The Dangerous God: Christianity and the Soviet Experiment

At The Heart Of The Soviet Experiment Was A Belief In The Impermanence Of The Human Spirit: Souls Could Be Engineered; Conscience Could Be Destroyed. The Project Was, In Many Ways, Chillingly Successful. But The Ultimate Failure Of A Totalitarian Regime To Fulfill Its Ambitions For Social And Spiritual Mastery Had Roots Deeper Than The Deficiencies Of The Soviet Leadership Or The Chaos Of A Command Economy. Beneath The Rhetoric Of Scientific Communism Was A Culture Of Intellectual And Cultural Dissidence, Which May Be Regarded As The Prehistory Of Perestroika. This Volume Explores The Contribution Of Christian Thought And Belief To This Culture Of Dissent And Survival, Showing How Religious And Secular Streams Of Resistance Joined In An Unexpected And Powerful Partnership. The Essays In The Dangerous God Seek To Shed Light On The Dynamic And Subversive Capacities Of Religious Faith In A Context Of Brutal Oppression, While Acknowledging The Often-collusive Relationship Between Clerical Elites And The Soviet Authorities. Against The Marxist Notion Of The Ideological Function Of Religion, The Authors Set The Example Of People For Whom Faith Was More Than An Opiate; Against An Enduring Mythology Of Secularization, They Propose The Centrality Of Religious Faith In The Intellectual, Political, And Cultural Life Of The Late Modern Era. This Volume Will Appeal To Specialists On Religion In Soviet History As Well As Those Interested In The History Of Religion Under Totalitarian Regimes. Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction The Rhythm Of The Saints -- 1 Empowering The Faithful. The Unintended Consequences Of Bolshevik Religious Policies -- 2 Combating God And Grandma. The Soviet Antireligious Campaigns And The Battle For Childhood -- 3 Persecution, Collusion, And Liberation The Russian Orthodox Church, From Stalin To Gorbachev -- 4 I Am A Fighter By Nature Fr. Gleb Iakunin And The Defense Of Religious Liberty -- 5 An Inward Music Revolution And Resurrection In Doctor Zhivago -- 6 The Pearl Of An Unreasonable Thought Religion And The Poetic Imagination -- 7 I Hasten To Establish A Common Language With You Orthodox Christian Dissidents And The Human Rights Movement -- 8 The Orthodox Liturgy As Political Resistance -- 9 And I Will Tell Of The Best People In All The Earth Faith And Resilience In The Gulag -- 10 There Are Things In History That Should Be Called By Their Proper Names Evaluating Russian Orthodox Collaboration With The Soviet State -- 11 The Useful God Religion And Public Authority In Post -soviet Russia -- Afterword Whether In Words Or Deeds, Known And Unknown -- Contributors -- Notes -- Index Edited By Dominic Erdozain.