrument for shaping and preserving Russian Baptist congregations). Following the review of a number of different approaches to defining Baptist identity, | have employed the concept of the baptist vision, as developed by James McClendon, as the most helpful for the purposes of my research. The vision is 244 understood as a particular hermeneutical principle, a reading strategy, when the church sees itself as an inseparable part of the biblical story, whilst at the same time being examined and transformed by it. Since such approach to the baptistic identity highlights the crucial role of the Bible, the important question that has to be addressed is how this book is read by the believing community. This introduces the focus of Chapter 7, which is social practices, and, in particular, the practices of reading the Bible. | approach the notion of practices following Maclntyre’s philosophical views. He sees social practices as something inherently positive. Participation in practices leads to the discovery of goods internal, practices result in virtues. With the help of the concept of powers and principalities, McClendon introduces an important corrective. He argues that every practice has a potential to rebel or fall. Consequently, they should be considered as powerful practices, thus emphasising their constructive potential as well as destructive force. Therefore, | have argued that preaching must be understood as a powerful practice, since it may result in virtues as well as in vices. Using the history of Russian Baptist communities it can be seen, how the understanding of preaching changed from a communal practice, open to all the members of the early baptistic groups, to a power attribute, available to a specially selected group of people, often alienating lay Christians from the involvement in in-depth Bible study and reflection. Considering that the baptist vision, as formulated by McClendon, is a form of communal hermeneutics, preaching, in its contemporary form, can be seen as possessing powers, deforming the identity of Russian Baptist communities. The important question that this discussion has led to, is the question of safe- guarding against potential weaknesses and imperfections of the practice of proclamation, particularly, considering its central place in the worship of Russian Baptist communities. Such a safe-guarding strategy must be found in the practice of Bible reading, since this practice contains the necessary correctives to other vulnerable practices of the believing community, including the practice of Bible reading itself. The whole of Chapter 8, therefore, becomes a case for communal hermeneutics. | have argued that in order to nullify the destructive potential of preaching, it must be practiced within a wider cluster of practices of reading the Bible, which includes the need for the whole Christian f