Book Reviews / CHRC . () –
Jennifer Hedda, His Kingdom Come. Orthodox Pastorship and Social Activism in Revolutionary Russia. Northern Illinois University Press, Dekalb , ix + pp. isbn . us.
Jennifer Hedda’s book begins with one of the most familiar images in Russia’s modern history: the Orthodox priest, Father Georgii Gapon, leading tens of thousands of impoverished workers to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg on Sunday, January , . Bearing icons and religious banners, Gapon and his followers marched with a petition to present to the tsar, voicing their desperation and demands for social change and political freedoms. When the palace guards fired upon the unarmed crowd, the universal outrage provoked by the ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre served as the immediate catalyst for the Revolution of . Given the close relationship between the Orthodox Church and the autoc- racy, the revolutionary role played by the young priest Gapon has often been understood as either unintentional or exceptional. In her study of the parish clergy of St. Petersburg, however, Hedda rejects both interpretations; although Father Georgii’s actions on January were unprecedented, she argues, his pas- sionate commitment to social justice—as manifested in his efforts to improve the lives of the capital’s poor through charity, education and community-based self-help—was not unique to him, but very much in line with the ideals and actions of his generation. Drawing primarily on the clergy’s published works as well as Church archives, Hedda’s book documents the institutional and social context from which progressive clergy like Gapon emerged, and analyzes the evolution of their intellectual and practical engagement with Petersburg soci- ety between the period of the Great Reforms in the s through . In doing so, it suggests that the Orthodox Church was far more responsive to the challenges of modernity than previously thought. After a helpful introduction to the Petersburg diocese, Hedda’s narrative begins in the reform-minded s, when a few members of the clergy, like the Archimandrite Fedor (Bukharev), openly questioned the traditionally ‘ascetic’ view that the church should “hold itself apart from the world so that it would not become contaminated by worldly temptations and sins” (p. ), and that the role of the clergy should be limited to tending to their parishioners’ rit- ual needs. Although church authorities quickly silenced Bukharev (sending him to a monastery), a new pastoral ideal centered on preaching and service nonetheless came to dominate in the post-reform period. The St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy, responsible for educating ninety percent of the diocese’s clergy (including Gapon), was key to this development. Though focused on
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, DOI: 10.1163/187124110X506716 Book Reviews / CHRC . () – scholarship, the Academy was not an ‘ivory tower’; rather, through its courses and widely read publications, it served as a bridge between the church and lay society, and as a center for dialogue about religious approaches to the issues confronting Russian society. In this way, it encouraged the clergy’s redefinition of its role from that of ‘sviashchennik’ (priest) to ‘pastyr’ (shepherd). Articu- lated most thoroughly in Father Vladimir Pevnitskii’s three volume guide to pastorship (the standard text in the academies by the s), the new set of priorities for the modern clergyman was based on the idea that the salvation of his parishioners depended less on his performance of sacramental rites than on his ability to tend to both their spiritual and material needs, and to act as their ‘moral leader and cultivator’, preparing them for the Kingdom of God by helping them to live according to the Gospels. With respect to the practical application of the new pastoral ideal, Hedda examines the work of the parish curatorships and charities established in s, and the broad mission to the St. Petersburg laity founded in under the auspices of the extra-parochial Society for Moral-Religious Enlightenment (ORRP). Based on an unprecedented degree of cooperation between clergy and lay activists, the ORRP was committed to enlightening the public in a true Orthodox perspective through its active press, extra-liturgical lectures and discussions, and libraries. Regularly sponsored meetings brought local clergy together to ‘think critically’ about current moral-religious issues as well. The ORRP’s daughter temperance organization, the Aleksandr Nevskii Society, succeeded in reaching out to , predominantly working class members by , promoting ‘evangelical consciousness’ through its network of edu- cational and social services, including libraries, classes, schools, clinics, cafete- rias and day-care centers. While seeking “to effect the moral transformation of individuals through pastoral care, preaching, and parish-based charity work,” the mission—inspired in part by the example of America—aimed even more ambitiously to “transform Russian society into a community suffused by the Christian spirit and responsive to the church’s leadership” (p. ). As discussed in the second half of the book, by some Petersburg clergy embraced a more revolutionary model of pastoral leadership. In addition to Father Gapon and the archimandrite Mikhail (Semenov), Hedda focuses on the radical and prolific priest Grigorii Petrov, who called upon fellow clergy to act as ‘the people’s saviors’ not only by praying and preaching, but also by advocating for them before the people and institutions that oppressed them. In the same spirit, Petrov publicly chastised Orthodox authorities for their silence and inaction in the face of widespread poverty and exploitation, and challenged the church to free itself from the state in order to assume its true mission: