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

dinate to the government and of which a wise government can make clever use for its own ends.’*> As seen from this brief overview of Russian society at the second half of the 19" century, both society and the official Church were struggling with serious issues, looking for new ways of development, and realising the need for a change. It was an age of disillusionment with the “kind Tsar’ working for the freed serfs, and there was disillusionment with socialist ideas among the wide spectrum of intelligentsia, some of whom turned to terrorism; it was an age of either scepticism and cynicism or the rise of conservative ideas among the aristocracy. That was a time when the guidance of the Church was especially needed but was missing. °° The Bible The history of the Russian people receiving the printed Scripture began in 1816, the year when the Bible in Old Church Slavonic was published. The first Russian translation of the New Testament was published in 1822 — with 25 O00 volumes produced. Unfortunately, the initiative to translate and publish the Bible into Russian at that time was not supported by the Orthodox clergy. After the death of Alexander |, the Bible Society was closed and those New Testaments that were not distributed were burnt. The second period of making the Bible widely available is closely connected to the name of Moscow Metropolitan Philaret (1782-1867). Under his influence the Holy 35 Evgenii M. Feoktistov, Vospominaniia. Zakulisami Politiki i Literatury 1848- 1896 [Memoirs. Behind the Curtains of Politics and Literature 1848 - 1896] (Leningrad, Priboi, 1929), p 169. 3° It would be an exaggeration to say that there was widespread disillusionment in the role and place of the Orthodox Church in Russian society, as Heier puts it in his analysis (see Heier, Religious Schism in the Russian Aristocracy, Chapter 1), which became the reason for the rise to the Evangelical movement known as Radstokism or Pashkovism. The whole society was so deeply Orthodox (both peasants and nobles) that people could not see a viable alternative, and could not imagine a different way of life. Later in this chapter, when looking at Stundists, | will point to the fact that neither Stundism nor Pashkovism began as an alternative to Orthodoxy. Rather, they were sincere attempts to bring about a positive change in the Church and into the country. 22 Synod took a decision to translate the Bible into the then contemporary Russian language. 1862 was a crucial year for Russian Christianity. In that year the New Testament in contemporary language was published. In 1863 a small group began raising funds to assist people in purchasing Bibles. Three years later this group grew into the Society of Distribution of the Holy Scriptures in Russia, supported by the Imperial government. The full Russian Synodal Bible was published in 1876.” The work of this and other organisations that were involved in the spread of the