Protestantism: pro et contra. Views and polemics of Russian authors in the XVI-early XXI century. Anthology/Smirnov, St. Petersburg: Russian Academy of Arts, 2012, 846 p. (in Russian)

The religious situation in Russia at the beginning of the XXI century is diverse, heterogeneous and mobile. Public opinion polls indicate a persistent need for Russians to identify their faiths, field studies and departmental statistics indicate a rapid growth in the number of religious associations, and political leaders at the federal and regional levels take into account the religious factor both when creating national ideologies and when developing specific social programs and methods for their implementation. The main focus of the mass media is on the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, but other religious organizations also make a significant contribution to the religious life of the country.

Protestantism has a significant influence on the religious situation, although it is still poorly reflected in the public consciousness. The liturgical, social, economic, and political activities of Protestant communities are intense, extensive, and apparently indicate their great cultural potential. In this regard, it is very timely to publish an anthology that sheds light on the history of Protestantism, makes it possible to understand the place of this religion in Russian culture and presumably assess its role in the further development of the country. In addition to actual considerations, the author's own logic of science speaks in favor of creating such an anthology. A holistic understanding of Protestantism in general and Protestantism in Russia in particular is an ongoing task of historians and philosophers of religion. An ordered collection of texts of various types and contents, from medieval to modern, is an intermediate stage of religious studies reflection on the way to building an updated concept of Protestantism.

The reviewed publication, despite its broad coverage - more than fifty texts-does not claim to be a complete review of the Russian-Protestant theme. According to the idea of the compiler, a well-known sociologist of religion, the author of a number of publications

on the topic of Protestantism, "the task of this anthology is to present the reader with the coverage of Protestantism in Russia by non-Protestant authors, given in the dynamics of its variable and constant characteristics, in the pro et contra mode" (p. 9). Non-Protestant authors included Orthodox polemicists, Soviet atheists, and representatives of academic science.

The entire volume of texts is distributed in the anthology in twelve sections, which "cover the most noticeable and important, from the point of view of the compiler, reactions of polemical and research thought to Protestantism in the Russian state, public and religious space" (p.10). The titles of the sections are as follows: I - "Pre-Revolutionary historiography of Protestantism in Russia: an official perspective", II - " The first Century of Protestantism in Russia: under the sign of "statements on luthors"", III - "A view from the XIX century on the anti-Lutheran polemic in Russia of the XVI-XVII centuries", IV - " From Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great: the Thorny Path of Protestant Adaptation in Russia", V - "Orthodox and Theological Assessment of the Lutheran faith", VI - "Protestant Trace in Russian Sectarianism", VII - " One Word-the Germans... (on Protestant influence on Russians)", VIII - "Ideology of Communism and Protestantism in the USSR", IX - "Under the eye of scientific atheism", X - "Protestantism in Post-Soviet Russia", XI - "The Phenomenon of Russian Protestantism", XII-Appendices (excerpts from the Charter of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of 1832 text of the current "Charter of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia", text of the "Social Position of the Protestant Churches of Russia").

A more or less detailed description of each section and each author is given by the compiler in the introductory article "A non-Protestant view of Protestantism in Russia". To avoid repetition, we will allow ourselves to deviate from the logic of presentation implemented in the anthology, and share observations and reflections that arose under the influence of the texts we read.

Anthology " Protestantism: pro et contra" is a multi-colored kaleidoscope of facts, judgments, and assessments of Protestantism in Russia. It is easy to read, fascinating, and useful in expanding your general historical and religious erudition.

But what is more important-the texts collected under one cover, entering into a dialogue with each other, gradually draw the reader into the interview, make him wonder at individual facts and judgments, and encourage him to ask abstract theoretical and ideological questions. In the course of multiplying the points of view presented in the book, the picture of Russian Protestant life, customs, and concepts becomes richer and more complex. And the more clearly and urgently the questions about the historical roots and essence of Protestantism appear, about Protestantism as a special system of ideas and a peculiar psychological predisposition, the more strongly the human and civil need to discern in it a social and cultural force that has an internally defined vector of action is experienced.

