The Third Rome: An Introduction to Russian Orthodoxy

1. Vikings, Vladimir and the Birth of Christian Russia, 2 March 2023, 7pm on Zoom

Summary

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Following an introduction to some of the distinguishing features of Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, this first talk will look at the origins of Christianity in Russia, exploring both the mythical and historical accounts of Christianity’s emerged in Russia. Fundamental to my argument, is the way in which the Christian faith, from the baptism of Prince Vladimir (AD 988), made sure alliances with the nation’s rulers in order to secure its security and stability. The alliance between Prince and the Church was not only foundational for the Russian Church, but arguably continues to be seen in the complex and symbiotic relationship between church, state, and this relationship is at the heart of Russian culture, its understanding of itself as a motherland, as well as its claims to be a ‘Third Rome.’

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to answer the following three questions:

1.     What are the distinctive features of Eastern Orthodox Christianity?

2.     When and how did Christianity emerge in Russia?

3.     How did the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and state develop?

2. The Russian Religious Revival, 9 March 2023, 7pm on Zoom

Summary

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his talk will suggest that the Church in Russia suffered diminishment under the westernising reforms of Peter and Catherine the Great. In the 19th century, however, there were twin revivals. There was, perhaps as a result of a westernising Renaissance, a rise in the profile of science and atheist scientism. At the same time, however, the quasi-romantic Slavophile movement emerged, proclaiming a new the myth of a religious and cultural Russia, with a place once more for the Russian Orthodox Church, bringing it into conflict with westernising trends. All these, however, would be quashed, silenced, and exiled by the momentous rise of Russian socialism, and Marxism, and the Russian Revolution of 1917. This exiled many of the great minds of Russian Orthodoxy, to Germany, France and Great Britain, and led to the development of an exarchate.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to answer the following three questions:

1.     What was the Russian Religious Revival?

2.     What were ‘Slavophils’ and how did they relate to ‘Westernisers’?

3.     How did the rise of Marxism, and the Russian Revolution affect the Church?

3. Ancient and Modern: Four Prophets of Modern Christian Russia, 16 March 2023, 7pm (on Zoom)

Summary

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This talk will explore the impact of 19th and 20th century thinkers, before and after 1917, whose work continues to shape contemporary Russian Orthodoxy, its thought and its conflicts. One conflict it will explore is the(over-exaggerated), divide between those who sought to root their theological development in the Early Church Fathers - the so-called Neo-patristic synthesis — and the modernists, who took some their inspiration from the likes western ‘modern’ thinkers such as Hegel, Kant, and even Nietzsche. It shall explore four thinkers briefly: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Vladimir Soloviev, George Florovsky and Nicolas Berdyaev, comparing and contrasting their approaches and suggesting aspects of their work that continue to inform Russian Orthodox thinking, showng aspects of the modernism, and patristic revisionism. It will be argued that Russian Orthodoxy is always keen to emphasise its conservative and traditional heart, whilst in reality it has been influenced equally by modernist trends too.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to answer the following three questions:

1.     What happened after the revolution to Russian Orthodoxy?

2.     What is the Neo-Patristic synthesis and who were their modernist opponents?

3.     Who were the great thinkers of the Russian religious Renaissance and what do they teach us?

4. Holy Rus & Russkiy Mir: contemporary Russian Orthodoxy, 23 March 2023, 7pm (on Zoom)

Summary

Returning to the starting point, this talk will explore how the birth of Christianity and its flourishing (and diminishing)  has been inextricably linked to the state and changes within the state. It will turn to explore how the church survived under the secularising atheism of the USSR and how, despite its suppression, some 20% of the population continued to practice the faith under communism. The talk will move on to show how Russian Orthodoxy has recovered — indeed rebounded — from suppression to become an intrinsic part of national life and culture, tied to concepts of both Holy Rus’ and Russkiya Mir, which embody romantic, mythical, and deeply nationalist expressions of Russian self-understanding. It will end by suggesting that the way in which the Russian Orthodox Church has responded to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the expansionist philosophy espoused by Vladimir Putin and others, placing itself shoulder-to-shoulder with its national government in support of the invasion and its aims, is rooted in its culture and history.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to answer the following three questions:

1.     How did Russian Orthodoxy survive under Communism?

2.     Why is the relationship between Orthodoxy and the State in Russia so complex?

3.     Where are the signs of hope and concern in Contemporary Russian Orthodoxy?

Biography

The Revd Canon Dr Gregory Platten, previously vicar of All Saints’ Friern Barnet and Area Dean of Central and West Barnet Deaneries in the Diocese of London, was installed and collated as Canon Chancellor of Lichfield Cathedral in July 2020. He has a DPhil from Oxford University in the area of philosophical theology and Russian Orthodoxy.