My research in the intellectual and spiritual sphere of nineteenth century Russia revealed that ever since the penetration of the fashion able anti-ecclesiastical views of the Encyclopedists into Russia, the aristocrats had grown indifferent to religion. The spiritual vacuum created as a result of such conditions could not last, however, for a prolonged period of time; least of all during the decades following the r860's when Russia's moral, socio-political, and religious problems were most acute. The subsequent quest for salvation and the general religious inquiry among Russia's elite, as they were known in the West, manifested itself chiefly in the writings of such profound religious and philosophical thinkers as V. Solov'ev, K. Leont'ev, N. Fedorov, Dos toevskij, and Tolstoj. They constitute, however, only a fraction of those tormented by the longing for religious truth and guidance in an age of transition and uncertainty. There existed among Russia's aristocracy in the second half of the nineteenth century a widespread socio-religious movement known as Radstockism or Pashkovism, which aimed for a religious renovation and with it a transformation of Russia on an ethical and moral basis. These aristocrats were men and women who in their youth were in different to all faith, but who had never abandoned the search for a solution to their own and to Russia's problems. The solution to these problems they believed to be based on moral and religious principles found in Evangelical Christianity.

"Over ten years in the making, The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement offers for the first time a sweeping historical and theological treatment of this complex, vibrant global communion. Written by more than 300 contributors, this major reference work contains over 700 original articles covering all of the significant individuals, events, places, and theological tenets that have shaped the Movement. Much more than simply a historical dictionary, this volume also constitutes an interpretive work reflecting historical consensus among Stone-Campbell scholars, even as it attempts to present a fair, representative picture of the rich heritage that is the Stone-Campbell Movement."--BOOK JACKET.

My research in the intellectual and spiritual sphere of nineteenth century Russia revealed that ever since the penetration of the fashion able anti-ecclesiastical views of the Encyclopedists into Russia, the aristocrats had grown indifferent to religion. The spiritual vacuum created as a result of such conditions could not last, however, for a prolonged period of time; least of all during the decades following the r860's when Russia's moral, socio-political, and religious problems were most acute. The subsequent quest for salvation and the general religious inquiry among Russia's elite, as they were known in the West, manifested itself chiefly in the writings of such profound religious and philosophical thinkers as V. Solov'ev, K. Leont'ev, N. Fedorov, Dos toevskij, and Tolstoj. They constitute, however, only a fraction of those tormented by the longing for religious truth and guidance in an age of transition and uncertainty. There existed among Russia's aristocracy in the second half of the nineteenth century a widespread socio-religious movement known as Radstockism or Pashkovism, which aimed for a religious renovation and with it a transformation of Russia on an ethical and moral basis. These aristocrats were men and women who in their youth were in different to all faith, but who had never abandoned the search for a solution to their own and to Russia's problems. The solution to these problems they believed to be based on moral and religious principles found in Evangelical Christianity.

Since the disintegration of the USSR many Russian Baptists have actively engaged in evangelism, church planting, and acts of social service. This book is a response to the need to critically evaluate the effectiveness of past mission efforts and their undergirding theology. In this detailed study, Dr Andrey Kravtsev combines historical and qualitative studies to outline the understanding of mission developed by Russian Baptists during the Soviet era when they were almost completely isolated from global missiological developments. First, Kravtsev identifies four key missiological concepts and uses them to analyze the history of mission theology in global evangelical mission movements and the Russian Baptists. He then interviewed thirty leaders from the Russian Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists to find their view of these concepts, and their convictions of the need to reconsider traditional missiological views. From his findings, Dr Kravtsev suggests five themes for facilitating the transition of Russian Baptist mission theology from the late-Soviet model of eschatological escapism, to a holistic, missional evangelicalism. This book places evangelical mission in contemporary Russian socio-political and ideological contexts and provides an important contribution for leading churches to a renewed missionary encounter with culture.

On the snowy morning of February 8, 1897, the Petersburg secret police were following Tolstoy's every move, and he was always in the company of a man named Certkov. At sixty-nine, Russia's most celebrated writer was being treated like a major criminal, and had abandoned his literary pursuits and become a spiritual mystic, angering the Orthodox church and earning both the admination and ire of his countrymen. Tolstoy was recognizable enough, with his peasant garb and beard, but who was the man who towered over Tolstoy, twenty years younger, with a cold, impenetrable look on his face?This man, Chertkov, was a relative to the Tsars and nephew to the chief of the secret police and represented the very things Tolstoy had renounced—class privilege, unlimited power, and wealth—and yet Chertkov fascinated and attracted Tolstoy. He would become the writer's closest confidant, reading even his diary, and at the end of Tolstoy's life, Chertkov had him in his complete control, preventing him from even seeing his own wife on his deathbed.

