How have Eastern liturgies changed in the past century?
Upvote:-1
If we take liturgy, the customary public worship performed by a religious group, to include public worship practices originating in the laity in stead of the clergy, then in Russian Orthodoxy the most similarly obvious and controversial change in liturgy would be the popular worship and iconography of Stalin.
The Bolsheviks oppressed the Orthodox Church after seizing power in Russia in 1917. In 1943, during WWII, Stalin met with three chief hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, allowed the clergy to perform religious services, celebrate Easter and Christmas, and even promised to give the church back some of its monasteries (confiscated after 1917) and release imprisoned priests.
The three hierarchs, led by Sergius Stragorodsky, thanked Stalin after their meeting in a letter:
“In each of your words… we felt the heart that burns with paternal love for all his children... The Russian Orthodox Church venerates you feeling with your heart that it lives together with all Russian people, by the will to victory and sacred duty to sacrifice anything for the sake of the Motherland. God save you for years to come, dear Iosif Vissaronovich.”
The reason underlying Stalin's actions was the invading Nazi army, who in an attempt to gain support with the population, re-opened churches that were closed by the Bolsheviks, is obvious: the only way to keep the nation united against the Nazis was to do the same.
This act of "re-legalization" made the dictator immensely popular with the laity, resulting in religious iconography, calendars and hero worship that permeates to this day. The last petition to declare Stalin a saint dates from 2015. It was rejected by the church patriarchs. Since the fall of the USSR, the Russian Orthodox leaders have vehemently denounced Stalin and other Bolsheviks, but the laity to this day retains the practice of iconic veneration of Stalin and Putin.
The Kremlin has been using the politics of memory regarding Soviet times (in particular the victory over fascism) as a fundamental instrument of legitimization of its power and control over society, thus ensuring continued social support and the preservation of the present model of power. You can find similar iconography for Putin throughout modern Russia.
More post
- 📝 Is the Militia of the Immaculata a sect within the Catholic branch of Christianity?
- 📝 How verses from OT are selected for Jesus
- 📝 How do Christian apologists defend the credibility of the miracles reported in the gospel accounts?
- 📝 Under what circumstances is disobeying a bad law justified or even obligatory?
- 📝 What does "persecute with cups" refer to in Augustine's first homily on 1 John?
- 📝 Why would Jesus begin to be called the Son of God?
- 📝 Which Protestant Christian denominations accept the Deuterocanonical books?
- 📝 Do Jehovah's Witnesses have a systematized way of finding specific types of persons?
- 📝 Are all sins cursed by their own nature?
- 📝 How can I best communicate I'm a lutheran evangelic as per the German definition?
- 📝 Philip the Evangelist?
- 📝 How do Bible scholars view the accuracy and reliability of the Aleppo Codex?
- 📝 Why did God enter humanity so silently on Christmas day?
- 📝 Has Revelation 14:9 changed from bibles printed over 40 years ago?
- 📝 How did people know that their visions of God were not false before the Bible was as a book compiled?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, did St. Paul believe that end of the world was imminent?
- 📝 Mormon understanding of what kind of bodies people have in heaven
- 📝 According to Catholics, what is the source of the "Creed of Athanasius": Tradition or divine inspiration?
- 📝 Are there any denominations that reject Mary's virgin conception of Jesus?
- 📝 What is "your peace" in Matthew 10?
- 📝 What exactly IS Hell?
- 📝 Does God Abet Sinful Behaviour if it Brings About His Justice?
- 📝 What caused people in Jerusalem to change so much from "Palm entrance" to crucifixion day?
- 📝 Can Catholics receive a canonically valid marriage after civil elopement?
- 📝 A "version" of the bible with sentence structure written in English but retaining most of the original untranslated "nouns/verbs/adjectives"?
- 📝 Why does Joseph have a staff in nativity scenes?
- 📝 Cain vs Adam / Eve
- 📝 Do Biblical Unitarians believe that Christians can pray to Jesus and, if so, that he can answer a prayer in which he is asked about his divinity?
- 📝 Did Waldensians believe in unconditional election?
- 📝 Why is God the Father referred to as "Eternal Father" in LDS writings when He is not believed to be eternal?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How have Eastern liturgies changed in the past century?
- 📝 How many New Testament Manuscripts do we have from the period between the first century and the fourth century?
- 📝 How is it that Georgian Orthodox Church are in full communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church when they have a different biblical canon?
- 📝 Did the early Church Fathers have a complete agreement on how to interpret 1 Peter 3:18-20?
- 📝 How could animals have gotten all around the world after the flood?
- 📝 How do Sola Scriptura defenders have a list of "scripture" since the list isn't mentioned in scripture?
- 📝 How did John the Baptist have the "spirit and power of Elijah"?
- 📝 How has the position of the Catholic Church on drugs changed over time?
- 📝 In Mormonism, how is the doctrine of Adam & Eve inability to have children prior to the Fall explained?
- 📝 Have any ante-Nicene writings been discovered in the past 20 years?
- 📝 How have mainstream Christian denominations interpreted the Acts command to abstain from blood?
- 📝 How do apologists defend against Bart Ehrman's arguments that Church scribes corrected and changed the Bible to fit their theology?
- 📝 Have witches ever been executed by the Eastern Orthodox Church?
- 📝 How have commentators historically viewed the death of the fetus in Exodus 21?
- 📝 How do protestants understand Jesus' statement that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man we will have no life?
- 📝 How does Swedenborgianism understand Amos 3:2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth"?
- 📝 How do Continuationists explain the fact that the vast majority of Christians have never personally experienced "overtly miraculous" spiritual gifts?
- 📝 How many Christians have actually read the whole Bible?
- 📝 How do Eastern Christians explain Jesus "sending" the Holy Spirit in John 15:26?
- 📝 Have there been any attempt in Christianity to draw a set of rules or principles on how the Bible must be interpreted?
- 📝 How can common believers in the Eastern Orthodox Church be sure that the Church's decisions are correct and not erroneous?
- 📝 According to Jehovah's Witnesses, how many of the 144 000 have already been identified?
- 📝 How has the LDS Word of Wisdom changed since its introduction?
- 📝 How do errantists distinguish the parts of the Bible that are trustworthy from the parts that have errors?
- 📝 What is the origin of the Mormon Temple Ceremony and how has it changed throughout the years?
- 📝 How do you explain the Christian Message to people who have no Christian vocabulary or context?
- 📝 How do the Eastern Orthodox interpret this verse from Psalm 69:3?
- 📝 According to Ravi Zacharias's apologetic argument, how could love have existed prior to the fall?
- 📝 What objective, foolproof method do Eastern Orthodox have for working out which side is correct in the case of a Schism?
- 📝 How has Roman Catholic Confession changed throughout the centuries?