The revival of the Name-Glorifiers debate in post-Soviet Russia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Contemporary Russian Orthodoxy has witnessed a revival of a century old religious dispute over the veneration of the divine names (imiaslavie). Debate over the issue has raged on the internet and in print across both the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and non-canonical churches claiming to be the ‘true’ Orthodox. Yet unlike many issues in contemporary Russian Orthodoxy (monarchism, ecumenism, and so on), advocacy for and opposition to the veneration of the divine names divides both those within the Moscow Patriarchate and within dissenting groups. It also cuts unpredictably across the usual divide between ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’ currents within the Church and ‘traditionalist’ or ‘fundamentalist’ currents. This contribution seeks to challenge binary interpretations of Russian Orthodoxy both from ‘within’ by those religious actors who seek to assert that one or another version of Orthodoxy is the ‘true’ one as well as from ‘without’ by observers who underestimate the complexity of diverse currents within it.