Today, many evangelicals in the Russian-speaking world emphasize sanctification as a distinctive mark of their Christian faith. This is a unique characteristic, particularly in the European context. Their historic tapestry has been woven from a number of threads that originated in the second half of the nineteenth century. Missionary efforts of the German Baptists, a revival sparked by a British evangelist, and a pietistic awakening among the Mennonites in the South converged to form a tapestry that displays Protestant, Baptist, and Anabaptist heritage. Ivan Kargel uniquely participated in the formation and ministry of each of these threads. His life spans from Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union. Kargel refused to adhere to a systematic view of theology. Instead, he urged believers to go to Scripture and draw from the riches of a life united with Christ. Kargel's influence today is keenly felt across the Russian-speaking evangelical world as they seek to identify the roots of their spiritual identity. This book examines the influences on Ivan Kargel and offers insights into how his life and work are expressed in the tapestry of Russian evangelical spirituality.

This masterful six-volume encyclopedia provides comprehensive, global coverage of religion, emphasizing larger religious communities without neglecting the world's smaller religious outposts. Religions of the World, Second Edition: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices is an extraordinary work, bringing together the scholarship of some 225 experts from around the globe. The encyclopedia's six volumes offer entries on every country of the world, with particular emphasis on the larger nations, as well as Indonesia and the Latin American countries that are traditionally given little attention in English-language reference works. Entries include profiles on religion in the world's smallest countries (the Vatican and San Marino), profiles on religion in recently established or disputed countries (Kosovo and Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as profiles on religion in some of the world's most remote places (Antarctica and Easter Island). Religions of the World is unique in that it is based in religion "on the ground," tracing the development of each of the 16 major world religious traditions through its institutional expressions in the modern world, its major geographical sites, and its major celebrations. Unlike other works, the encyclopedia also covers the world of religious unbelief as expressed in atheism, humanism, and other traditions.

"Based on a true story of an early Russian missionary bishop's trip to the far reaches of Eastern Siberia, Nicolai Leskov (1831-1895), the master of hte Russian short story, delights the reader with a tale of adventure and substance. Leskob, the Russian equivalent of the American mark Twain, is a powerful storyteller, utilizing language and acute characterizations to weave an unforgettable tale"(from cover).

"... a fascinating read for everyone interested in Russia, religion, and modernity." -- Nadieszda Kizenko In the early 20th century, Baptists were the fastest-growing non-Orthodox religious group among Russians and Ukrainians. Heather J. Coleman traces the development of Baptist evangelical communities through a period of rapid industrialization, war, and revolution, when Russians found themselves asking new questions about religion and its place in modern life. Baptists' faith helped them navigate the problems of dissent, of order and disorder, of modernization and westernization, and of national and social identity in their changing society. Making use of newly available archival material, this important book reveals the ways in which the Baptists' own experiences, and the widespread discussions that they generated, illuminate the emergence of new social and personal identities in late Imperial and early Soviet Russia, the creation of a public sphere and a civic culture, and the role of religious ideas in the modernization process.

Robert Geraci presents an exceptionally original account of both the politics and the lived experience of diversity in a society whose ethnic complexity has long been downplayed. For centuries, Russians have defined their country as both a multinational empire and a homogeneous nation-state in the making, and have alternately embraced and repudiated the East or Asia as fundamental to Russia's identity. The author argues that the city of Kazan, in the middle Volga region, was the chief nineteenth-century site for mediating this troubled and paradoxical relationship with the East, much as St. Petersburg had served as Russia's window on Europe a century earlier. He shows how Russians sought through science, religion, pedagogy, and politics to understand and promote the Russification of ethnic minorities in the East, as well as to define themselves. Vivid in narrative detail, meticulously argued, and peopled by a colorful cast including missionaries, bishops, peasants, mullahs, professors, teachers, students, linguists, orientalists, archeologists, and state officials, Window on the East uses previously untapped archival and published materials to describe the creation (sometimes intentional, sometimes unintentional) of intermediate and new forms of Russianness.