Svět Literatury (Oct 2017)
Ruská pravoslavná církev a „pravá“ víra na počátku 19. století // The Russian orthodox church and "true" faith in the early 19th century
Abstract
For centuries, the Russian Orthodox Church played an extraordinary role in promoting the moral code of the individual and the collective of the Russian Empire. In the 18th century, however, the Russian Orthodox Church underwent fundamental organizational changes. Above all, it was the establishment of a Sacred Synod through which the Russian Orthodox Church was controlled by the state. The Church responded to this by modernizing its organization. However, the stereotypical life of Russian society did not change. Faith remained the same, with the result that the dividing gap between the identity required by the state and the identity unfolding from the masses, as 146 SVĚT LITERATURY 56 a link to their ancestors, became wider. A significant change was caused by the existential threat to the Russian Empire at the time of Napoleon‘s invasion of Russia in 1812. The state was able to create such conditions that the Church, after clutching for several decades to its dirigisme, could resume its activities and act in a patriotic spirit to rescue the Orthodox Faith, reportedly the only real and right faith, with the full commitment of each individual. The ideology of the Church coincided with the ideology of the state, which proclaimed the forthcoming struggle as an immense effort to save the homeland. It was the Patriotic War.
