The Russians' Secret - Book Review (Part 2 of 6)

The "Conversion" of Russia

“The 'Conversion' of Russia” is a subheading in chapter 3 of The Russians' Secret (hereafter TRS), “conversion” being inside quotation marks to convey the authors' skepticism. They cast doubt on the authenticity of faith among Christians having political power: the Kievan Prince Vladimir (r. 980-1015), Basil II (r. 976-1025), the emperor of Byzantium who asked Vladimir to help fight the Bulgars, and his sister Anna (963-1011) whom Vladimir had requested as a wife in marriage. 

The Baptism of Rus'

The Kievan Primary Chronicle (12th c.) recalls how Vladimir sent ambassadors to investigate the faiths of the Greeks, Latins, and Muslims. Upon their return, they told of their awe at the beauty of the Greek Orthodox service and the place where it was conducted, saying they did not know whether they had been in heaven or on earth. The prince and boyars then agreed to be baptized. Incredulous of the account, the authors of TRS write, “The legend is definitely fictitious” (p. 29). In favor of the event's plausibility, Marwazi, a late 11th-century Persian, affirmed that Vladimir sent emissaries to Khorezm, in Central Asia, asking for a teacher to instruct Rus' in Islam. For this reason, Franklin and Shepard conclude that “it is overwhelmingly probable that the story echoes Vladimir's soundings of the 980's, and if envoys were sent to a Moslem power, they were most probably also sent to the Germans and the Byzantines” (See Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shepard, The Emergence of Rus 750-1200 [London and New York: Longman, 1998], 161). 

The Russians' Secret - Book Review (Part 1 of 6)

Introduction 

Offered on Scroll Publishing is the book The Russians' Secret with the following description:

When most of us think of kingdom Christians, we think of groups like the Waldensians and Anabaptists—movements that sprang up in western Europe. But the work of the Holy Spirit has never been limited to western Europe and the Americas. No, the Spirit has raised up kingdom Christians at various times and in various places all over the world, including Russia and the East.

The story of the various Spirit-led groups of Christians in Old Russia is quite fascinating. Peter Hoover, author of the popular Secret of the Strength, brings their story to life in his book, The Russian Secret.

The Russians' Secret chronicles a thousand years of Christian life in Russia. Subtitles from two separate editions are descriptive: What Christians Today Would Survive Persecution? (1999) and The Survival of New Testament Christianity in Russia (2014). Having read the book years ago as a Protestant, and recently revisited it as an Orthodox Christian, the book elicited a few questions. First of all, what history of the Russian Church does the book include and exclude, and why? Secondly, is the authors' thesis about the conversion of Rus' valid in light of historical evidence? Thirdly, who are the book's “Russian believers” and how do they relate to the Russian Orthodox Church? Fourth, does the book give an objective and impartial story of Russian nonconformity and “unofficial” religion in Russia? Finally, why does the book focus so much on Leo Tolstoy and what was his relationship to the Orthodox Church? This essay seeks to provide an Orthodox analysis of these historical questions, while interacting with the book's own motifs of persecution, nonviolence, nonconformity, voluntary poverty, and church/state relations.

The Russians' Secret by Peter Hoover and Serguei V. Petrov