Slavic Native Faith and mono-ideologies

In its own view of history, Rodnovery (Slavic Native Faith) is destined to supplant what Rodnovers call the "mono-ideologies", whose final bankruptcy the world is now witnessing.[1] By "mono-ideologies", they mean all those ideologies which promote "universal and one-dimensional truths", unable to grasp the complexity of reality and therefore doomed to failure one after the other.[2] These mono-ideologies include Christianity and the other Abrahamic religions (monotheistic religions), and all the systems of thought and practice that these religions spawned throughout history, including both Marxism and capitalism, and the general Western rationalistic mode of thinking begotten by the Age of Enlightenment.[1]

Painting of bishop Absalon toppling the statue of the god Svetovid at ArkonaLaurits Tuxen, late 19th century.

Christianity in particular is denounced as an anthropocentric ideology which distorts the role of mankind in the cosmos by claiming that God could have been incarnated as a single historical entity (Jesus). It is also regarded as a hierarchical and centralised power that throughout history defended the rich and legitimised slave mentality.[3] To the "unipolar" world created by the mono-ideologies, and led by the American-influenced West, the Rodnovers oppose their political philosophy of "nativism" and "multipolarism".[4]

Rodnover critique of Abrahamic religions

Saint Christopher (i.e. "Christ-carrier")—17th-century icon from Cherepovets. A transmission of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis, equated with the Slavic god Veles,[5][note 1] the representation of Saint Christopher as dog- or wolf- or horse-headed is part of the folk tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Officially censored by the Russian Most Holy Synod in 1722, it is however preserved within the tradition of the Old Belief.

Christianity and Judaism as foreign entities

Many Slavic Native Faith practitioners consciously reject Christianity or adopt anti-Christian views.[6] Some also take a hostile stance toward Judaism, which they regard as having spawned Christianity.[7] In general, Judaism is considered the first thought system to have demonised the Earth, identifying it with hell, due to the fact of Jews being people without land of their own.[8] Christianity is considered as a system that destroys morality by casting human responsibility away from the present world and in a transcendent future.[9] Abrahamic religions in general are considered as forces which lead to the destruction of organic peoples.[10] For many Rodnovers, Christianity has to be regarded as a foreign force that is destroying Slavic culture,[11] or as a force that has left Russia under the control of the Jews.[12]

Ethical critique of Christianity

Christianity is also criticised as being anthropocentric, and thus responsible for ecological disruption.[13] In Russia, Rodnovers often criticise Christianity for its claim to have a monopoly on truth; in identifying it as a "mono-ideology", they compare it to Soviet Marxism.[14] Even capitalism is considered a product of Abrahamic religions: the Russian Rodnover leader Dobroslav declared that "nature-swallowing capitalism is an ugly child of the Judeo-Christian civilisation", and that "the only way out is to go back ... from the cult of profit to the cult of life", back to indigenous religions.[15]

Slavic Native Faith practitioners often reject Christian ideas of humility, regarding them as antithetical to a Rodnover emphasis on courage and fighting spirit.[16] In general, Christianity is regarded as a religion of servility (rab) and obligation, and obedience to the priests, while Rodnovery is regarded as freedom of choice and faith in Rod, the principle from which everything descends. Pilkington and Popov report the definition given by Koldun—a Rodnover priest from Krasnodar—of Rodnovery not as "religion" at all, but as "faith". In his view, "religions", in the sense of universalist mass-religions, are ideologies which dissolve the many individualities into amorphous throngs, in which the singular individual identity is lost. On the contrary, "faiths", like Rodnovery, are true knowledge (znat' pravdu), which has to be acquired by the individuals through conscious effort.[17]

Conciliatory positions towards Russian Orthodoxy and Old Belief

Some Russian Rodnovers have however attempted to improve relations with the Orthodox Church, arguing that Russian Orthodoxy had adopted many elements of pre-Christian belief and rites.[18] In this way they argue that Russian Orthodoxy is distinct from other forms of Christianity,[13] and seek to portray it as the "younger brother" of Slavic Native Faith.[19]