The authors of the anthology perceive the emergence of Protestantism in Western Europe in different ways. In this case, the judgments and assessments made by representatives of Orthodox or secular trends are generally expected, but the very tone of statements, individual stylistic features, in which the spirit of the environment and era that gave rise to them is most clearly manifested, are of interest. Thus, for Maximus the Greek, a contemporary of the Reformation, who wrote "Against the Lutherans - a word about the worship of Holy Icons", Protestantism, which rejects icon worship, is an unmistakable evil, the result of licentiousness, pride and mental blindness: "Like a deaf viper, when it hears the deceiver (conspiracies), it puts one ear to the ground, and the other he shuts up his tail so as not to hear the voice that utters charm, just as these unwise people, because of their disobedience and laziness, and most importantly, because of envy, do not listen to admonition..."(p. 55). This orientation in the evaluation of Protestantism, the tendency to explain its origin by the arbitrariness of individuals, as well as the spontaneous contagion of enthusiasm, is also visible in the work of N. D. Terentyev's "Lutheran Religious System based on the Symbolic Books of Lutheranism", written four centuries later. Partly excusing Luther and Melanchthon, who were "men of talent and theological education, and who were also seized with sincere religious animation" (p. 313), the Orthodox polemicist sees in their writings "something bright, but much more dark" (p.308).

The initial attempts to rationalize the Reformation involved criticism of medieval Western Christianity. For example, in I. I. Sokolov's article "Protestant propaganda and reaction to it in Russia of the XVI and XVII centuries", the idea of the natural nature of the protest against the abuses of the Catholic Church is expressed as follows: "Luther only managed to unite the opposition movements that emerged in the Western Church from the very beginning of its separation from the Eastern one... he and the princes managed to give them all a new form of social and political protest and separatism " (p. 163). Secular authors analyze the causes of the Reformation further. With an objective scientific approach, religion loses the status of the primary basis of human existence, which takes different forms according to circumstances, and itself turns into one of the forms of culture. The internal crisis of Catholicism, its inability to satisfy the ideological needs of the general population, appears as a consequence of the general cultural evolution, and religious processes are dependent on economic, social and political ones. In particular, this understanding is expressed in the text of L. N. Mitrokhina under the title "Our interest in Protestantism": "The fundamental principles of Protestantism were determined by everyday experience, which reflected people's special ideas about equality, inner freedom and independence of a person, his duty and vocation, which spontaneously formed among people who were increasingly involved in specific bourgeois relations" (p.452).

Similar explanations, whether exasperated or moderately complacent, were given to the later history of Protestantism. Some of the authors consider this story accidental, some natural, some see in it the machinations of enemies of church unity, others - an inevitable stage in the development of religious ideology. The anthology pays special attention to the spread of Protestantism in Russia. The first Lutherans appeared in Russia during the lifetime of their spiritual leader. But when exactly did the presence of individual foreign artisans, artists, merchants, and apothecaries turn into Protestantism firmly rooted in Russian soil? Was it in the middle of the sixteenth century, when German communities settled in Moscow, Vladimir, Uglich, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Tver, Kazan, and Arkhangelsk? Or in 1575,

when did Protestants get permission to build their own church near Moscow? Was it then, when the free interpretation of the Bible struck Russian minds and prompted those who belonged to the Orthodox Church from birth to depart from it? Or when the entire state structure was reorganized according to the Western European model, and foreigners were at the helm of government? Or, perhaps, Protestantism completely became a Russian phenomenon, when the people, under the pressure of unsatisfied spiritual needs, developed their own extra-ecclesiastical forms of religious life, independent of foreign influence? The issue of the periodization of Protestantism in Russia is important for the authors of the anthology, most of them touch on it either in general terms, or covering the history of individual communities - Lutheran, Stundist, Baptist, Mennonite, Pentecostal, etc.

Many texts directly or indirectly discuss the "spiritual organization" of Protestants. Various observers note an increased sense of personal dignity inherent in Protestants. Even those who can hardly be suspected of sympathizing with Protestantism admit that "by their piety and austerity of life, Protestants greatly contributed to the purification of morals among the Orthodox, especially to the elevation of social virtues - philanthropy, charity, honesty, and diligence" (N. I. Barsov, Protestantism in Russia, p. 37). Moral independence and rare efficiency are based on a fundamentally reasonable attitude to religious revelation and to life. Particular consequences of the rationalization of faith were the emphasized asceticism of worship, the rejection of rich rituals and the complex hierarchy of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, the dream of " realizing the Kingdom of God on earth... having established love, common contentment, equality without blemish and crime" (Pobedonostsev K. P. "New Christianity without Christ", p. 341). The direction of the spiritual life of Russian Protestants changed depending on historical conditions. In difficult times, their service to God took a strictly professional form, satisfying "the ideal that the Russian government has set for itself regarding a foreigner" (Tsvetaev D. V. "The struggle against Protestant influence in the Moscow region").

