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

s, all of whom did not have any other common ground, but a worldview shaped by the Orthodoxy and literal reading and application of the Scripture to their life and faith.” Post-revolution (after 1917) development of hermeneutics of Evangelical Christians, as reflected in the ministry of Prokhanov, can be described as a combination of ‘insights from the historical-grammatical method of interpretation derived from his studies for a short period of time under Adolf von Harnack coexisting with those derived from the Alexandrian hermeneutics of multiple senses of scripture that he borrowed 745 from unnamed sources, most likely of Russian Orthodox origin.’ This approach was further developed by V. Bykov, one of the leaders of Evangelical Christians at the beginning of the 20" century, and can be characterised by heavy emphasis on the spiritual condition of the interpreter, and the active role of the Holy Spirit in revealing “? Dukhovnoie Probuzdeniie v Rossii [Spiritual Awakening in Russia] (Korntal, Svet na Vostoke, 1967), p 32. “3 Puzynin, The tradition of the Gospel Christians, p 74. “4 Addressing such a phenomenon of similarity of biblical interpretation in various contexts, McClendon notes that despite multiple hermeneutical methods, various interpretive practices and approaches to reading the Scripture, ‘the main course of Christian Bible reading has held true over the centuries to the plain sense of Scripture — its stories were read as (in the main) real stories about real people; its history, real history, its declarations about God and God’s creatures as saying what they meant and meaning what they said. The Bible was not a code or cipher to be cracked; it was not a book of secrets; it was realistic; it spoke plain.’ (McClendon, Doctrines, p 36). “© Puzynin, “The Tradition of the Gospel Christians...,” p 36. In his book The Tradition of the Gospel Christians, Puzynin offers in-depth analysis of Prokhanov’s hermeneutical method as found in his unpublished writings. See pp 182-185. 63 the meaning of the Text. Bykov even claims that without spiritual regeneration, it is impossible for a person to understand the meaning of the Bible. The Bible must be interpreted through the Christocentric prism, since all of the Scriptures are pointing to Jesus Christ (as in Luke 24:25-27). He also distinguishes the two meanings of every biblical passage — spiritual and literal, insisting that both meanings must be employed, as they complement each other, helping the reader to get a balanced interpretation. Bykov also indicates the importance of understanding the context of the passage.”° Pointing out the roots of greater openness of the Evangelical Christians to other interpretive traditions, Puzynin notes, This shift did not disrupt the tradition initiated by Radstock. The pneumatological starting point for interpreting scripture, as well as the literal and typological pietistic approach to in