Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ince World War Il verbal prayers to Jesus as Savior but the tone is not quite as familiar. When addressing Almighty God, the Soviet evangelical stands to his feet (also at mealtimes, including in a restaurant), or better still, falls on his knees for intense prayer with much repetition of the word Gospodi (Lord). Those two positions show their respect for God the all-powerful,f After all, school- children stand at attention when the teacher appears and Soviet citizens stand when speaking with representatives from the state authorities. Earlier, the Russian peasant knelt before his lord. The Orthodox emphasis on the spirit and emotions rather than the mind is also evident in communal prayers. The chorus of whispered prayers at a Baptist service is not unlike the responses of Orthodox worshipers dur- ing the liturgy. There is also a long tradition in Orthodoxy affirming the value of shedding tears in repentance and worship, This combined with a Slavic tendency to,emotionalism helps to account for the excessive weeping among Soviet evangelicals. An early missionary to Russia complained that Russian evangelicals seemed to feel that a person must make at least one public confession with weeping. “This they call conversion.’’!8 Conversion occasions I have witnessed took place during the time of congregational prayer where the sinner would call to God for mercy and quickly break down into weeping, unable to finish his prayer. I have heard people ques- tion the reality of someone’s conversion experience if they were not suffi- ciently impressed by the remorsefulness of his weeping. _ Perhaps the most significant influence from Orthodoxy was the nega- tive stimulus it provided. The resistance to the domination of a hierarchy has virtually as long a history as Russian Orthodoxy itself. The individualism of the sectarians can as legitimately be considered Russian as the claim that to be Russian is to be Orthodox. Soviet evangelicals were very critical of the Eastern church. “What can we say about the church of the East,” Ivan Pro- khanov once remarked, “whose religion was expressed in the majestic vest- ments of its bishops, wonderful church music, festive liturgy, but in a lan- guage the people could not understand?” Prokhanov went on to declare that “in these churches there is much artistry, but little spiritual life, mys- tique and aesthetics, but no living fellowship with God, the Father and Son in the Holy Spirit. They feed the people on beauty but don’t give them liv- ing bread.” In addition, the negative image of the illiterate, drunken priest and other abuses provided models the evangelicals wished to avoid. Experience Teaches Theology Finally, there was the unmistakable influence of their own deep Soviet Evangelical Theology 343 experiences, The persecution in the 1930s with an intensity unknown sin the 16th century and then the ravages of war, having barely recovered from the collapse in t