A long walk to church

by Davis, Nathaniel

Despite its problems, the Russian Orthodox Church manifests a luminous faith. It has achieved great political influence and is Russia's most important vehicle for spiritual and ethical renewal. Nevertheless, it is still a long walk to church in that tormented land. Making use of the formerly secret archives of the Soviet government, Nathaniel Davis offers the first complete account of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church from the Bolshevik revolution to the present. Twice in the past sixty years, the church hung on the brink of institutional extinction. In 1939, only four bishops and a few score widely scattered priests were still functioning openly in the entire Soviet Union. Stalin could have arrested them all in a single night. Ironically, Hitler's invasion and Stalin's reaction to it rescued the church - parishes reopened, new clergy and bishops were consecrated, a patriarch was elected, and seminaries and convents were reinstituted. After the war, Stalin reverted to his earl