Some thoughts on Russian orthodoxy
I was born and spent a great deal of my life in Russia, until leaving at the age of 24 to US to pursue PhD studies. The memories of being there still invoke many conflicting emotions in me (more negative than positive), but this is mostly to do with the fact that my early adulthood years (1991-97) were some of the worst years in Russian history - collapse of Communism and total chaos and poverty that followed. I also have quite a negative view of Russian Orthodox church, which, during my childhood years, I firmly associated with death.
Yet times are changing, Russia is changing, I am changing. I am slowly rediscovering Russian novelists I used to hate because I had to study them for school (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky). And I am reconsidering my views on Russian orthodoxy, which was primarily caused by discovering the teachings of an interesting Russian apologist, Andrey Kuraev.
This guy is the first in Russia (according to my knowledge) who tries to contextualize Christianity, e.g. adopt its message so that the culture can understand it. While contextualization movement have been going on in the West for many years, Russia (mainly due to its communist regime) never followed the suit. Things seem set for a change and I am really looking forward to it.
Andrey wrote some 30+ books that are freely available for download from his website (sorry, all in Russian). Here are some of the titles: “Harry Potter and the Church”, “Movie industry - overload by God’s word”, “Can a Christian believe in evolution?”, “To protestants about Orthodox Christianity”. I am really looking forward to studying these and will share some of the insights in this blog.