state before Peter the Great", p. 180), and when given the opportunity, they preached their views in every way, and very successfully. Ten years after the beginning of equal missionary competition, provided for by the Decree on strengthening the principles of religious Tolerance of 1905, the Orthodox publicist A. F. Gilyarevsky was forced to recognize the superiority of Protestants: "Their national mission stands at an unattainable height" ("German dominance in Russian national religious life", p. 365). During the Soviet era, the social and psychological image of the Protestant lost its expressiveness. In a godless state, the possibility of a full-fledged social and religious life was closed to believers; in a socialist state, the prospect of religious and economic activity disappeared. The social ground under the self-consciousness of the sower of God's words and the specialist noted above has blurred, the point of support for the application of religious norms and values in everyday life has been lost, and as a result, "the idea of an active, active person is almost completely lost" (Savelyev N. N. "Protestant Sectarianism in the light of atheistic propaganda", p. 444).

A side effect of the pre-revolutionary religious freedoms and then the brutal religious policy of the USSR was the weakening of national consciousness. Proponents of Russian Orthodoxy in the 19th century were still concerned with the question of whether a Russian person could be a Protestant in his psychological makeup, although Ivan the Terrible, in response to Ivan Rokita's criticism of church tradition, noted the universal, supranational nature of faith ("our faith is called not Russian, but Christian, people are called Christians, and where they are called by another name, after the name of the land, here is heresy and schism", p. 80). By the mid-20s of the XX century, after the missionary acquisitions of Baptismal and Evangelical Christianity, Methodists and Pentecostals among ethnic Russians, the national-religious issue lost its sharpness. At the beginning of the XXI century, even the national identity of Russian Lutheranism changed, which, due to the powerful influx of Russian neophytes, turns "into the Russian patriotic movement" (Lunkin R.N. " Protestantism in Russia: the new power of civil society", p. 496).

The Russification factor and favorable conditions for religious freedom are related to

curious evolutions within modern Protestantism. The traditional opposition between the spiritual reading of the Bible and the external ritualism of Orthodoxy in recent Russian history is becoming less and less sharp. A. S. Strukova and S. B. Filatov note "a more or less conscious desire for elements of Orthodox Ritualism characteristic of almost all active Protestant churches in modern Russia" ("From Protestantism in Russia to Russian Protestantism", p. 545), the construction of churches "with splendor", the assimilation of solemn pastoral vestments, the return to the veneration of icons (p. 545-547). T. K. Nikolskaya additionally points to the approach of the Protestant language to the Orthodox norm and "the spread of the Episcopalian system of government instead of the congregational one" ("Russian Protestants in the XX century", p. 591).

Russian educated youth actively participate in the life of Protestant communities, developing missionary work, religious education, journalism, implementing social programs, and increasingly articulating their political interests. Having studied various parameters of the current religious situation in Russia, R. A. Lopatkin came to the conclusion that Protestant churches are "the most dynamic part of the country's religious population" ("The religious situation in Russia and the place of Protestantism in it", p.462). At the same time, along with practical work, the Russian Protestant intelligentsia devotes attention to developing a worldview that would correspond to its current situation. Hence the interest in Orthodox theology and the Russian spiritual tradition, in which many find the origins of their religiosity. Thus, according to O. V. Vasilyeva (Bokova), " modern Russian Protestants identify themselves not with the European Reformation and Western Protestantism, but with the tradition of Evangelical Christianity that they find in the deep layers of Russian spiritual culture "("Modern Russian Protestantism: in search of themselves", p.563).

Protestantism is a fact in Russia today. How can this fact be explained and treated? Without encroaching at least on the approximate completeness of the review of existing concepts of Protestantism in Russia, we address the reader who is interested in the subject to Antolo herself-

gii. In this book, which fully corresponds to the purpose of a scientific and educational publication, you can find many more interesting and useful information, both in the main publications and in the comments to them.

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