Ministries of Compassion among Russian Evangelicals, 1905–1929

Raber

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498280716
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The present study fills a gap in the study of the evangelical movement in Russia by presenting a comprehensive picture of their compassionate ministry during their longest stretch of relative freedom before the 1980s.Better known for their energetic preaching and literature work, Russian evangelicals also gave attention to compassionate ministry, although it was never extensive because of their marginal status. They established assistance funds, organized charitable institutions, practiced urban rescue ministry, participated in the Russian temperance movement, and established economic communities.Each area is distinct, yet all were supported by the same set of theological convictions. The Russian evangelicals were convinced that their witness should consist of good works as well as words, and that the gospel had the power to undo human suffering. While intentionally cultivating an attitude of concern for the needs of others, they taught that compassion was the concern of all members of the community, regardless of economic status or age. In their publications evangelicals devoted a good deal of teaching to the proper Christian attitude toward money and giving. They drew on Western models, but also their indigenous sectarian roots.

1

Russian Evangelical Ministries of Compassion before 1905

This chapter will sketch the historical and cultural background of ministries of compassion in Russia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and place the evangelicals in that context. Many of the patterns for ministries of compassion among the Russian evangelicals between 1905 and 1929 were set during the second half of the nineteenth century as their movement took on a coherent shape. An organic part of their evangelistic activity from the very beginning was the practice of ministries of compassion, responding in various ways to a range of human need. The particular focus of this chapter is on Pashkovism, after Colonel Vasilii Alekseevich Pashkov, a Russian aristocrat who responded to the evangelistic preaching of William Granville Waldegrave, Lord Radstock.

The Pashkovites, many of whom were from the upper classes, were greatly inspired in compassionate ministry by Lord Radstock, who first visited St. Petersburg during the winter of 1873 to 1874. However, a number of the aristocrats were already active in the charitable work that was practiced in Russia at the time, even before they gathered around Radstock. Their work as sisters of mercy, providing medical and educational services to peasants on their own estates, or organizing sewing cooperatives for poor women, were all done according to existing patterns. It was their conversion to an evangelical approach to Christianity through Radstock and their subsequent commitment to preaching the gospel as part of their service that made their activities distinct. As Pashkov and his close associate, Count Modest Modestovich Korf (1843–1937) explained to the emperor, their greatest desire was to help people “understand the love of Christ which passes our understanding.”64 In contrast to some traditional Orthodox thinking, Radstock, Pashkov, and their followers taught that Christ’s love is appropriated by faith, not by good works. Instead of a means of earning salvation, the Pashkovites regarded good works as its fruit: those who believed and were saved would inevitably do good works.65 Thus, compassionate ministries were a sign of their relationship to Christ and an organic part of their witness.

The situation of the evangelicals changed abruptly in 1884 when Colonel Pashkov and Count Korf were exiled from Russia. After 1884 the evangelical movement in St. Petersburg took on a semi-underground character; nevertheless, many of the old activities continued while another generation of evangelicals rooted in Pashkovism developed new forms of service, also drawing on models that were practiced in the wider society. The Pashkovites also gave attention to compassionate ministry practiced abroad by such organizations as the Salvation Army and the YMCA. However, the combination of two aspects—easing human need and spreading the gospel in Russia—remained one of their basic characteristics. The model of the Pashkovites would continue to inform the activities of evangelicals after religious toleration was introduced by imperial decree in 1905, especially in St. Petersburg. This was an important part of the inheritance the evangelicals brought into what has been called their Golden Age (1905 to 1929).

Compassionate ministry and Russian identity

During the second half of the nineteenth-century in Russia it seems to have been impossible to avoid the question, “What is to be done?”66 According to the philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev, the search for social solutions in Russia was intensely moral and idealistic, based on a sense of guilt and the desire to set all of humanity free from suffering and injustice.67 Furthermore, it was widely perceived that something was seriously wrong with Russia that had to be addressed. Russia’s humiliating defeat in the Crimean War (1854 to 1856) had revealed the country’s backwardness. It seemed evident that the existing order had failed and many believed that “not only serfs, but society more generally must be ‘emancipated’ from the shackles of state tutelage.”68 Accordingly, during the Era of Great Reforms (approximately 1861 to 1880) policies were launched to eradicate the empire’s distressing and widespread poverty, ignorance, and injustice. The most famous of the reforms introduced during the reign of Emperor Alexander II (ruled 1855–1881) was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. The emperor also initiated a general trend toward decentralization, social involvement, and the personal responsibility of individual citizens. Key to these goals was the founding of the zemstvo, an elected local governing body that was to take over responsibility for basic education and the provision of medical and other social services.

Ultimately, the reforms were not an outstanding success, and are even considered by some historians to have been “highly dysfunctional and destructive.”69 Although technically “liberated” and working their own land, peasants were still bound to their traditional village communes, which were required to take collective responsibility for paying off the debt owed to the government for the lump sum paid to former masters as reparations for the loss of their serfs. Rather than transforming serfs into independent small farmers, emancipation instead had the effect of reinforcing ancient land tenure patterns and burdening the rural population with debt.70 In general, liberal critics of the reforms felt that they did not go far enough in ameliorating social conditions. Meanwhile, conservative critics held that the reforms created instability and even contributed to the increasing ...

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Glossary and Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Russian Evangelical Ministries of Compassion before 1905
• Chapter 2: Russian Evangelicals from 1905 to 1929
• Chapter 3: Aid within the Evangelical Community—D. I. Mazaev,V. G. Pavlov, and V. V. Ivanov
• Chapter 4: Urban Rescue Ministry—W. A. Fetler
• Chapter 5: War, Revolution, and Famine, 1914 to 1923
• Chapter 6: Christian Economic Communities—I. S. Prokhanov
• Bibliography