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

d from the pulpit by this person. | develop these insights further in Chapter 4. > For further study of the development of Russian Baptist approach to preaching see Chapter 3. ® Arguably, such an attitude to critical analysis of the key church practices is part of the Orthodox heritage. See Chapter 2 for a review of the Orthodox context and its influence on Russian Baptists. Similarly, little help can be received from books and articles published in the English-speaking world. Unlike a few aspects of Russian Baptist ecclesiology that did draw some research interest, such as charity work, spirituality, and history, preaching, despite its obvious importance for the life of the church, has never attracted much attention of those pastors, missionaries and educators from abroad, who flooded into the Soviet Union (USSR) after the fall of the iron curtain. The neglect can be explained and, to a certain degree justified, if one tries to assess the often poorly translated and lacking linear structure sermons of Russian preachers through the lens of Anglo- American homiletical tradition. Mark J. Harris, for example, speaks about preaching in Russian churches as a low quality product of a culture that had never had democracy therefore had a poor history of public speaking. Considering his rather superficial understanding of the historical, cultural and theological background of Russian Baptist churches and their practices, his article should be seen as a “foreigner’s impressions of Russian Baptist preaching,” rather than an academic study of any sort. ’ Henceforth preaching among Russia Baptists was always viewed as something that required correction and modification either through training or example, but not as something that deserved attention on its own. One can find it difficult to argue with this opinion after listening to one of those sermons. Nevertheless this position is deeply mistaken, since above all it misses the point that preaching in Russia has never been viewed as a public speech developed according to some laws of rhetoric. | hope to fill in this gap with my work, by looking at Russian Baptist preaching, the history of its development and the theology behind it. However, saying that Russian preaching should be considered within its context, that it deserves to be studied on its own right, | by no means imply that whatever is pronounced from Russian Baptist pulpits has to be highly valued and that no improvements are possible. On the contrary, unfortunately there is much low quality preaching (whatever view of preaching is upheld!) taking place, and | believe Russian Baptists should be able to accept and admit this fact. Also Konstantin Prokhorov, “Russian Baptists and Orthodoxy, 1960-1990: A Comparative Study of Theology, Liturgy and Traditions,” PhD Dissertation (University of Wales, IBTS, Prague, 2011). ” Mark J. Harris, “Toward an Understanding of Russian Baptist Preaching,” (1996), a