The Orthodox Christian Old Believers, a movement that split out from the Russian Orthodox Church during the reform of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow in the seventeenth century, are seen by Rodnovers in a more positive light than the mainstream Russian Orthodox Church, as Old Believers are considered to have elements similar to those of the Slavic Native Faith.[20] Scholars have studied how the Old Believers have preserved Indo-European and early Slavic ideas and practices such as the veneration of fire as a channel to the divine world, the symbolism of the colour red, the search for a "glorious death", and in general the holistic vision of a divine cosmos.[21]

Christian–Rodnover active opposition

Christian opposition to Rodnovery

Christians have also been responsible for opposition to Slavic Native Faith, for instance through the establishment of social media groups against the movement.[22] The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed opposition to the growth and spread of Slavic Native Faith across Russia on various occasions.[23] In the 2000 edition of his book Sektovedeniye, Russian Orthodox theologian Alexander Dvorkin recognised that "in today's Russia, neopagan nativistic sects are mushrooming" and that "altogether they represent a notable phenomenon of post-Soviet Russian religious life".[24]

In 2009 there was a well-known public debate between Orthodox Christians and Rodnovers in Kaluga; the former were led by priest Daniel Sysoev and the latter by Vadim Kazakov, head of the Union of Slavic Rodnover Communities.[25] More recently, in November 2014 Patriarch Kirill himself expressed concerns about "attempts to construct a pseudo-Russian neopagan belief" and the well-known priest Vsevolod Chaplin called for Rodnovery's outright ban "on the level of law".[24] In early 2015, the official journal of the Ascension Cathedral of Astrakhan published a polemical piece entitled Adversus paganos in which church authorities complained about the growth of Rodnovery and the fact that "representatives of government and public organisations" spoke of a need to revive "Orthodoxy and the religion of ancient Slavs", leading many young people to join the movement.[25]

In early 2016, at the "International Educational Christmas Readings" in Moscow, Merya ethnofuturistic religious revivals and the spread of Rodnovery among the Russian Armed Forces were discussed as issues of particular concern. A conference explicitly dedicated to counteract the spread of Rodnovery was held in March 2016 at the Magnitogorsk State Technical University; on this occasion, bishop Innokenty of Magnitogorsk and Vekrhneuralsk said that Slavic Native Faith constitutes "a greater threat to the Church than atheism". Vladimir Legoyda, succeeding Vsevolod Chaplin as president of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Ministry, said that the spread of Slavic Native Faith among the military constitutes "a direct challenge to the Church".[23]

Rodnovers' forsaking of Christianity

Many Rodnover groups organise formal ceremonies of renunciation of Christianity (raskrestitsia, literally "de-Christianisation") and initiation into the community of Slavic Native Faith. Central to the conversion is the adoption by the convert of a new name pertaining to the Slavic tradition (imianarechenie). Generally speaking, the raskrestitsia ceremony symbolises the death and rebirth of the convert into the Rodnover community. Some groups, especially male brotherhoods, practise the cutting of a second "life line" on the palm of the hand of converts, symbolising the new "blood bond" that is formed with other members.[26]

Sociological perspectives on the Christian–Rodnover conflict

According to Pavel Skrylnikov of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Orthodox Church is uneasy about the growth of Slavic Native Faith because Rodnover communities "are far better consolidated than parishioners of Orthodox churches" because their activities are not reduced to one routine rite, but what they offer is a whole community lifestyle that goes from game and sports competitions to workshops and festivals, all complemented by worship services to the gods. Moreover, Slavic Native Faith "offers an alternative version of national and religious identity" that is not perceived as having originated abroad, and therefore fulfils "patriotic religious needs" better than Christianity.[23]

Similarly, Marlène Laruelle has observed that Rodnovery has been successful among the youth and that portion of Russian society interested in the post-Soviet revival of faith but turned off by Orthodox Christianity, "which is very institutionalized" and "out of tune with the modern world", and "is not appealing [to these people] because it expects its faithful to comply with normative beliefs without room for interpretation". Rodnovery is attractive because of its "paradoxical conjunction" of tradition and modernity, recovery of the past through innovative syntheses, and its values calling for a rediscovery of the true relationship between mankind, nature and the ancestors.[27]

The opposition to mono-ideologies has led some Rodnovers to perpetrate explicit attacks on Christianity and its influences. For instance, the folklorist Mariya Lesiv in 2006 observed Rodnovers marching in Kiev chanting "Out with Jehovah! Glory to Dazhboh!"[28] The scholar Scorr Simpson noted that in Poland several Rodnovers launched a poster campaign against Valentines Day, which they regarded as not being an authentically Polish celebration.[29] In Russia, Slavic Native Faith practitioners have been responsible for the vandalism and arson attacks carried out on various Christian churches.[30]

See also

Notes

  1. Already Gerald Massey, one of the early proponents of the interpretation that Christ is a mythological theme — the synthesis of pre-Christian mythological themes — representing the unfolding of life, especially in the guise of the cycle of the Sun, in his 1883 work The Natural Genesis (p. 459), highlighted the parallel between Saint Christopher who bears the baby Christ on his back thwartwise the Jordan River, and Anubis who carries the baby Horus thwartwise the waters of the "world below". Saint Christopher/Anubis is also equated with the Slavic god Veles, the god of the watery netherworld, who in some occurrences is represented, just like them, with a wolf or dog head.
    Illustration of Veles from The Mythology of All Races, Vol. 3, 1918.

References

Citations

  1. Aitamurto 2016, p. 123.
  2. Aitamurto 2016, p. 122.
  3. Laruelle 2012, pp. 300–302.
  4. Aitamurto 2016, p. 114.
  5. Duquesne, Terence (2012). "Anubis". The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah15038. ISBN 9781444338386.
  6. Ivakhiv 2005, p. 223; Lesiv 2013a, p. 7; Simpson 2013, p. 121.
  7. Ivakhiv 2005, p. 223.
  8. Aitamurto 2016, p. 34.
  9. Aitamurto 2016, p. 96.
  10. Shnirelman 2007, pp. 43–44.
  11. Lesiv 2013b, p. 131.
  12. Laruelle 2008, p. 292.
  13. Laruelle 2008, p. 290.
  14. Aitamurto 2006, p. 201.
  15. Shnirelman 2007, p. 43, note 7.
  16. Shnirelman 2013, p. 73.
  17. Pilkington & Popov 2009, p. 295.
  18. Shnirelman 2002, pp. 198–199; Laruelle 2008, p. 290.
  19. Shnirelman 2002, p. 199.
  20. Aitamurto 2016, p. 61.
  21. Veletskaya, N. N. (1991). "Forms of Transformation of Pagan Symbolism in the Old Believer Tradition". Journal Soviet Anthropology and Archeology. 29 (4): 20–42. doi:10.2753/AAE1061-1959290420.
  22. Gaidukov 2013, p. 325.
  23. Skrylnikov 2016, passim.
  24. Kucherov, Nikolai (16 February 2015). "Неоказачество и неоязычество" [Neocossackism and neopaganism)]. Kavpolit. Archived from the original on 21 May 2017.
  25. Belov, Maxim; Garanov, Yuri (10 February 2015). "Adversus Paganos". astrsobor.ru. Journal of the Ascension Cathedral of Astrakhan. Archived from the original on 23 May 2017.
  26. Pilkington & Popov 2009, p. 292; Laruelle 2012, p. 307.
  27. Laruelle 2012, pp. 309–310.
  28. Lesiv 2013a, p. 3.
  29. Simpson 2013, p. 120.
  30. Shnirelman 2013, p. 70.

Sources

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  •  ———  (2016). Paganism, Traditionalism, Nationalism: Narratives of Russian Rodnoverie. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781472460271.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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  • Laruelle, Marlène (2008). "Alternative Identity, Alternative Religion? Neo-Paganism and the Aryan Myth in Contemporary Russia". Nations and Nationalism. 14 (2): 283–301. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8129.2008.00329.x.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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